Episode 40 Show Notes- The Corporate Social Welfare Scam Enriching Corporations
Episode Description
This week, Professor Giordano highlights the corporate social welfare scam enriching corporations in a story that is virtually being ignored by our news media. While the media and the political elites continue to focus on gossip and irrelevant stories, this is an issue everyone should be aware of as it highlights how We the People continue to be defrauded by the ruling class. At what point do we stand up and hold the elected officials accountable? Visit The P.A.S. Report website, and be sure to sign up for The P.A.S. Report newsletter.
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Intro
Welcome to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano and I want to thank you for tuning in. I hope you’re having a great week.
I’ll tell you last week was a little rough. As a political scientist, I had to watch endless hours of Adam Schiff & co. go on and on. Repeating the same things over and over again. Listening to endless hours of Congressman Schiff made me think. If you gave me a choice of 5-minutes of waterboarding or listening to this imbecile for several more hours, I think I have to go with the waterboarding. No human being should have to suffer through what we are witnessing, and I wonder if it goes against our 8th Amendment protections of prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
n all seriousness, the impeachment trial has been very boring thus far, as I suspected it would be. We are hearing the same arguments that we have been hearing for the last three years. The House managers presented no new information, and just regurgitated the same talking points. What I was surprised at was how much focus they spent on Russia. For God’s sake, we spent $40 million dollars on a Russian collusion investigation that concluded there was no collusion, yet these idiots are still bringing this conspiracy theory up.
So, like I said last week unless something historic or newsworthy happens, I’m not really going to focus on it.
This is what differentiates The P.A.S. Report from other outlets. I explore topics that actually matter and are relevant to you, the listener. It’s important to provide depth and an educational perspective about these issues. You decide where you stand on the issue, I simply provide the background information so that you can make informed decisions.
In this week’s episode, I want to focus on something that no one in the media is bringing up. While the media goes with wall-to-wall coverage of the impeachment trial, real stories are being missed. I want to discuss one of the biggest social welfare scams I have seen. Our advocacy news media probably wouldn’t have brought it up even if there wasn’t an impeachment trial.
Before I start talking about this scam if you want to see the show notes go to thepasreport.com. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.
Social Welfare Scam
Last week, I was going through some of my normal research for a research project I’m working on, and I stumbled across a court case that I found really interesting. I found an Amicus Curiae brief, filed in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, by a bunch of corporations.
The case is Casa De Maryland, Inc., Angel Aguiluz, Monica Camacho Perez v. President Donald J. Trump, Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Kenneth Cuccinelli, Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (Amici Curiae Brief)
For those that don’t know, an Amicus Curiae brief is considered a Friend of the Court brief that can be filed in support of a plaintiff or defendant by someone with a strong interest in the lawsuit, but who is not a direct party to the lawsuit.
What is this case about?
So, what is this case about? This case was brought against President Trump, and his administration, due to a Public Charge Rule change introduced on August 14, 2019.
This rule change was set to take effect in October 2019. In order to fully understand the Public Charge rule change, we first have to define what a public charge is. According to USCIS, a public charge is “an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.” (USCIS)
Basically, if a person is primarily dependent, and is on government assistance, they can be classified as a public charge. These are social welfare programs like cash assistance/welfare, general assistance from state and local programs, Supplemental Social Security Income, Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8 housing benefits, childcare services, energy assistance, educational assistance, job training programs, etc.
The list is pretty extensive. There are also benefits that don’t fall under the public charge rule like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid for pregnant women, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Why is the public charge designation important?
The public charge designation is important when it comes to immigrants. If an immigrant receives a public charge designation, they may no longer qualify for Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) status or to extend their stay within the United States such as on a student Visa. According to USCIS, receipt of any benefits “must be considered in the context of the totality of the circumstances before a person will be deemed inadmissible on public charge grounds. Public benefits that are received by one member of a family are also not attributed to other family members for public charge purposes unless the cash benefits amount to the sole support of the family.” (USCIS)
In order to be considered for Legal Permanent Resident status, you must prove to the government that you are not likely to become a public charge. This does not apply to certain types of Refugees or victims of human trafficking, and the public charge test does not apply to those already granted legal permanent residents. It’s also important to note that a determination of public charge by USCIS is only one factor in making the determination. It’s also important to note that this rule is not about determining deportation. It is solely about determining to grant the individual legal permanent status here in the United States.
