Recently, Keith Hennessey, a former economic advisor to President George W. Bush, pointed out what he thinks are eight problems with the Heritage cost estimate of unlawful immigration and amnesty. During the course of his post he notes that “making 8-9 million people here illegally into U.S. citizens would increase future deficits” and “[t]here is a significant fiscal effect from making…them legal taxpayers and eventually beneficiaries eligible for the full panoply of government subsidies.”Those comments are refreshing and affirm that Heritage’s work reaches a valid conclusion: amnesty will cost taxpayers. While this seems commonsensical, some have implied or even posited that economic growth associated with amnesty would somehow make the huge fiscal costs vanish. To his credit, Hennessey does not do that.
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