Dear Pat Buchanan:

I loved your comments on the Today show and you hit the nail on the head. Please read my article and if you would respond to it I would appreciate it very much. My e-main address is gwlambert@sscglobal.net. I keep telling everyone we need a new party called the American Revolutionary party, or the American Common Sense Party

President Bush was on the radio a few months ago at a university and talked a little about fair trade and that we are only 5% of the world population and that if we are going to be successful in business and trade we have to open up to other countries, which I agree with for the most part. He also mentioned that fair trade has to be fair if it is going to work which I believe in also and that we need to export to other countries to grow our economy and vice versa.

I am concerned like many Americans that corporate America is exploiting the good paying manufacturing jobs of $75,000 to $85,000 a year to other countries buy building plants, or hiring people overseas for the cheaper labor and the lower standard of living costs abroad. At the same time we are giving them huge tax breaks for doing it. If they want to build a plant over seas or to a nearby country, let them, BUT NO TAX WRITE OFFS FOR ANY THING ON THOSE OPERATIONS. GIVE TAX BREAKS ONLY TO COMPANIES IN THE U.S. WHO HIRE U.S. CITIZENS AND BUILD IN THE U.S. THIS IS NOT A TERIF AND WILL HELP ENCOURAGE U.S. DEVELOPMENT. THIS WOULD ALSO APPLY TO FORIGN OIL COMPANIES AND ENCOURAGE MORE DRILLING IN and around THE U.S. I guarantee this would put a stop or slow down this type of action very fast.

I have noticed over the past 20 years or since 1986 that our middle class salaries are not keeping pace with the real costs of products, health care, housing, food, cars, etc. I know they have gone up but not at the same rate like everything else has. While salaries have went up since 1968 from two to four times there amount, they haven’t went up the 7 to 8 times there amount like everything has, and I’m not including taxes or health care. I truly believe we’ve have been loosing our middle class slowly over the last 20 years.

I believe it started changing after 1986 after Ronald Reagan brook up the air traffic control unions, not that I’m an advocate of unions, plus I loved President Reagan. Since 1968 everything has gone up 7 to 8 times their value except salaries. An average 2000 square foot hone in Chicago all brick, three bedroom two bath & basement went for around $25,000. Today that same average house is around $185,000 to $200,000 or ALOT higher depending where you live. My dad had an 8th grade education and made $12,000 a year. His income was one half of the average cost of a home. My mom didn’t have to work and the average medium car like a Ford LTD was 1/3 of his income or around $4200.00. Today that same medium size car excluding a few added things like air bags, and electronics is around $27,000 to $30000. Stamps that were .06 cents then, are now going for.39 cents, milk that was .32 cents a gallon then and is now about $3.00 or higher a gallon. Gas that was about .32 cents a gallon, now runs about $2.85 or higher a gallon, and so on. I remind you that If you look closely, almost everything since 1968 has went up 7 to 8 times their value except salaries which have only went up about 2 to 4 times their amount. This is why we keep extending car payments out longer and finding other ways to help finance homes, cars, etc. This is also why people are buying fewer cars then before and why car payments are being extended out to 6, 7 and now 8 years, or we lease them.

We are having job gains in the U.S. of 100,000 to 250,000 every month, but what percentage of those jobs pays $60,000 to $85,000 or more a year? I would bet that most of theses jobs pay medium wage, which is below the poverty rate of $20,000 a year or $ 10 an hour, or pay around $25,000 to $45,000 a year. You can’t live on these salaries these days, as you know. I’m talking people with college degrees and a good education. On top of that you have ill eagles coming in working at wages so low that they qualify for food stamps and get free health care under a loophole in our health care system and we pay for it.

If salaries went up to the same proportion as the products have over the last 39 years, the average worker with no college who had 5 to 7 years experience would be making around $85,000 a year. Someone with a college degree then who made $20,000 back then (which is poverty today for a family of four) with 5 to 7 years experience would be making around $140,000 a year. If we made theses types of salaries, people could pay off cars in three years like we use to and there by would help spore the auto industry. If you want to spore the auto industry, give tax write offs on cars assembled in the U.S. and that get great fuel mileage instead of gas the gosling SUVs and trucks. The only exception would be a business like the trucking companies.
The Truckers are still getting $1.00 per mile while their fuel, tires & trucks have went up at a much higher rate. They should be getting about $3 to $5 a mile in today’s dollar.

