Schwarzenegger : Illegal aliens not cause of California's budget woes

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: McClatchy

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday disputed claims that illegal immigrants caused California's $24.3 billion deficit, while he praised their economic contributions and said he is "happy" they have access to services.

The Republican governor, answering wide-ranging questions from The Bee's editorial board and its readers, also vented about roadblocks to his authority posed by political foes and warned that government can't sustain the current level of "unbelievable benefits" for public-sector workers.

In response to dozens of questions from readers who say the state ought to wipe out the deficit by eliminating services for illegal immigrants, the governor said it is a "myth" that those immigrants are to blame.

<snip>

"Yes, it is something that ought to be dealt with, but the fact of the matter is, I think it's an easy scapegoat for people to point the finger and say, 'Our budget is out of whack because of illegal immigrants.' "

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/69595.html

[ThomCat]

1. Wow. That's braver than what we get from many Democrats.

Now if he could just balance the budget without slashing necessary services and putting the most vulnerable people out on the street this would be wonderful.

[sam sarrha]

3. i left California because i couldn't find a job.. if i did i worked in a sea of Mexicans, got layed

off day before benefits opened up.. our community had to close the city parks and fence them in with 8' chain link with razor wire coils on top because of the gangs.. i had 2 friends stabbed.. relatives being driven out of their homes by gangs driving at high speed in convoys of several cars firring automatic weapon's out of both sides into homes. my relative had 4x8 sheets of T2 steel bolted to the walls, they sat and slept on the floor, carried guns in their own homes.

property values were destroyed, they couldn't sell or afford to move out.

in our little community illegal aliens out numbered the resident children in the primary schools, those children were illiterate in their own language and didn't speak english.. the state hired teachers from mexico some didn't speak english. they had a program called bi-lingual ed.. our neighbors girl was the token english speaker 5th grade, the class was taught in spanish, she didn't speak spanish.. they parked her with toys,, the shit hit the fan when they held her back that grade and didn't tell the parents there was any problem till the last day of school.. she had been intimidated to not tell what went on in the class.. her parents sued the ass off california.. big settlement.. and the state had to provide private school and tutors till she was back to grade level

funny, not ha ha, thing was that in California ronald reagan had fucked up the education system so bad as governor that 25 years later only 2 of 7 students were at or near grade level, 3 to 4 of 7 weren't literate enough to fill out a job application or read a newspaper. my nephew graduated high school and couldn't read a tv guide, couldn't multiply or divide 2 digit numbers.. couldn't find 1/4 inch on a tape measure. i remember the news.. there was news then.. they said that if reagan had left office his first year as gov, it would take 20 years to fix what he fucked up, i was forced to drop out my junior year because he declared war on collages, dis funded them, all student aid and loans dried up

california is totally fucked up.. LA has hijacked ~80% of the state funds, central/north california got shit on and ripped off, they will never recover. my brother a police captain said they want to bankrupt the state and reorganize by privatizing everything what they don't eliminate, and mine off what wealth is left in the rest of the state

[tomreedtoon]

4. So how's that working for you, Sam Sarrha?

Are you finding that many jobs and that fewer stabbings outside of Lotus Land? Disappointing, isn't it?

You did say one correct thing, amidst all the run-on sentences and lack of capitalization. You said that Ronald Reagan had begun the destruction of California twenty-five years ago. It's time we recognized Saint Ronnie for what he did.

I don't think his statue should be pulled down in Washington, like that guy said on Real Time with Bill Maher. I think it should be put in a place of honor, like in front of a Washington shopping mall that's going out of business and due to be demolished.

[sam sarrha]

50. sorry for being autistic and only functionally literate, i only have one hand and type with one

finger.. its a bitch, you ought to try it some time asshole

[tomreedtoon]

61. Sorry, but you need to explain this.

I react the same way when I read ALL CAPS posts. You know you can get a macro program for your computer that would type out that apology (hopefully without the "asshole" comment) for all your messages to forewarn people. It would probably also help you with other writing.

At any rate, did you notice that I said you were right about Ronald Reagan? I didn't think so.

Also, I sincerely hope you can find some kind of work outside of California. There doesn't seem to be anything in Florida. Nobody is hiring for anything. And I don't think they will, until Obama starts investing money into real work projects, not giving money to bankers and bankrupt car companies.

