UPDATED: Fiscal Deficit Attributable To Immigration (Ad Hominen Fallacy)

According to Edwin Rubenstein, President of ESR Research Economic Consultants in Indianapolis, the average immigrant household generates a deficit of about $17,000 per immigrant household. This figure is a function of the difference between federal benefits received and federal taxes paid. Whereas it used to be “that native-born households generated a federal fiscal surplus—paying more taxes than they received in benefits,” this is no longer the case. “Today’s deficit,” Rubenstein acknowledges, “is too large to be ascribed to any narrowly defined group.” Everyone is in hock. “Food Stamp Nation,” as Pat Buchanan puts it in his latest, admirable book.

Nevertheless, as I’ve previously argued, “from the fact that taxpayer-funded welfare for nationals is morally wrong … it does not follow that extending it to millions of unviable non-nationals is economically and morally negligible. Or that such immigration remotely comports with the libertarian goal of curtailing government growth.” It’s like saying that because a bank has been robbed by one band of bandits (welfare-dependent nationals), repelling the next lot (welfare-dependent non-nationals) is unnecessary given that the damage has already been done.

Rubenstein:

There are about 13 million such households in the U.S. Well, when you do the math—13 million times $17,000—you get a federal “immigration deficit” of $220 billion.
That is the fiscal deficit attributable to immigration. It equals about 17% of the entire federal deficit.
That is a big chunk. It’s roughly equal the annual interest now paid on the national debt.

UPDATE (Oct. 20): To James below, I’m glad you wrote: Subscribe to my newsletter, James. In my next WND column, I give you the tools to counter the false argument your kids ought to have been taught at school not to make. Against your numbers, your kids have advanced the ad hominen fallacy. Read tonight’s WND column and join us here.