If you go back to 1916 till about 1986, it took about two times or 2.5 times your salary to buy the average house. In 1941-1943 it only took 1.5 to twice your salary to buy the average house. By 1990 the average home was $120,000 with the average salary being only $30,000, which was 4 times your salary. The average car has been about 1/3 of a person’s income until about 1986 before it started changing.

What will really blow your mind are corporate executives. In 1968 the average salary for a CEO was around $100,000 to $150,000 a year. Today they are in the millions, way over what they should be at. A good example today is the retired CEO of GMAC who got a $687.000.000 retirement package. If you took their high end in 1968 around $150,000 and upped it by the 7 to 8 times inflation rate, they should be around a million or a little over a year in today’s dollars. Their salaries are way over that today plus all the perks they get. I find it ironic that they can ship a lot of the American jobs overseas for the cheaper labor and lower standard of living, but won’t ship their jobs over seas at a much cheaper cost. It’s the old additive, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and no one wants to pay or can afford the middle class. Yet things keep climbing except salaries. Our companies pass wealth down to the people like in the cartoon with Bugs Bunny and Casimanee Sam. One for you and one for me. Two for you and one, two, for me. Three for you and one, two, three for me, four for you and one, two, three, four for me, and so on.

You may argue that if we paid the salaries I mentioned, everything would be a lot higher. My argument is that since 1916 till 1986 it took 2 to 2.5 times your salary to buy an average home. Why could it be done back then and not now without raising the prices of everything? It’s because the people at the top of the chain want more profit so they can to look good and want to maintain that profit.

THE DANGER IS WHO WILL BUY THINGS IF THEY DON’T HAVE THE SALARIES OR GOOD JOBS TO PAY FOR THEM. We are already extending our car payments to 5, 6, 7 and now even 8 years so people can buy them instead of 36 months like it was in 1968. If this continues it will lesson the number of cars people will buy in there lifetime.
I’ve noticed also on how they have been pushing leasing more because it’s cheaper and is the only way some people can get a car.

In California, people can’t pay on the house note because there salaries won’t qualify them for the loan so now they qualify them on the interests with no principal being paid. Now they pay on the interests only, and are assuming houses will continue to escalate. What happens when there salaries won’t even cover the interest’s payments? Some one is going to get stuck with the bill. It’s a big gamble don’t you think?

HERE ARE SOME SOLUTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER EVEN IF SOME MEMBRRS OF CONGRESS AND THE SENATE. THE SPECIAL INTERESTS GROUPS WON’T LIKE IT BUT TOUGH.

Change the tax laws and fade them in a four to six year period.

1. No tax write offs period, for any company in the U.S. who closes a plant here, then decides to build the same type of plant in India, or Mexico, etc. because of the cheaper labor and lower standard of living costs. They only get the write offs for U.S. operations, NOT FORIGN.

1. No tax write offs for any company on any help they hire overseas like India, Mexico, etc. If they want to hire overseas, let them, but NO write offs of any kind for their overseas operations or services done by them in the U.S.

1. Close all loop holes that aren’t doing any good for the average person. One example would be to close all the write offs for these executives who buy several corporate jets, lease them out and write off the interests on then, then sell them for their profit only. Allow only one plane per company. Another area would be in the rent homes people buy and misuse the leasing programs. Put a limited number on the leasing property a person or couple can have. There are hundreds of other loopholes that don’t help anyone except the rich like the Canine Island tax shelters and others.

We need loop holes for the rich that encourages passing the wealth down to the people, thus expanding the buying power of the individual and encouraging spending & growth in the U.S. thus creating more tax dollars revenues to help balance our increasing budget problem. Cutting the poor and Social security is not the answer especially after congress just gave them selves a $3000.00 pay increase.