[KamaAina]

70. Um.... I have autism, too, and am mostly pro-immigrant

While it is true that, according to figures, people with autism have a staggering 94 percentunemployment rate (do not adjust your monitors!), it is hardly the fault of immigrants: those figures come from Britain.

The problem is with an ableist society that can't even come to grips with more familiar disabilities like blindness, deafness, or paralysis, let alone one like autism about which not all that much is known. So come and join us in the movement!

http://www.autisticadvocacy.org

edit: italics; spelling

[sam sarrha]

71. i was relating why i left California.. all true. and not half of what became a daily stressful night

mare i have aspergers syndrome i have an iq of 164, i am functionally illiterate with good verbal skills.

the immigrants are a problem on several levels, the real cause is the mexican government state cast system, the 'have it all's' have a standard of living second only to France.. there is state sponsored dumping of their poverty in this country to maintain an immoral system. there are up to 20,000,000 people literally bussed here by the mexican government, that is a state sponsored invasion. it isnt the poor folks fault.. didn't say it was. i was relating the problems it causes

but it needs to be stopped. i don't believe it is a good thing for anyone in the long run.. there is a lot of denial, and racism in the replays to me.. i wasn't even talking about what they replied with.. they are stuck in their own denial.. nuf said

[No Elephants]

7. You can tell the difference between a neighbor who is documented and a neighbor who isn't? With

an amazing gift like that, you should have a great future with the INS.

Speaking of which, if you knew for certain that those neighbors were undocumented, did you notify the INS?

[sam sarrha]

51. where did i say anything about my neighbors.. ?? piss off

[Iggo]

17. We love you, too, Sam.

:patriot:

[nichomachus]

21. You may want to cut back on watching the "Cops" reruns just a tad. n/t

[sam sarrha]

52. well i'm glad you live in your Golden Ghetto, without gang graffiti everywhere an drive by shootings

at night within 200 feet of your house.. but don't get F'n Snooty to those who have to put up with that bull shit all the time

[Chulanowa]

22. Are you sure you just haven't watched too many Mad Max films?

[bitchkitty]

23. Gangs

From what I've observed, gangs are not made up of illegal immigrants. Most of the illegal immigrants who come here, come here to work.

If you don't want to speak Spanish, don't. Stop worrying about people speaking a language you can't understand - if they're not talking to you, what do you care?

You've no idea how fucked up and anti-Latino you appear, because if you did you never would have made this post. You're blaming the wrong people, which is what the real villians want.

[nichomachus]

25. There you go again

Engaging in a battle of reason and logic against an unarmed person.

[sam sarrha]

57. are you really serious.. you obviously never lived in a m13 gang infested area, my mother 76 yr old

mother had to drive 25 miles to the next town to go to a grocery store.. the mexican women ran shopping carts into her ankles from behind.. i saw a woman telling her child to do that to my mother, i walked back to her and stopped the cart by letting it hit me, it bounced back and knocked the kid down, he was maybe 8. i saw a mexican woman hit my mother in the side of her face and knock her down because the checker put a closed sign behind my mothers items to go on break when the mexican woman was about 15 feet away.. she obviously thought it was a racist affront aimed at her personally. so she blind sided an old woman and knocked her down..

just because you don't live in this racist bullshit every day you cant pretend it doesn't happen..although you are apparently in denial. i'm not saying all mexicans do that, but it F'n happened.

[WriteDown]

26. There are a variety of gangs...

some that only cater to illegal immigrants. Do you have a problem with public schools who don't teach English as the primary language?

[bitchkitty]

29. Which of those gangs are Latino?

I would have a serious problem with any public school in Los Angeles that didn't cater to Latinos. The name of the city should give you a serious clue. A simple lesson into California history should give you a clue.

California wasn't like that when I lived there as a child. Oh yes, there were clods who referred to Mexicans (and any other Hispanic) as "beaners" but nothing like this BLATANT fucking xenophobia and hatred on a progressive message board. Maybe I was sheltered, but really, where did all of you come from, with your elitism and English-only bullshit?

[WriteDown]

30. There's your problem...

No public school should cater to any ethnicity which is the truly progressive attitude.

Here's one gang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-13

[AlphaCentauri]

33. english is not part of an ethnicity

just for the record
:eyes:

[WriteDown]

37. Thanks for making my point...

Never said it was.

