Blueberry Welfare In my previous article, I discussed the death of patriotic immigration reform in Florida at the hands of Sen. JD Alexander, Senate Budget Chief and Blueberry Emperor of the Polk County Farm Bureau. I noted the strong opposition of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida agribusiness to the E-Verify system. It hasn't escaped my attention that this is also what we saw happen in Georgia where E-Verify held up immigration reform down to the last few hours of the legislative session. In Alabama, E-Verify is the major difference between the two competing visions of immigration reform that have cleared the Alabama House and Senate: the House bill requires E-Verify for all employers whereas the Senate bill requires E-Verify only for state contracts. In Tennessee, E-Verify has also been a stumbling block to immigration reform. Earlier this year, Gov. Haslam promised the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce that any immigration bill that passed the state legislature would be friendly to business. With less than a week to go in the 2011 legislative session, the Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate and House have squatted on immigration reform, with business Republicans blocking the advancement of three restrictionist bills with absurd arguments about their fiscal impact on the state budget. Now that immigration reform has survived in Georgia and died in Florida, I will be turning my full attention to Alabama, Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in weeks ahead. Before moving on to the next battle in the immigration wars, I want to take another look back at what we just saw happen in Florida. Blueberry Economy In every state we have looked at this year, the business community and agribusiness have been the most implacable enemies of immigration reform and the greatest champions of illegal aliens. The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce was the motivating force behind the Utah amnesty - Sen. Robert Bennett's "adults" who stepped in "to handle these matters." In Arizona, the 60 CEOs sent that letter to the Arizona Senate and effectively vetoed all six of Russell Pearce's immigration bills. The Phoenix Chamber of Commerce calls the shots in the Arizona Republican Party. How many times have we heard now from the pro-business lobby that immigration reform would "destroy the economy"? This is a common refrain from agribusiness to hotel and restaurant to healthcare lobbyists. The economy is going to be destroyed if we pass immigration reform. We hear that so often it needs to be repeated. The blueberry crop isn't going to be picked in Florida - except that it was picked, production expanded, and prices went down after 230,000 illegals fled the state. The unquenchable thirst for "cheap labor" explains much of this: The feudal barons need their peon supply to pick lettuce and blueberries. The hotel and restaurant industry needs its low wages and benefits for its workers. Degenerate rich people like the Bush family need "the help" to buy their groceries, clean their pools, wash and fold their clothes, and raise spoiled brats like W. and Jeb. If Jose and Pablo are forced to go back to Mexico and Guatemala, who is going to cut our grass? Who is going to cook our food? Who is going to pick the blueberries? Who is going to pick the cotton? You might have to! That is what is meant by "destroying the economy." Blueberry Welfare There is another angle to this illegal immigration story which YWC hasn't discussed yet: the welfare angle. Just think about it: the more legal immigrants and illegal aliens there are in Florida, the more the federal government spends in Florida on EBT cards and Medicaid, which means more people buy groceries in Super Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Kroger, which "stimulates" agribusiness, hospitals, and businesses in general as all the welfare money filters through the economy. Observe: Florida Average Monthly Participation in SNAP EBT Food Cards (2009): 1,952,362 Florida Total Illegal Aliens (2010): 825,000 Florida Percent of Illegal Aliens on EBT Food Cards (2009): 49% Florida Total Illegal Aliens on EBT Food Cards (2009): 404,250 Total Immigrants in Florida (2010): 3,484,141 Total Legal Immigrants in Florida (2010): 2,659,141 Florida Percent of Legal Immigrants on EBT Food Cards (2009): 34% Florida Average Food Stamp Benefit Per Month (2009): $126.70 Florida Average Food Stamp Benefit Annual (2009): $1,520.40 Florida Legal Immigrants on EBT Food