2. More tax incentives for companies who hire U.S. citizens in the U.S., and keep them. An example of this would be a 100% tax write off on all the medical, pension programs, 401k plans, training & new equipment for all U.S. citizens regardless of race, religion, etc, but they have to be U.S. citizens for any write offs. There are no write offs for foreign students or non-U.S. Citizens. They still can hire foreign people, but no write offs on anything for them unless their U.S. citizens.

If you keep a U.S. citizen, employee from 1 to 7 years; you get to write off 100% on anything you do for that employee. If you keep that employee from 7 to 20 years, you get a 200% write off and if you keep theses employees from 20 to 30 years you get a 400% write off on each one. This would encourage companies to keep employees longer. So if an older person was making a $100,000 a year in today’s salary range and the company wanted to let him or her go because they could hire a younger less experienced person out of school for $40,000 a year, they could, BUT the company would loose a $400,000 write off each year for that older employee who stayed with the company. If they still wanted to hire the college or younger person they could, but would only get to write off the 100% for that new person until they reached 7 years. The higher percentage write offs would not apply to executives, owners, and upper management. Only Employees. If the executives or management wanted to give them selves a big rise they can, but can only write off the 100%.

3. Keep the Minimum wage at least above the poverty rate. That way they can’t qualify for food stamps or other Government subsidies. For every $5 an hour a person makes, it amounts to about $10,000 a year or $300.00 clear for every pay period they get. Since poverty is $20,000 a year, minimum wage should be around $10.50 an hour or more. I know people who are working at Wall Mark for $6 to $7 an hour making a lot less or equal to what then they could get on an unemployment check in some states. If you keep the minimum wage always above the poverty rate, then people can’t qualify for other government programs that drain us in taxes.

4. I would appreciate it if the Congress, Senate and the President would consider these ideas and others in their future sessions, not for me, but for the hard working people in our country, because I truly believe we are slowly but surly loosing our middle class not only in salaries but also in the tax burden. Instead of giving a temporary tax break and causing a greater national debt, create some of the tax breaks I suggested that would create good paying jobs in the U.S. and thus more tax revenue to help balance the budget or at lease get it down. If you don’t the fed will continue rising the interest’s rates, which eventually will cause a slowdown or another recession.

Sincerely,

Gerald Lambert

I see signs in newspapers boxes in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago that state “Gringos Out of Pilsen.” Drunken Mexican illegals regularly drive over and kill people on Cermak Road near Chinatown. Mayor Daley wants to expand the “Benito Jurez Academy,” that happens to fly the MEXICAN flag in front, in order to accomodate the explosion of “Anchor Babies” out of the bellies of the Mexican invaders. Pat Buchanon is right. Where is the democracy that we voted for? Why did we go vote? Why are our laws, passed by ou elected representatives, not upheld? I ask, we voted to have a decent neighborhood, populated by the families of lawabiding citizens. Who are these Mexicans to come across the border, with fraud documents in hand, like the “Mexican Joke ID,” and make demands on us?

Latino ASS’S.W.M.

Pat Buchanon is right! Read below.

Myths and lies of illegal immigration

Because the pro-illegal alien lobby has a bottomless pit of money and can hire PR people to spin (and fabricate) anything any way, there are an undue number of myths and lies that the public (and many politicians) continue to perpetrate. The FACTS are:

1. Consumers are NOT benefiting from lower-labor costs. Again, it’s CEOs and small business owners who benefit from taxpayer subsidies for their illegal-alien workers. The Big Three automakers say they moved so many jobs to Mexico because their labor costs are 80 percent less than in America. Anybody notice the price of new cars spiraling downward under NAFTA? Labor Unions are crying that their membership in decreasing, but yet many of them are Democrats who support amnesty for illegals. Americans need to get it in their head that illegals undermine the progress of unions. It “depresses US wages and displaces US workers!”

2. Illegal immigration is NOT an environmental problem. In fact, many environmental groups are starting to call attention to illegal aliens because the exploding population is undermining smart, sustainable growth. Illegal aliens contribute to urban sprawl, crowded emergency hospital rooms, overpopulated prisons, squatter camps on the US-Mexican border, and destruction to livestock, wildlife, and National Parks.