What were the rule changes?
Now, we can finally get to what the rule change was that sparked this court case. Prior to the rule change, a public charge designation is applied to someone “likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.”
The new rule defines a public charge designation as a person “who receives one or more public benefits for more than 12 months in the aggregate within any 36-month period.” (KFF) Under the new rules, if a person is on one government program per month for more than a 12 month period, they have deemed a public charge. If the person is on two benefits in a month, that will count as two months thereby making the public charge designation in six-months.
Why do we have the public charge rule in the first place?
It’s pretty clear that we have a public charge so that people wanting to come to the United States do not become a burden on the U.S. taxpayer. Always ask simple questions.
Should we be importing people that cannot sustain themselves? Does that make any sense? Coming into the United States is a privilege, not a right. As such, we should ensure that people have the means to take care of themselves. It is even more important that our government watches over taxpayer dollars and spends taxpayer money in the most responsible way to benefit the country as a whole, which unfortunately they don’t as I established in previous episodes.
We need to remember why immigrants came to the United States in the first place. Many sacrificed everything they had to take a dangerous voyage to the land of opportunity. While some came for the concept of liberty and freedom, most came for economic purposes. They wanted to escape the peasant life and were told of the great fortunes that can be made.
They spent everything they had to make the voyage and most quickly realized they were not going to strike it rich. They came with little money, and they had to survive. There was no government assistance at this time, especially towards newly arrived immigrants.
Now we entice these people to make this journey with the promise that when they get here, they will qualify for all these benefits and won’t have to worry. Factor in the fact that you have nearly every Democrat candidate running for President promising free healthcare, and the situation will get dramatically worse.
Why the rule is important?
Our social welfare programs cost an enormous amount to maintain. We spend approximately $800 billion dollars a year in means-tested social welfare programs. (CATO)
So, it is incumbent on the government that we attract people that are able to sustain themselves. You will constantly hear that non-citizens, both legal and illegal, cannot access social welfare programs, but this is a lie. There are numerous exceptions to these rules, and some of the benefits are considered emergency benefits such as some types of Medicaid and food programs. Also, children have to be taken care of. I don’t care what their status is. We are a humane nation.
When examining the research, there are different ways to look at how immigrants use these programs. If we examine individual immigrants, then the numbers will show that these programs are utilized less than those of the native population. If you look at households headed by non-citizens, they access these programs on a greater basis than U.S. citizens.
But is this really relevant? There is only so much money in the pot, and so the more people that access these programs, the less benefit amount the people receive. Take student aid. If you have 10 people applying and the pot is $100, everyone can get $10. If you have 25 people applying, but the same $100 pot, now people’s benefit will drop from $10 to $4.
If everything was perfect in the United States, it would be one thing. However, these elected officials are constantly talking about how they care about the poor, but let’s be honest, they can give two you know what about the poor. Programs like these hurt the communities that are already struggling. Communities throughout the United States are hurting. Infrastructure is degrading, the education system has collapsed. You have single parents working 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet. You have people who are really disabled and are unable to care for themselves. At what point does our government answer to the people they are supposed to be serving?
Back to the Amici Curiae
Now to get back to the original point about the corporate social welfare scam. So the Trump administration is being sued because there are those that believe it’s unfair that social welfare benefits count against Legal Permanent Resident status.
The Friend of the Court brief that I brought earlier was a real eye-opener, and so you are aware, you the people, once again we are the ones that screwed. These corporations are taking advantage of us, and no one seems to care. The media doesn’t even cover this issue. The elected officials constantly pay lip service to the poor and the middle class, but it’s issues like this and things like bail reform that illustrate they could care less about the people they swore to serve.
Section A
Going through this brief was a real eye-opener. Right off the bat, the title of Section A reads “This Rule Will Impede Hiring by American Employers.” They don’t like the fact that the new rule will view individuals younger than 18 or older than 61. Why wouldn’t this be a negative factor? How many kids or senior citizens are corporations hiring, and what about American born individuals younger than 18 and over 61?
