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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2012)
Page 8 A p ril 25. 2012 Paying Taxes Without Representation Immigrants contribute to government mented consistently contribute to the government's coffers through payroll, sales, property, and income taxes. Consider Mayra Hidalgo, forex- ample. She comes from one of the by M atias R amos millions of families that G ive me y o u r have relocated from tired, your poor, around the world — and your hudd led played by the tax rules masses yearning to — while remaining in the be free. I'll give them United States beyond some taxation with their authorized stay. out representation. When her parents left With apologies to their native Costa Rica, Emma Lazarus, that's she was only six months the situation faced old. While watching out by many of the more for reform that might than 10 million undocumented im open the door for them to get legal migrants who live in the United status, they steadily paid their in States. Making up about 5 percent come taxes to build a good record. of the workforce, most of the people More than 3 million people paid without legal status have lived in their taxes using an Individual this country for a decade or more. Taxpayer's Number (in place of a And before throngs of fear-mon Social Security Number) in 2010, gering nativists take to the airwaves totaling $1.8 billion in contributions to claim that immigrants are stealing from taxpayers who are unable to taxpayers' jobs and resources, let work legally. me assure you that the undocu Hidalgo's parents got their green cards in 2010. But due to an unfair rule that disqualifies young people from a family’s permanent residency application if they turn 18 while they await the outcome, Hidalgo remains undocumented. This forced her to forego the opportunity to attend a top-tier state school, settling instead for the more affordable Polk State College. "It's extremely frustrating," she said. "Finding out I wasn't able to get financial aid was heartbreak ing." The government doesn't give all immigrants an opportunity to ad just their status, but the taxman doesn't discriminate. Hidalgo's par ents m ight have been undocu m ented, but they've also been Florida taxpayers for 21 years. In Florida, sales taxes fund the higher education system. Yet no amount of immigrant purchasing power has been enough to convince Florida legislators to allow immigrant youth to attend their public colleges as residents. "It is a constant feeling of anxi ety, having to live under this level o f stress," said Hidalgo, who be longs to the im m igrant youth o r ganization Students W orking for Equal Rights. Congress is likely to target fami lies like the Hidalgos as it debates the 2013 budget. In December, the House of Representatives voted for a tax package that would effectively raise taxes on approximately 2 mil lion working immigrant families like Mayra's. By denying them eligibility for the reimbursable Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), Congress claims to be discouraging illegal immigra tion. In reality, they would be pun ishing taxpaying immigrants and their kids. State legislators around the na tion have also claimed to defend the interests of taxpayers while promot ing harsh immigration enforcement laws. Alabama's so-called "Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act," for example, is intended to make life so unbearable for undocu mented immigrants that they choose to leave on their own. Similar laws are on the books in Utah, South Carolina, Indiana, and Georgia. Another is in the works in Missis sippi. Meanwhile, the Obama adminis tration is of two minds on this issue. The Justice Department has opted to sue states that have enacted these laws. But the Department of Home land Security has beefed up en forcem ent and deported m ore people than ever. Even while ac knowledging that the system is dysfunctional without a path to le gal status for those already here, Obama has enforced the law to its fullest extent. If immigration is the sincerest form of flattery, the nation's politi cians are showing they can't take a compliment. But there's something worse than a country anyone can enter to seek a better life. It's a coun try where no one wants to go. Matias Ramos is a former un documented student and a co founder o f the United We Dream Network. Budget Blueprint of Medicare Hot Air It’s simply not time to hit the panic button Republican calls "unfunded prom ises" are the future M edicare ben efits that the governm ent expects to have to pay through the late 2080s. To get a scare out of M edi care, you have look seven de by S alvatore B abones cades into the future. There's a scary graph But here's the reality: in Rep. Paul Ryan's new Medicare has been a b udget b lu ep rin t that solid investment for 47 show s the fed e ral years. It's also in good government's "unfunded shape for the foresee prom ises" rising from able future. $76.4 trillion in 2010 to Of all the hot air in $99.6 trillion in 2011. W ashington, R yan's That's $23.2 trillion in hackneyed M edicare just one year. scare is the hottest. The Medicare The entire U.S. economy pro Trust Fund isn't actually a trust fund; duces about $15 trillion in gross it isn't really going bankrupt. Oh, domestic product each year. So if it and most of Medicare isn't even seem s p re p o ste ro u s th at the connected to those funds anyway. government's "unfunded promises" Here's how it works. grew by that much in just one year, As every senior citizen knows, that's because it is. M edicare is incredibly com pli M ost of what the W isconsin cated. It has four parts. Part A Portland (Ohsrrurr Established 1970 USPS 959-680 __________________________________ 4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 covers hospital bills. Part B cov ers doctors' bills. Part C is an op tional private insurance plan. Part D is a private insurance plan for prescription drugs. There are two M edicare "trust funds." The Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund supports M edi care Part A. The Supplem entary M edical Insurance (SM I) trust fund supports Parts B and D. There is no trust fund for Part C. The HI trust fund, which pays hospital bills, is the one Ryan is worried about. It is currently $238 billion in the black and takes in an annual income of $229 billion. Those are some pretty big figures, but Medicare is still running a multi billion dollar deficit and is expected to run through its treasure chest in about 12 years. The HI trust fund is supported by a 2.9 -p ercen t tax on w ages, split evenly betw een wage e a rn ers and th eir em ployers. On top o f this, an additional 0 .9 -p ercen t tax on w ages over $ 2 0 0 ,0 0 0 f o r in d iv i d u a ls ($250,000 for m arried couples filing jo in tly ) w ill start flow ing to the HI trust fund in 2013 u n der the A ffordable C are Act. Even with these extra revenues, the HI trust fund is projected to go bankrupt in 2024. But "bankrupt" doesn't mean "bankrupt" in the sense of going out of business. It only means that the trust fund account will turn negative for the first time. In other words, around the year 2024 — for the first time in its history — M edicare Part A will start to cost the federal govern ment money. After 2025, the losses are expected to be in the range of $40-$60 billion per year. By that time, the total federal budget is expected to be over $4.5 trillion, so we're talking about a M edicare Part A deficit am ount ing to a little over 1 percent of the federal budget. So what about those so-called "unfunded prom ises"? Extend a growing trend out long enough and you can make the num ber as big as you like. But projecting the future M edicare costs o f people who have not yet been born is simply disingenuous. T here are plenty o f real c h a l lenges facing A m erica this e le c tion year. T hree o f the m ost im p ortant are jo b s, jo b s, and jo b s. P otential problem s in M ed i care and Social Security 50 or 75 years from now ju st d o n't m ea sure up. It's not tim e to hit the panic button ju s t yet. Salvatore Babones is an Ameri can sociologist at the University o f Sydney and an Institute fo r Policy Studies associate fellow. The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be relumed if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. 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