Liberal free for all coming to an end

[tslust]

Originally Posted by smc

Most undocumented workers pay taxes. Facts have a nasty habit of getting in the way of xenophobic vitriol.

Actually, the percentage of undocumented workers (aka, illegal aliens) who pay taxes is fairly low. A majority of them work as day laborers, which is mostly "under the table" jobs, which they pay no taxes on (I used to work those types of jobs, so I know what I'm talking about.). Those who work in jobs that take taxes out of their pay mostly use a false Social Security Number.

[smc]

Originally Posted by tslust

Actually, the percentage of undocumented workers (aka, illegal aliens) who pay taxes is fairly low. A majority of them work as day laborers, which is mostly "under the table" jobs, which they pay no taxes on (I used to work those types of jobs, so I know what I'm talking about.). Those who work in jobs that take taxes out of their pay mostly use a false Social Security Number.

Go ahead and mock my use of the accurate term "undocumented workers" in favor of your deliberately fear-mongering term "illegal alien." Go ahead and try to change the discussion by citing the use of false SSNs, which is a separate issue. Meanwhile, again, facts are facts.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research and education organization based in Washington, D.C., has been providing tax information to state policy makers and others for years. ITEP maintains a model of state and local tax structures that allows researchers to estimate the state and local tax contributions of families at different income levels.

Here's a recent headline based on an ITEP study, followed by a link to the article. I chose this one because it points to a real fact: undocumented workers pay more in taxes than many U.S. corporations.

"Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year, unlike GE, which paid zero"

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/..._in_taxes.html

Undocumented workers obtain false SSNs precisely to get decent jobs that then require them to pay federal taxes, along with the associated Social Security and Medicare taxes, either via payroll withholding or at tax filing time via self-employment taxes. The Social Security Administration has estimated that about three-quarters of undocumented workers pay these taxes. I don't know in what universe three-quarters is a "fairly low" percentage (to use your words), but perhaps it is the same universe in which a human being is referred to as an "alien."

Oh, and by the way, these same workers who pay into the Social Security and Medicare systems are subsidizing documented workers (that includes me, and assumedly you, tslust), because they don't get to collect the benefits they paid for upon retirement.