3. Illegal aliens are NOT necessarily coming here to work. Lou Dobbs recently reported that 33 percent of our prison population is now comprised of non-citizens. Many of these crimes are committed against honest, hard-working, middles-class Americans. Plus, 36 to 42 percent of illegal aliens are on welfare. So, for a good proportion of these people, the American dream is crime and welfare, not coming here to work. According to a study by University of Hawaii professor Karen Umemoto, there were 164 Hispanic perpetrators of hate crimes in LA County in 1997, compared to 119 white offenders. Illegals are stealing precious tax dollars, jobs, and social services from American citizens. They are populating our prisons, crowding our schools, running wild in the streets, and using emergency rooms as free health clinics. And the middle-class taxpayer gets the distinctive honor of paying for it ALL. Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the prison population in southern US border states.

4. Illegal aliens are NOT doing work Americans won’t do. What jobs won’t Americans do? In most states, Americans still clean their own houses, do their own landscaping, clean hotel rooms, work in restaurants and fast food places, paint houses, DO CONSTRUCTION WORK, work in airports, etc. – just like we have the past 200 years before “our” government allowed these people to invade our country. There are 18 million Americans who cannot find a job; so illegal aliens who are coming here to work do so at peril to American workers. The American entrepreneurial spirit got our country where it is today. Illegals just underbid and displace American workers. They also depress wages because illegals are willing to live in conditions substandard to that of the US. It’s not unusual for a residential garage to be crammed with 4-5 grown adults sleeping in it.

5. Illegal aliens absolutely do NOT contribute more than they cost. Certainly the millions in prison and on welfare aren’t contributing a dime to our economy, and the ones who are working often are paid in cash with no deductions for taxes at all. The ones who use fraudulent social security numbers and qualify to pay taxes and social security have so many deductions for dependents that they pay little if any taxes. We have seen them pay less than $100 in taxes and get back $4,000 refunds (thanks to earned income tax credits and multiple dependents). The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the average Mexican illegal alien costs U.S. taxpayers a whopping $55,000 each. The American middle class is picking up the bill. Some bargain, eh?

6. The economy does NOT depend on illegal aliens. Sure, greedy CEOs (making $50 to $150 MILLION a year) and business owners depend on illegal aliens, but due to #3, #4 and #5 above, the only thing illegal aliens are contributing to is the collapse of our economy and making the rich richer. Many of them also subvert our culture by filling frivolous lawsuits, not assimilating to our culture, and demanding more social services that their own corrupt country fails to provide them in the first place.

7. Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods/services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa’s “How Much Is That Tomato?” The study concludes that since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing / storage costs, grocers’ profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter … hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims.

8. It is NOT racist to call these people “illegal aliens.” In fact, “illegal aliens” is the only term used in federal laws and regulations to describe criminals (and they ARE criminals) who come into our country illegally. They are not “mere” immigrants, not undocumented immigrants, not migrant workers, and not day laborers – they’re ILLEGAL ALIENS. Burglars are not uninvited houseguests. Car-jackers not are under-rated drivers. Bank robbers are not making unauthorized withdrawals. Pickpockets are not just borrowing a little cash. Drunk drivers are not just a little tipsy. They need to get at the end of the line and wait their turn just like everybody else. And they need to do it LEGALLY! Americans value immigration and we make no distinction of race. Instead, we make a clear distinction of LEGAL and ILLEGAL! There is a fundamental difference here.

9. Mexico is NOT a poor country. It has the fifth richest economy in the world, and by unloading its poverty problems on American soil their economic status keeps on rising. Mexico has more resources per square mile than the U.S. and plenty of money to take care of its own people. Why should the taxpayers of the USA subsidize Mexico’s corruption, incompetence, and negligence? The greatest criticism should be levied at the Mexican government for not taking care of it’s own people. Mexicans bail their own country like a sinking ship. And it’s not the job of American politicians to solve Mexico’s corruption, incompetence, and negligent problems. And even with their resources, Latin America still underperforms on the international market compared to Asia and Europe.

