Taxpayer Protection Act Targets CalWorks
San Diego, CA ---Proponents of the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2010 report their cause is gaining momentum as citizens of California are being pressed even harder by State tax cuts.
Ted Hilton, leading the initiative that he hopes will appear on the ballot in June of 2010, estimates he is possibly about 25% towards his goal of 600,000 signatures required by November 16th 2009.
“It is hard to tell because there are so many petitions out there and signature gatherers that have not turned in their petitions yet,” he said. “We’re always looking for more of both,” he added.
The Taxpayer Protection Act seeks the elimination of the “Child Only” portion of the CalWORKS program and the elimination of non-emergency medical care including pre-natal care. This sounds pretty harsh until you look at the numbers. The waste and fraud in the program are legendary. California allows children to receive benefits until age 18 where all other states except New York cut it off after 5 years. Illegal aliens with so called “anchor baby” children use the program like an ATM machine that never runs out of money.
In CA we have 32% of all the welfare recipients in the US while CA only has 12% of the population. This has led to the State being the leader nationally in benefits to illegal aliens and is a major reason for it having more than double the population of illegal aliens than it’s next closest rival Texas, at more than 2 million people.
Hilton estimates eliminating the benefits to illegal aliens and those not entitled to them will result in $3 billion in annual savings. In a state strapped for cash, once you get past the first billion it starts looking like real money.
But what about the social impact? Few would tolerate ignoring children that need medical care and not getting it. Hilton states that there are safeguards in place for those situations. The biggest drain on resources seems to be premature births of children born to illegal aliens. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 12% of all births are premature. About 100,000 births to those here illegally are paid for by Medi-Cal each year and premature babies account for about 12,000 of these. At an average cost of $165,000 each, Medi-Cal pays out about $2 billion annually. The initiative requires identification and fingerprints of the birth mother to be provided to Homeland Security prior to receiving a birth certificate. This would likely result in many returning to their home country or not coming here to have children in the first place.
Similar attempts to remove tax burdens were made in 1994 with Prop 187 which, was passed by the voters with a 58.3% margin. Appeals were shelved by the Davis administration. Hilton said the public benefit restrictions follow the text of states like Oklahoma where the laws have stood up to court challenges. When asked if he worries about an activist court scuttling his efforts after all the hard work he said “Actually, for the birth certificate provision we welcome it. Our foundation is legally rock solid.”
Hilton, who lived in Latin America and speaks fluent Spanish, feels for the struggles of these poor people but doesn’t believe it is our responsibility to pay for the benefits of non-citizens. “We are in an economic crisis that can partly be traced to the fraud inherent in these programs. It is our responsibility to right these wrongs.” He said.
It has been said that as California goes, so goes the nation. Expect other efforts to spring up in states around the country should Hilton get his initiative on the ballot and passed.
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Comments
Even a measure like that does not go far enough. As soon as they are found to be illegal, they need to be deported, period! But that will never happen because this government does not follow the law or they find a loophole to allow these illegals to stay. Talk about Un-American!! If you are legally in this country you get hammered from all kinds of agencies...ie...DHS,IRS,CPS,CSE etc. Illegal aliens are the "New Preferred Class"...and the "Elite" just love that scenario!!
Terrific article, very well put together, informative, and perhaps most important, civil, reasonable, and factual. This isn't a hateful, intolerant piece of work. It speaks the truth. As former employee of the county of San Diego, one who interviewed and determined elgibility for Medi-Cal to the general public, I can attest to this. Plenty of times, I was left shaking my head, thinking to myself, "I know these people don't live here. They're not here to stay!" But regulations had be be adheared to. Social services are a benevolent arm of a prosperous and capitalistic nation. Use of these tax-payer funded services, is intended for, well...tax-payers facing hardship, not illegal immigrants seeking freebies and then returning home to host a carne asada to celebrate.
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We need all the help we can get!
I like how they conveniently forget to mention that foster families will be effected by this budget. When a family member takes a foster care child they are told to apply for cash aid only. Keep in mind that $11,000 per child a year in assistance under the regular foster care pay structure (non family) is more than $4000 a year for a child in the foster care system. This bill is driven with blinders, I wonder what everyone will be saying then.
This should have been passed years ago, many countries abide by this very same legislation. No one rides for free. This, plus E-Verify, plus more ICE and border security will make a huge difference.
Immigration is easy to handle, give them no reason to come here. No benefits, no schooling, no jobs, no citizenship, and presto, they stop coming here.
Go, Ted Hilton!
Illegal aliens have made America the dumping ground for all their illegal alien children, then we have to school them and give them free medical care. Until we get rid of the illegal aiens, we will continue to pay and pay and pay and pay.
I for one, am sick and tired of these ILLEGAL ALIENS snubbing their nose at our immigration laws and the many other laws of this Country. If our Federal Government can not ENFORCE our immigration laws, and get these ILLEGAL ALIENS out of this Country, then let the States do it! One way or another, an end has to come to this illegal immigration, and not with AMNESTY! Amnesty will only encourage more ILLEGAL ALIENS to invade our Country and reward those who broke our laws and raped the American taxpayer in many ways.
When we get rid of the illegal aliens, we get rid of all the problems that go with them. THAT IS A FACT!
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