legalizing immigration is going to cost the country trillions and trillions of dollars. gretchen: stuart varney, host of varney and company on the fox business network, here to break it down. the big number is $6 trillion. $6.3 trillion. you cannot dismiss heritage as a fringe group. they are very much mainstream. you cannot dismiss that number because it is going to be dropped into the middle of the immigration debate. it is going to have impact. basically here s what heritage is saying. if you have mass immigration of low-skilled people, it will cost your society a lot of money if you ve got a welfare state. you re going to be paying out all kinds of benefits to this mass immigration that arrives on our shores. gretchen: what they re talking about is if this bill is passed, some sort of immigration bill that would make the 11-million plus people who are here illegally now suddenly legal. i m not going to say there are holes to the study but caveats.
by the peterson foundation is underway discussing how america can get back on the path to prosperity and past the gridlock happening in congress. a few hours ago i moderated the key note conversation between president bill clinton and bill gates. the focus, shaping america s future. major trends, new ideas and big decisions. we discussed the most powerful trends facing this country is assessed how today s policy decisions will shape the future of america. from the current immigration debate and of course, the budget battle. you say that the health care debate is being shoehorned into the budget debate. one might also say that s happening as well with immigration reform. you recently said you expect it to pass but you also said it will help improve the u.s. economy. you might also know that there was a report out yesterday, heritage foundation says $6.3 trillion in new spending in
congress. yes, they can. thank you, kasie hunt. good reporting. coming up, opposing immigration reform. jim demint s heritage foundation claims immigration reform will cost $6.3 trillion. well, that s a lot. heritage s fuzzy math, you might call it, is being challenged. it s being used by the hard right to kill reform which a lot of republicans think is needed to save their party. so they d like to get it off their back, but yet they re trying to kill it. you figure. also, tomorrow s election day in south carolina. looks like we could see a big turnaround in that race. a ppp poll has mark sanford up now by one point over elizabeth colbert. by the way, that s a ten-point net pickup in sanford s favorite in just two weeks. so he might just win tomorrow. who knows. and our series the unkindest cut on the real damage those sequestration cuts are actually doing. tonight, kids being turned away from head start. a great american program. is this a smart way to save money? hurting
she said to me it will be in her hands before the end of the day. so we will know more about his work history by the close of business today. his work history. i want to emphasize, his work history as of all things, a bus driver, a school bus driver. of children. and that 2004 incident allegedly left a child on the bus. so what had happened was child protective family services knocked at the door but no one answered. so it went through the investigative process. they did not find, you know, that he did anything wrong basically. so that case against him was dropped. never moved forward. wow! michelle sigona, clint van zandt, i appreciate you joining us. michelle, thanks a lot. still ahead, my conversation earlier today with former president bill clinton and philanthropist bill gates on shaping america s financial future. there was a report just out yesterday. heritage foundation said 6.3
into committee. republicans could try to torpedo the bill with hundreds of amendments. conservative former senator jim demint is already trying to kill the bill. he rolled out a report putting the cost of immigration reform at $6.3 trillion, but even senators are saying that s not right. they don t the conservatives behind them. they don t. i m a conservative. grover norquist is a conservative. paul ryan, haley barbour all penned the study, but it s not just republican objections that could stop immigration reform. senator pat leahy could offer an amendment to let gay couples sponsor their immigrant partners, something that now all four republican members of the gang of eight have said will doom the bill. a lot of people want to kill the immigration bill no matter what. we will have votes on this.