Brutally Honest Rant - 04/05/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Immigration and Taxation
Audio Transcripts
04/05/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

We’ve had some interesting little publicity displays these past few weeks about immigration laws. Spanish-speaking members of the media have done a really great job rallying the Hispanics out to these displays. Seriously. You gotta give them credit for pulling it off! It’s sort of embarrassing, though, that other groups aren’t able to rally people for a cause without bringing in the freak show refugees from "Let’s Make A Deal" like we saw with the pathetic displays over Terri Schiavo last year. Come on guys, it was a hospice, not the French Quarter at Mardi Gras!

Unfortunately, all of the displays and all of the marches and all of the self-imposed walkouts and sick-ins and so-called "strikes" in the past week or so have not addressed the overall problem, which is what to do with the people who are here illegally!

We have vigilante groups patrolling the US-Mexican border because INS can’t do the task all by themselves. Every other week we’re hearing about yet another smuggling plot to bring illegal people in, whether it’s just in a truck or through some complex tunnel scheme that looks like it comes right out of "Hogan’s Heroes".

And I’ve gotta tell you folks something… translate this into Spanish to your friends if you have to but you need to pay CLOSE ATTENTION to this… we as Americans have been continuously conditioned for the past FIVE YEARS on two things: FEAR and SECURITY.

That’s all that we’ve been force-fed from the Bush Imperium for the past five years. FEAR and SECURITY.

We were sold on going to WAR with Iraq over those two words. FEAR and SECURITY.

The Bush Imperium actually campaigned for and won their re-election in 2004 specifically because of those two words. FEAR and SECURITY.

That’s all that we’ve been force-fed from the air-fluffed egotistical media since 2001. FEAR and SECURITY.

Every other day we turn on the news and we hear about something concerning those two words. FEAR and SECURITY.

We pissed off the United Arab Emirates and scrapped a multimillion-dollar deal over those two words. FEAR and SECURITY.

We have sold our collective souls to the devil over those two words. FEAR and SECURITY.

And now, after FIVE LONG YEARS of hearing nothing but those two words, do you REALLY think that we’re going to let a VERY significant hole in this country’s borders go unnoticed? Hell no!

HELL…. NO!

And let’s get brutally honest here… I don’t care how many marches you make! I don’t care how many demonstrations you throw. I don’t care how many strikes and temper tantrums you throw over this subject… the American people, who have been CONDITIONED like Pavlovian dogs for the past five years, will look at this as a matter of security, and they’re going to DEMAND that something done about it. And that’s what happening here. They WANT changes and they don’t care how pissed off the Hispanic population is over this subject!

You don’t like the ideas being cobbled about for immigration reform? Fine! Then come up with something better!

Should companies be punished for hiring illegal immigrants? Absolutely! But it’s still not going to stop the overall problem. You’re just going to have whole groups of people here in this country who will be pissed off and looking for any kind of work, no matter if it’s legal or illegal.

And I’m going to give a liberal by the name of Randi Rhodes credit for being one of the FEW people saying this: we’re not the only one that has to address this problem. The Mexican government has to deal with it as well, because they’re not just watching their people run across the border, they’re actually HELPING them make the run! So we need to get the Mexican president in line on these efforts too instead of kissing his ass at every opportunity.

We NEED to come up with a solution to this problem instead of allowing the system to continue to deteriorate. We can’t just throw open the borders and tell people to just come and go whenever they feel like. I wish we could do that, but not after the past five years of indoctrinating the public to be fixated on FEAR and SECURITY!

And that’s where tax reform comes in as well. Listen, part of the reason why companies are willing to break the law and hire illegal immigrants is because it gets them out from paying taxes on them! But if we change the tax system to one where income isn’t penalized, then that incentive to break the law goes away.

You see, this is another reason why I’m a supporter of the Fair Tax program. Right now, as the system is set up, you are taxed on the money you make. And that’s only conditional of you being a legal employee and working in a legal business. As a legal business, your employer has to take money out of your paycheck to pay your taxes to the government, but they also have to pay an equal amount of that money from their overhead costs to the government. It’s called the imbedded tax. You don’t see it, but it’s still getting paid on your behalf.

Take a look at your pay stub at how much money you lose from your paycheck to the government for taxes. Your employer has to give the SAME amount of money to the government on your behalf. So double that number and you’ll REALLY see how much the government is getting from your employer just to keep you legally employed! You can also see why companies are quick to lay people off to cut costs.

BUT under a tax system like the Fair Tax program, that money doesn’t go to the government. It stays in your paycheck where it belongs. And your employer doesn’t have to pay an equal amount of that money either, so they can either turn that over to you as a raise, since they’re already spending it on you, or invest it in the company. That eliminates a HUGE incentive from the employer’s perspective to hire off-the-book illegal immigrants. And it cuts down on their incentive to lay people off.

Now, on the other side of the equation… as it is right now, if you’re here illegally, and you’re working here illegally, then you’re not paying all of the taxes that the rest of us pay. Under a tax system like the Fair Tax, though, that changes. You pay just like everyone else, no matter if you’re here legally or illegally.

And then there’s the added bonus that is UNIQUE to the Fair Tax program: every household gets a monthly check to offset the costs of taxes paid for basic necessities such as food. YOU ACTUALLY GET MONEY! Is that sinking in? The government will actually GIVE YOU MONEY!

BUT in order for you to get that money, you have to be here legally. If you’re not on the books, then the government can’t give you money to help pay for basic necessities. So that is yet another incentive for people who are looking for work, who are struggling to make ends meet, to make sure that they come here legally.

Listen, folks, I understand the need to do whatever it takes to make ends meet. I’m not exactly raking in the dough myself. But I also understand that you don’t indoctrinate people into a mindset of "security at all costs" and then try to convince them that SOME holes and lapses in that security have to be endured for no other reason than just so you don’t piss off certain segments of the population… especially the ones who aren’t here legally in the first place!

(Computer – some good mixes, but you have to listen to the show to know what they are)
(Fade Music In – "Flawed Legacy" by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori)

You know, our problems with immigration and border security is not just something that we can fix either by putting up a huge wall or throwing the entire US military on the borders. We’ve seen that trick before, folks… it was called Berlin. There are several factors that help contribute to this problem, and those need to be addressed as well. If we can’t do that, then all of the intense border security we put up won’t mean squat, because we’ll STILL have people coming up with ways to get into this country.

The Cuban people are willing to risk their lives in makeshift boats to make the ninety-mile trip across perilous ocean waters to get here, without having to deal with walls or deserts or immigration border patrols or the Minutemen vigilantes. If there is a will, there is a way, and as long as there is a reason for people to make the trip over, they will do whatever it takes to get here. That’s one of the prices that we pay with being the most enviable nation in the world.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

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