It has been well established that the primary mission of Fox News is to stir up irrational fear in the hearts of their unbalanced and paranoid viewers. In pursuit of that goal Fox is now manufacturing another horror story about the dangers of the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that our Statue of Liberty warned us about.
For more examples of Fox’s brazen dishonesty…
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On this weekend’s episode of America’s Newsroom, anchor Bill Hemmer anxiously reported that a new development stemming from President Obama’s executive action on immigration was taking shape that spelled doom for America. He opened the segment saying that…
“Now we’re learning some five million may not only get amnesty, but also receive some of the valuable benefits of citizenship, including Social Security and Medicare.”
The first half of that sentence refers to the long-standing lie that immigration reform will grant amnesty to undocumented residents. That is utterly false. The bill that passed the Senate (which the GOP-run House has refused to take up) contains numerous fines, penalties, and conditions for eligibility that disprove the amnesty allegation by the very definition of the word. And the executive action is a temporary measure that merely serves as a guideline for the Justice Department in exercising prosecutorial discretion.
But it’s the second half of the sentence that wildly diverges from sanity by asserting that the “benefits of citizenship” will be conferred upon immigrants. There is no truth to the claim that undocumented residents will be collecting Social Security or Medicare anytime in the near future, if at all.
The truth was reported more accurately by the Associated Press who said that those covered by the recent executive action will be allowed to get temporary work permits that will require them to also have a Social Security number. Therefore, they will begin to pay into the system via payroll taxes. However, they will not be eligible to collect any benefits until certain other conditions have been met. Those conditions include working for a minimum of ten years and reaching retirement age. Consequently, the temporary fix implemented by the President would have to be extended by passage of legislation in Congress that codifies a permanent solution.
What’s more, as Hemmer himself noted, none of these immigrants would be eligible for welfare, education funding, food stamps, ObamaCare subsidies, etc. So the entire premise of the segment was false. But that didn’t stop Fox from composing an on-screen title that definitively stated that “Undocumented immigrants will be eligible for Social Security and Medicare.” The AP’s article went on to disclose that…
“A report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers this week concluded that Obama’s executive actions would expand the U.S. tax base because about two-thirds of immigrants illegally working in the United States don’t pay taxes. […and that…] The Social Security Administration estimates that out of about 11 immigrants who either entered the U.S. illegally or have overstayed their visas slightly more than 3 million paid payroll taxes of about $6.5 billion in 2010, with their employers contributing another $6.5 billion. Those payments would not qualify toward the 10 year requirement needed to be eligible for benefits.”
So, many of the immigrants currently in the U.S. are already contributing billions of dollars to the system without any return. And that number could triple as the remainder of the immigrants are brought out of the shadows and into temporary legal status. You would think that the Tea Party and deficit hawks on the right would approve of this positive impact on the budget. Unfortunately, their racism supersedes their commitment to fiscal responsibility.