Cards (2009): 904,107 Grand Total: $1,988,702,640 In 2009, the federal government spent approximately $1.99 billion dollars of taxpayer money in the State of Florida to subsidize the existence of the 1,308,357 illegal aliens and legal immigrants who are on foodstamps. No wonder big business and agribusiness in particular love illegal immigration. Blueberry welfare is one huge gigantic subsidy from taxpayers. Now consider this: according to the CIS, 36 percent of illegal aliens (297,000) and 29 percent of legal immigrants (771,151) are on Medicaid in Florida. In 2009, there were 2.67 million people on Medicaid, which means that 1,068,151 illegal aliens and legal immigrants in Florida were on Medicaid, which accounts for 41 percent of all people in Florida on the Medicaid program. Florida Total Medicaid Spending, FY2009: $15,088,582,200 Just out of curiosity ... what is 41 percent of that huge sum? $6,186,318,702 How much is the federal government spending on SNAP EBT Cards and Medicaid for illegal and legal immigrants in Florida? In 2009, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,175,021,342. Four last questions: (1) What is the size of the FY 2011 Florida budget? $70.4 billion. (2) How much was spending cut in the FY 2011 Florida budget? Gov. Scott proposed $5 billion in spending cuts including $703 million in K-12 spending in public schools. (3) What is the size of the 2010-2011 budget shortfall in Florida? $3 billion including a $1.5 billion "critical needs" shortfall for schools and courts. (4) What is the total size of the Florida state debt? $31.8 billion. Immigration reform is welfare reform and spending reform. Sen. JD Alexander, the Blueberry Emperor of Florida who killed Florida immigration reform, is the Senate Budget Chief and has weighed in on the crippling shortfall in the Florida state budget: "In order to meet the priority needs, we have to make choices and find the ways to spend the resources we have, just like families and businesses do every day. That means cutting back on some things we would like to do," said Alexander, R-Lake Wales. "We need to look at the whole suite of health care for state employees. I don't think it should be different for one group," Alexander said. If Sen. Alexander truly wanted to "cutback" on Medicaid fraud, he could have started with immigration reform ... seeing how illegal aliens and legal immigrants comprise 41 percent of all people in the State of Florida who are on the Medicaid system. JD Alexander couldn't support immigration reform for "moral reasons." Isn't it interesting that he doesn't seem to have any moral objections to cutting benefits for Florida natives and state workers who actually pay taxes? Final thought: Maybe Sen. JD Alexander's company Alico-Agri should make the tough moral decision to pay the IRS the $26 million dollars it owes in federal income taxes? That would certainly make more sense than laying off kindergarten teachers. Come to think about it, why can't Floridians just go ahead and fire JD Alexander (a government employee who lives off state welfare and an agribusiness CEO who lives off illegal alien welfare) right now? http://www.westernyouth.org/articles/blueberry-welfare/
The blueberry crop isn't going to be picked in Florida - except that it was picked, production expanded, and prices went down after 230,000 illegals fled the state. ---------------------- Why didn't the medicare budget go down? It should have, the author doesn't explain the correlation.
Throughout world history, there has ALWAYS been "unquenchable thirst for cheap labor". Wars have been fought over it. Millions have been forced into slavery. It's also true... that were there is an abundance of cheap labor (as in Chindia now) there has always been economic power and wealth (not for the providers of the cheap labor, of course). We're told "We (certain businesses and industries) need illegal labor because Americans won't do that kind of work. Well, OF COURSE WE WON'T... NOT WHEN THE GOVERNMENT HANDS OUT UNEMPLOYMENT, WELFARE, SUBSISTENCE MONEY FOR SITTING ON YOUR ASS. Solution... Round up all of the illegals and deport them, thus making "room" for American workers. Cut off unemployment and subsistence for all able-bodied, lazy, "won't work for that kind of money" tit-suckers. If they had the notion that they wouldn't eat if they didn't work, they'd take those jobs which they presently turn their noses up at.. A BIG part of our unemployment problem is too generous of government transfer payments for not working.