The U.S. should welcome legal immigrants -- there's plenty of room
SAN DIEGO -- A reader recently asked me: "Is the USA full?"
This was no random survey. I had just asserted that legal immigration was the best thing about America.
The reader was not persuaded.
He asked: "Have you spent time in Los Angeles and experienced the transportation gridlock -- Bay Area, San Diego, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Orange County? What about Texas -- traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, San Antonio? Have you ever been to Arizona, been on the highway trying to get to work at 8 a.m. in Phoenix?"
Yes. All of the above. I've lived in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Dallas and Phoenix.
"Do you ever consider the high cost of housing in California? What about the cost of education? Health care?"
Yes. As a California native, I battle the rising cost of living in my home state every day.
But here's the truth from the front lines: Immigrants -- legal or illegal -- aren't bankrupting the Golden State.
The culprit is the crushing cost of public-employee pensions, coupled with the fact that police officers, firefighters, teachers, prison guards, sanitation workers and their cohort are retiring earlier, collecting bigger checks and living longer. In this deep-blue state, Democrats run the show -- and unions run the Democrats. The result is bureaucratic looting on a massive scale.
Not distracted by facts, the reader put me on the spot: "I have a simple question to a man who seems to have all the answers, HOW MANY? Is there a limit to how many the USA can take? Please let me know the correct number, as I never hear any liberals come forth with a proposed number."
...continued
