TRANSCRIPT:
Holy shit, get ready for this one. Because if you’ve ever heard somebody say immigrants are a drain on the system, or they’re taking resources that should go toward Americans, and you knew they were full of shit but you didn’t have the facts to refute, I have great news because after watching this video, not only will you know how to respond, but you’ll have a counter punch too, and they’ll never see it coming.
So first, a brand new study was just released from the Cato Institute. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s a libertarian think tank. And they’re typically cited by the Reagan-type Republicans when they want to cut spending. This specific study sought to evaluate the impact of immigrants on government spending.
To do this, they looked at data from 1994 to 2023. 94 was the first year they started collecting it. So this data spans 30 years and it does include undocumented immigrants. Now there are way too many findings in the study to capture them all in one video. I’m gonna give you the high-level summary.
First and most important takeaway is that the existence of immigrants reduced the deficit every single year over those 30 years. A 30-year streak of paying more in taxes? Then they cost the government at the local, state, and federal level combined. This is because while immigrants are paid lower wages on average, they work at much higher rates. Over this time period, immigrants only made up about 14% of the US population, but they made up over 18% of the workforce.
Meanwhile, because immigrants are 25 years old when they arrive on average, it costs us next to nothing in terms of public education. Then because they’re far less likely to work government jobs, they’re less likely to be eligible for a public pension.
And while immigrants in the United States are more likely to be living in poverty, they are no more likely than a US citizen to need government support. And that includes food stamps, Medicaid, tax credits, and unemployment insurance.
And despite Trump’s lies, they’re also half as likely as a US-born citizen to have a felony or serve time in prison. So they’re saving us money there too.
If you add this all together, it turns out over that 30-year period, immigrants contributed 14% of tax revenue and only accounted for 7% of government spending, contributing a net positive impact of $14.5 trillion to the US economy, with $6.3 trillion of that positive impact from non-citizens alone.
If you add this all together, it turns out over that 30-year period, immigrants contributed 14% of tax revenue and only accounted for 7% of government spending, contributing a net positive impact of $14.5 trillion to the US economy, with $6.3 trillion of that positive impact from non-citizens alone.
That $14.5 trillion is so massive that without immigrants, in 2023, our national debt would have been double what it was.
These numbers are so insane, I was required to ask a follow-up question: If immigrants are so good for our economy, are they better than Republicans?
You won’t believe what I found.
Because in that exact same 30-year period, Republican presidents were in charge of 12. And in those fiscal years, Republican presidents accounted for $11.2 trillion of new debt. Running annual deficits almost double on average, the Democratic presidents in that same 30-year period, by the way.
And with virtually all of that debt spending going to Wall Street, tax cuts for the wealthy, military spending, and forgivable loans to business owners through 2020 and 2021, we can safely confirm that next to none of that debt went to those same immigrants who were driving a positive impact.
All together proving that not only do immigrants have a net positive impact on the economy, they’re more important to our economy than Republicans.