These corporations are also arguing that it’s not fair that “an individual has been diagnosed with any “medical condition” that is “likely to require extensive medical treatment or institutionalization or that will interfere with the [individual’s] ability to provide and care for himself or herself, to attend school, or to work,” the adjudicator must consider this a “negative factor.” Why shouldn’t that be a negative factor? Do we really want to import people who require extensive medical treatment at a major cost to the taxpayers? And what about the millions of Americans that are suffering from chronic illnesses that don’t have adequate healthcare? Don’t we have an obligation to them first over foreign nationals?
Here is a major argument by these corporations, “Under this approach, a 62-year-old professional who intends to work for a number of additional years might be deemed likely to become a public charge because of her age. A talented worker who happens to have a disability is at risk of being deemed likely to become a public charge on grounds of poor “health.” And a worker who currently earns less than 250% percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for his family of four ($64,375) may be found to be likely to become a public charge, even though his salary is roughly the same as the national median household income ($63,179 in 2018).”
Are these idiots really arguing that its beneficial to import a 62-year-old, who is in poor health, is really beneficial to the United States? How does that make sense?
Poverty Rate
The corporations argue that the poverty rate threshold is too high. The corporations are arguing that the foreign national’s income should not weigh against them. As per the guidelines, if a foreign national’s income is not 1.25 times higher than the poverty rate, this will be counted as a negative factor and could lead to the public charge designation.
They also argue that only when income above 2.5 times higher poverty threshold will it become a “heavily weighted positive factor.”
Now just so you are aware, the poverty guidelines for a family of 3 is $21,720. So that means at 1.25 times, a foreign national would have to make $26,587.50, and at 2.5 times the poverty guidelines, they would have to make $54,300. This is a scam of epic proportions.
Basically, these corporations are importing foreign workers and paying them peanuts. Far below what an American would get paid to do the same job.
Essentially, these corporations hire foreign workers, sometimes to replace American workers as we saw with Disney, pay them peanuts, and expect the taxpayer to subsidize them through the social welfare programs. And you’re paying even more because when an American worker loses their job, they need public assistance burdening the taxpayers even more.
These corporations argue “This high cutoff does not account for the reality that many of the most skilled immigrant workers will be compensated with stock options on top of their regular annual income. It is not uncommon for highly skilled workers at technology companies, for example, to take 20-50% of their compensation in stock options rather than salary.”
Here’s a novel idea. How about the corporations pay these people more? You’re talking about some of the richest companies in the world that expect you to subsidize their employees.
Corporations complain they will lose revenue
If you think what I just told you is ridiculous, just wait, because their other argument is even worse, and every taxpayer should feel insulted.
Their other argument is that citizens and non-citizens should not have benefit cuts because they won’t be able to buy stuff from the same corporations filing this brief. I’m serious.
“The Rule will sap the growth of the U.S. economy—leading to reduced prosperity for citizens and noncitizens alike. Because immigrants will receive fewer public benefits under the Rule, they will cut back their consumption of goods and services, depressing demand throughout the economy.”
Not only are corporations asking us to subsidize immigrants because they don’t want to pay them what an American would be getting paid, now they are saying that they should continue to receive these benefits because it helps these companies bottom line. Essentially, you’re subsidizing the money these corporations are making.
As I said, this is the biggest corporate social welfare scam I have ever seen, and you the taxpayer are the ones being shafted.
Closing
It amazes me that no one is really covering this story or paying attention. You are getting railroaded and need to wake up. This isn’t even really about immigration, although that’s a conversation we need to have. This is about how the corporations are working with our government to effectively screw you the people.
Your paying for these corporate elites, and then people wonder why I talk about a ruling class. Some corporations are completely taking advantage of the American people. They are importing workers to take American jobs. They pay them dirt and want you to subsidize their low by providing them with social welfare benefits. They don’t want the social welfare benefits, that you’re funding, to count against the person when determining if they are a public charge/burden to society. Then they want these social welfare benefits to continue so that these same people they claim they care about, can buy their products.
Imagine that, and I didn’t even get into how these successful, multi-million/billion-dollar corporations are able to avoid paying taxes through the variety of loopholes that exist so you are subsidizing them even further.
As always if there is a topic or issue you would like me to focus on, send an email to podcast@pasreport.com. Take a moment and write a review, and don’t forget to share this episode with others.
Thank you for joining us, stay safe, and I’ll be back next week.
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