[AlphaCentauri]

64. Nor spanish

so teaching spanish at school is not a special ethnic privilege

[bitchkitty]

34. Cater was the wrong word, I admit.

I should have said any public school that didn't accomodate Latinos.

I'm not interested in any links that have nothing to do with the guns-blazing, drive-by scenario put forth by the post I intially responded to.

Mexicans are not part of California's problems. But you keep posting all the crime and mayhem links you want - all you're proving is that there are bad people in the world - something we all already know. But they're not bad because they are Latino, they're bad because they're BAD, can't you grasp that?

Latino people have every right to not only exist, but to live their culture in California. Even the name of the state is Spanish.

edit - dyslexic fingers

[Yupster]

69. I grew up near Troy, NY

and the teaching in ancient Greek really got to me.

They called me a xenophobe when I complained too, but they really said xenophobe.

I think that's what they said. It was all Greek to me.
:p:

[sam sarrha]

58. what ..?? listen to yourself.. 78+% of state taxes go to LA County, small town people with double

digit unemployment.. illegal aliens doubling the school population, is a tragic catastrophic hardship.. we are supposed to be happy about it, kids aren't getting an education because of it, they cant afford to teach algebra or even science in the schools, shop, home ech, art, band are long gone.. on the average it took kids from that school district up to a year of remedial classes in junior college to even qualify to take a collage course.

and you F'n think i'm supposed to be happy about that..?? i'm discussing a problem, you aren't, you try to invalidate to make your denial feel good, sound good

[sam sarrha]

54. yes they come here to work.. where i lived had double digit unemployment.. because i state the facts

doesnt make me a rasist. and i dont have to be Fuck'n happy about it either.

[Big_Mike]

32. Your mileage may vary...

I've lived in California since '95. I've got two kids. One graduated last year, and one is now in 7th grade. Both read WAY above grade level, and on the state tests score above 95% on every subject. Why?

Because from day one my wife and I have been there, making them do homework, ensuring grades are correct and that the school is not slacking off. If you put the time in, you get the result. We don't live in a great school district (below the 50% mark on state scoring), but if the parent tries, so does the teacher.

Some of my daughters' friends do OK in school, and some fail. In every case where I have talked with the parents, those who monitor the kids performance do better, and the parents who use the school as baby sitters cause their kids to do much worse (at least it seems to me) than they might have otherwise. In my case, my parents never did anything about whether or not I did homework, and my grades suffered. I made certain that did not happen to my kids.

As I said above, you mileage may vary.

[sam sarrha]

55. i didnt make any statement about any other place outside of where i lived.. which had serious

problems.. because you lived in a Golden Ghetto and didnt have those problems doesn't diminish the truth we suffered from.

[ismnotwasm]

53. "sea of Mexicans"?

That's a fucked up thing to say, right there.

[sam sarrha]

56. well try to be the only white guy in 60, no one else speaks english. or says they dont.. in el paso

i got run out of several jobs by mexican gangs that kept the white people out. you seem to think all the mexicans are the victims.. that is prejudice. i grew up in a community 17% were mexican, the time period i was referring to was about 8 years where there was a massive influx of migrants, enough to raise the mexican population up to 87%. that was when the gang problems started.

if you don't have those problems great, i'm glad.. but why shit on me because i relate what happened where i was.. you are the bigot here, dismissing the truth, rewriting history cause you live where they have good law enforcement. i lived in a small town rural area. which is probably why it was chosen as a loading zone

[ismnotwasm]

68. Bullshit

I've lived in neighborhoods where I'm IN the minority as a white, not A minority, all my life. I live in one right now. Don't give ME a fucking lecture on socio-economic issues of race and poverty.

Mexico is a country, part of the entire fucking continent of South America; "Sea of Mexicans" means, what? You know for a fact this sea was comprised entirely of Mexicans? Or does it matter? They're brown skinned and Spanish speaking and that's all you need to know, right?

If you're correct and they are all Mexican, it's still just one more subtly racist and fucked up way to decribe a group of people with brown skin.

[sam sarrha]

72. piss off .. you werent where i was... reversed bigotery

[mbperrin]

62. "they held her back that grade and didn't tell

the parents there was any problem till the last day of school.. "

What happened to the report cards that are issued every 6 or 9 weeks which would show passing or failing well in advance of the last day of school?

