Bitter Clinger

DHS 'attempting to conceal' info about immigrants on welfare | The Daily Caller: Four powerful Republican senators are demanding answers to questions they posited to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in early August regarding the apparent watering down of immigration regulations which prohibit those seeking residency or citizenship from being primarily reliant on welfare, or a public charge.

The Department of Homeland Security missed the Aug. 20 deadline and has yet to respond. Also addressed in the initial letter was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The State Department did respond, claiming that the majority of the inquiry fell under the purview of DHS.

I recall several years ago when I was curious about Australia immigration laws.  My research revealed that anybody could immigrate .. as long as they could prove that they were self-sufficient and had a guaranteed job.

Also, I looked at Jamaica.  Same thing:  Sure, you can immigrate if you have X-number of dollars in private capital, or could prove that you had a guaranteed job.  Of course, in Jamaica, Native Jamaicans are always preferred in any job application.  Well, it's their country (I mused), so it's only reasonable that they want to insure employment for their own people.  They only accept immigrants if they can't find people with the same skill-sets "in-country".

Now, the United States is applying the same tests for immigration .. or are we?

Of course, it's the angry, divisive Republicans who are demanding that our nation's immigration laws be not only observed, but strictly enforced.

Unfortunately, there seem to be entire Federal Departments (those upon whom we rely to think of our citizens first) who are undermining immigration requirements.

I'm retired, and I worked for a living for over fifty years.  Now I can sit back and enjoy the benefits that I've EARNED.   Of course, we're now talking about benefits to which I have contributed (retirement, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, etc.) and our government is saying that they may have to cut benefits, because HEY!  We just don't have the money.

But we have money to allow the immigration of people who have NOT contributed, who arrive here without jobs or the means to support themselves and their families?

I am aware of the words written on the base of the Statue of Liberty.  "Send me your poor, your downtrodden ... "  And yes, I would wish that we are able to save everybody.

But it's not like that, is it?  Instead, it's as if our Federal Government believes in the old rumor that "The Streets Are Paved With Gold".

The streets here in Corvallis are paved with tar.  And sometimes, concrete.  And the City Fathers spend three summer months a year repairing pot-holes; making 'wheel-chair accessible' ramps on every corner curb of every intersection; maintaining traffic-control signals.

Somebody has to pay for this infrastructure maintenance.  It's certainly not the people who come here with nothing, work for very little, and do not pay taxes.  They are able to live with less money, because they are accustomed to doing without, unlike we spoiled Americans ... who pay taxes.

Now, I am learning to live with less money, do without.  I rely only on the savings (Hah!) that my Government has invested (Hah!) on Social Security and Medicare, because ... I've been paying into those funds for fifty years.

Oh, and my pension?  It goes down every year, because the Stock Market .. upon which the 'interest' on my pension savings is dependent ... is going in the tank.

And when I finally discover that I cannot live on Social Security alone, and when my savings are gone, and when my pension (taxable, when I draw it) is wiped out?  When every cent that I have contributed has been allocated to support the penury of immigrants?

Then I am proud to be an American, and to be the sole support of those who have contributed NOTHING to the National Economy .. excepting, perhaps, that they can work for less money than would support me, assuming I could get a job picking Strawberries in the Summer.

This is what I fought for, in the jungle.  I hope that the ghosts of my friends who gave their lives in Vietnam are content with their contribution.


To my children:  if you tell me I cannot smoke in your home, when I come to live with you ... enjoy your legacy!