How are Latinos who are born and raised here part of the invasion?

Buchanan’s book being stuck at the top of all best seller lists shows that the U.S. public has no sense of what makes good (or factual) writing. The commenter here is typical of racists who know nothing about the complexities or the diversity within the Latino community (and who always seem to forget that America is more than just the United States). What else needs to be said about this stereotypical response?

I agree with everything Pat Buchanan says. In fact I would even go to a further extreme and begin mass deportation of ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. The TRUTH is that we (Americans) owe the ILLEGAL immigrants nothing. It’s incredibly arrogant for someone to think we (Americans) are in debt to anyone that breaks into our (Americans) country and demands for us (Americans) to take care of them. Let me
give an analogy and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong: A family of ILLEGAL Immigrants breaks into YOUR home, demands that YOU feed them, house them, shelter them, provide them free education, retirement benefits, free health care, provide them employment (IF they choose to work)and tells YOU that its now YOUR responsibility to take care of them. If you think you can defy this statement then give me your address I’ll send them your way. Maybe they’ll even pick your lettuce for you if you have a garden.

The fact is that Latin America is rife with failed governments that do nothing for their people and produce millions of poor and illiterate who are driven north to the U.S. No amnesty, and no guest worker program established by our country will reduce their ever increasing numbers. What do Latinos intend to do if a guest worker program is established and tens of thousands continue to cross our borders every year, saturating our worker pool and reducing wages in a never ending spiral? The root cause of Latin American migration lies in Latin America, not the U.S. U.S. problems are simply a symptom of a cause that Latinos, in sympathy with the current illegal aliens, shortsightedly ignore. The interests of Hispanic citizen poor are being undermined by their own elitist activists in a grab for political power. Is it any wonder that the majority of Americans who are not Hispanic, and who recognize this fact, are up in arms at advocacy group strong-arm tactics and Mexico’s interference in our politics. There may be xenophobics out there, but that’s no reason for Hispanic citizens to ignore their own interests to spite them. I can see a day when even Hispanic citizens may call for a crackdown on illegal immigrants. Think about it.

The truth is that the United States has swung wildly in its attitudes towards immigrants during the course of its history; for example. During the Civil War ships full of Irish immigrants were regularly pulling up to Northern docks, where these immigrants were thrown into uniforms and handed rifles almost as quickly as they could debark the ships even though in antebellum America the Know Nothing party, which run on routinely nativist platforms had become a major player on the American political scene.

During the early portions of the 20th Century, there were laws that deliberately sought to increase immigration from Protestant north-western Europe, while concurrently restricting immigration from south-eastern Europe; too many Catholics and anarchists from that neck of the woods. A particularly shameful incident that occurred at that time was the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.

The current situation is certainly nothing new, if anything else it merely highlights the collective insecurities of many Americans, and people like Pat Buchannan are attracted to those sentiments the same way that vultures are attracted to rotting carcasses.

However it must be noted that people like Mr. Buchanan are successful because they are able to exploit extant situations to deliberately exaggerate their effects out of all proportion to what is actually going on.

The forced deportation of every illegal immigrant in the United Stated, and other wild eyed schemes are being bandied about by some of the more rabid anti-immigration politicians like Mr. Buchanan, may sound attractive but in actuality are really nothing more that political placebos. By the same token, folks on the opposite end of the political spectrum that go around, stridently making various demands while carrying a Mexican flag, are only adding fuel to the fire and creating more bad blood.

The fact is that the solution to the current conundrum is complex and multifaceted. We have to maintain control of our borders, but we cannot pander to idiots like the Minute Men while doing that. We have to stop giving money and resources to countries on the opposite part of the world and we have to start helping people in our own hemisphere, as opposed to getting involved only when we feel our interests are somehow threatened.

Likewise, the countries of Central and South America have to start taking responsibility for their own citizens. The fact is that most of these illegals are economic migrants, not political refugees, and history has shown time and again that economic migrants, when given decent jobs, would just as soon stay home. It is really disingenuous for these countries to blame all their woes on the mean old Gringos, and their trade policies.