welcome back to hardball. there are 11 million people in this country illegally right now, we know, so what would be the cost of the government allowing them to become full participating citizens? well, the conservative heritage foundation says the cost of legalizing those people, as outlined in gang of eight immigration bill, being led by senators rubio, schumer, mccain, and others, could be in the trillions. in fact, up around 6 trillion. here s what heritage foundation president, jim demint, former senator, said today. we need an immigration process that attracts workers our economy needs, and encourages patriotic assimilation to unite new immigrants with america s vibrant civil society. let s be clear, amnesty for those who are here unlawfully is not necessary to capture those benefits. our analysis shows that taxpayers, including immigrants who ve come here lawfully, will be saddled with $6.3 trillion in cost over the next 50 years.
being honored as civil iian med of honor recipients. in their ordinary lives, doing their everyday jobs, teachers and staff of sandy hook elementary set themselves apart by paying that ultimate sacrifice in the protection of their students. educators families received the awards on the victim s behalf. they say it chose the women to receive its citizen honors medal, highest honor it gives to a civilian, after receiving several nominations duri s for actions during the shooting. creating a rift on how to move forward with immigration reform. led by former senator jim demint, the immigration bill would cost u.s. taxpayers, $6.3 trillion because 11 million immigrants would be eligible for
social security and medicare, i mean the average cost of an unlawful immigrant is hundreds of thousands of dollars. that s a net cost. they pay some taxes, but what they takeout of the tax system is much, much greater, and the toel total is $6.3 trillion over the next 50-year period. you can t get around these costs. congress is not considering the costs. it s unfair to those who came here lawfully and the bill itself, we believe, after really a thorough analysis is going to make our immigration system worse. martha: you say that you are in favor of immigration reform. so what kind of reform would you like to see, and how would your version not be as costly as you say this one is? well, first of all, you don t need an amnesty in order to implement reforms and get the benefit of reforms. we know our country was built by lawful immigration system, but
ten-year window, but the average unlawful immigrant is 34 years old, the actual actuaries say they ll live to 84, a 50-year period. the cost is 6.3 trillion, and the current american taxpayers have to pay for that. neil: of course, many of the critics of the study, said, well, republicansing for get to dynamic accounting, something they wanted when it came to calculating the benefits of tax cuts cuts and he the like, but they re not when it comes to whatever illegals, who eventually find a pathway to citizenship, bring to the economy, in terms of taxes they pay and what they contribute to the economy. so, what do you say to that? well, neil, the unlawful immigrants contribute to more than 2% to our economy. our gdp, and most of that accrues to them. if you look at the cost of 6.3 trillion, there is no way under any kind of dynamic or
neil: $6.3 trillion. that s the price of this new immigration law they re band using about here and that pricey addons including to have same-sex couples represented could drive the price up more. the heritage foundation came up with the president. senator, good to have you. . hey, neil harwell does that include whatever tax revenue you get from illegals once the make their way to becoming legal? yes, it does. the difference between what they take out of the system and what they put into it is 6.3 trillion. so, there is certainly some taxes paids some new revenue when they become legalized but they actually take more out of the system opposite they become legal, and over a 50-year period, this is something they re not talking about. they re trying to talk about a