Friday, May 10, 2013

Kudlow is Right: Immigration Reform Means Big Growth for the US

I never understood that nativist part of the GOP that is so dead-set against immigration reform. I think Kudlow is right when he says that a great engine of growth will be unlocked if we fix immigration.

Immigration-reform proposals from Senator Marco Rubio and others land squarely on the growth side of the debate. And I do find it interesting that the Congressional Budget Office — no friend of supply-siders — is touting the dynamic impacts of immigration on economic growth. In a letter to budget chair Paul Ryan, the CBO said the failed 2006 immigration effort would have increased federal revenues more than direct spending. The Joint Tax Committee agreed. The dynamic idea is that immigration significantly increases the size of the U.S. labor force, and that more workers mean more growth.

If you put 11 million people on the tax rolls and starting bringing in waves of future Sergey Brins then the pro-growth part of the GOP needs to jump at the chance. The former CBO head figures that it will put on 1% to GDP growth and reduce the deficit by $2.5 trillion. You add a few Googles to that mix and we are talking real money.

That is why the GOP is such a Frankenstein Monster nowadays. You have pro-growth fiscal conservatives like Kudlow and I butting up against grim austerity nativists trying to block immigration reform. Then we have the Religious Reich vs. the younger part of the GOP who doesn't give a crap about gays and abortion has been the law of the land for our entire lives. Hell I was -2 when Roe vs. Wade actually decided by the Supreme Court.

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