And bilingual education in California ended in 1998 with the passage of Proposition 227.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition_227

So how long ago are you talking about?

Just trying to get some facts....

[TheFarseer]

65. Thanks for posting your point of view

eventhough some here didn't appreciate it.

[Cleita]

73. I don't like Arnold as governor, but I've got to say that he no bigot.

Blaming the poorest of the poor, whether they are undocumented or not, for California's problems isn't true and I'm glad he said it. Our problems go back to Reagan and Jarvis who brought us proposition 13 and things went downhill from then. The Bush administration through Karl Rove brought us Enron and finished the job. To blame a "sea of Mexicans" is simply bull shit.

[shanti]

40. braver?

whatever support he had from the repukes here in cali, was squashed with this remark, and be sure that it was calculated. his agenda is, and always has been, to bust the state worker unions.

[sam sarrha]

59. and rob the pensions

[shanti]

60. yup

let's not forget about the luxurious pensions. :eyes: you know, one of those "unbelievable" benefits that were bargained for in good faith, the ones he approved of and now wants to take.

[MikeNearMcChord]

2. Ah-nolhd tax the rich! It vill be the only vay to get of de sichuashon!

Soak the rich!

[tomreedtoon]

5. He's trying to be nice to Mexico for a reason.

When he gets his Austrian butt thrown out of office - PLEASE let it be a humiliating recall like the one that got him in office! - he'll run for President of Mexico. They're already bankrupt and violent, and so it'll be just like running California.

Maybe then he can utilize that Mexican anger, build up a force of commandos like he used to be, invade the United States and take back Texas. That'd be symbolic revenge against Bush! And it'd be the only thing Schwartzenegger has ever done to help America.

[bitchkitty]

36. Sounds like a great movie! n/t

[DBoon]

6. Arnold supports his big business backers

the ones who want an endless supply of cheap, illegal labor. He is "happy" they have access to state services because it means his business backers don't have to provide benefits out of their profits.

In his mind, the bad guys are those few workers that have managed to use collective bargaining to improve their standard of living

[AzDar]

9. Nailed it.

:thumbsup:

[DBoon]

13. and I bet his tune would change immediately

should the immigrants ever try to organize for better wages and working conditions

[Hepburn]

15. +1...n/t

[shanti]

41. exactly

and those big business backers want to destroy the unions...with his help! :grr:

[blue97keet]

47. Arnie wants cheap labor without benefits

for his corporate buddies. I'm in Minnesota but this answer sounds the most plausible and least counter intuitive of all the replies here. Make the taxpayer pay the freight for companies that don't have benefits.

[goclark]

8. I love my home state but Arnold should never have been

in charge of it.


"CAL- E - FOUR-NE - A" wants him to pack his damn bags and get out!

[PurityOfEssence]

24. It was one of the best orchestrated railroadings ever

Gray was pretty lackluster, but he was an okay governor. Enron deliberately shut down plants to fake a shortage to put the screws on California, with help from the local reactionaries. When Gray made a bad deal to guarantee energy prices, the trogs, led by Asshole Issa demanded that he be recalled for not protecting us adequately from the Republicans.

It was basically like a divorced father with a history of child abuse effectively suing his ex-wife for custody of their child on grounds that she was an unfit mother for not adequately protecting the child from his abuses. It worked.

I must say, though, that this was an honorable thing for for him to say in defense of illegals.

[Big_Mike]

35. I will fess up on this one

I am one of the ones who wanted him out. He granted a billion dollar deal to his buddies at Oracle on a no-bid contract. And got lots of things back. That is simply too corrupt for my taste. Maybe if this was Illinois or New Jersey, it would appear normal. So I voted against him and for Peter Camejo.

[goclark]

38. You are right ~ he did defend the illegals in that statement nt

[shanti]

42. trust

what he said was not to be "honorable", he has an agenda.

[vkkv]

10. Arnie's values are still out of whack

Here in California, Arnie's branded a liberal by RePigLickins anyway. The Racist Reich Wing will continue to fantasize that immigrants are destroying the country.

Arnie wants to close 220 state parks, but refuses to raise the embarrassingly low state income tax? What a fool!

[The Hope Mobile]

12. Welcome to DU nt

[Hepburn]

16. Another Californian....welcome! I am in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. n/t

[AlphaCentauri]

31. he could probably solve the problem increasing taxes on properties

that are valued more than 1 million dollars

[DBoon]

39. or a split roll, where business property is taxed separate from residential

nt

[AlphaCentauri]

63. Time for a new proposition to amend California proposition 13

which put a cap on property taxes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)

[shanti]

43. it's not that low!

that is bullshit. california has one of the highest state taxes in the nation! we're in this mess because of the pandering to the corporations.

[TheFarseer]

66. what do you mean pandering to corporations?

Alot of states pander to corporations to get them to come in and provide jobs for people. It's not right, but necessary under our fucked system. What we need to do is have a system where states are not pitted against each other and made to suck up to corporations more than the next state.

On a tangent, but this is why Repubs want to allow purchasing healthcare across state lines - so we will have to suck up to health insurance companies too on a state by state basis.

[shanti]

67. the gropenfuhrer

is in place because of enron first of all. do you know about that? he's just continuing where pete wilson left off (the termed out repuke governor right before gray davis). in fact, wilson is one of his advisors! his purpose is to bust the unions and ruin california, and it appears he's well on his way.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Arnold and his backers want to destroy the public service unions...

and privatize as much as possible, including switching the PERS pension plan to some sort of private 401k scheme. He's trying to get people riled up about our "unbelievable benefits" to create a division against govt. workers from the rest of the working class with the "logic" of "I'm not getting those kind of benefits, why should they?", when IMO, it should "if they get those kind of benefits, why can't I?" or "if they lose those benefits, I'll never get anything close to what they had".

The reason state and local govt. worker enjoy such generous benefits is one word : UNION

My local bargaining unit (Santa Clara County) is approx. 15,000 workers strong; can you imagine what kind of pay/benefits WalMart workers might negotiate if they were unionized? For the record, while SC county worker have good medical benefits and a defined benefit pension (PERS), we have not had a wage scale increase in 3 years, and we just agreed to extend our contract, maintaining benefits and freezing wages, for another 2 years.

I'd be glad to give up my medical benefits (mostly paid by my employer, with a small premium paid by me) if CA switched to a true Universal, Single Payer Health Care plan.

Glad to hear Arnold debunk the myths about immigrants- just yesterday my daughter's boyfriend's mom was spouting off about this very topic; that's when I chose to clean up the BBQ leftovers...

[shanti]

44. yes

you nailed it! :thumbsup:

[Garbo 2004]

48. State employees also pay for those "unbelievable benefits." They're not free. & pay taxes.

Ahnold perpetuates the other myth that state employees are responsible for the deficit or that they significantly contribute to it.

All CA state employees could be laid off and there still would be a deficit. Vast majority of State expenditures are not spent on state employees.

[glitch]

14. Nope, just one very specific legal alien.

And his corporate masters, who call him Arnie.

[Vidar]

18. He's right, for a change.

[shanti]

45. even a

broke clock is right twice a day!

[Ignis]

49. Credit where credit is due.

Arnie's an asshole, but at least he doesn't rile up his base with anti-Latino hate.

[Demeter]

19. I've Always Thought of GOP as Aliens; and That They Ought to Be Illegal

but maybe that's because I'm really annoyed at people who don't read, understand, uphold or protect the Constitution, desecrate the Bible with their ignorance and hatred, and think that "All Men" doesn't mean what it says.

[nichomachus]

20. There is a one-word answer to California's budget problems

Republicans

You don't need to look any further than that.

[AlphaCentauri]

27. Health care has to be provided by tax payer revenue...

not employers, nor insurance companies

[McCamy Taylor]

28. If California was more willing to invest in the future of its children its present would not be so

bleak. You reap what you sow.

[Grinchie]

46. Every once in a while Schwarzie gets something right...

Too bad he's a capitalist pig with an eye of Corporate profits.


Perhaps the knowledge that despite the past clamor by the Republicans to alter the Constitution to allow Foreign Nationals to become POTUS (2003), I think the Rabid Rights efforts toward Obama's Birth Certificate and nationality have driven home that Schwarzi will not be their Uberkind in his lifetime.

Maybe he watched the movie "Children of Men" recently, and it struck too close to home, considering he was once an immigrant himself.