One of the differences between the current migrants coming into America and the migrants that came here during the first fifty years of the twentieth century is the welfare safety net. Until the 1960’s War on Poverty, the safety net was comprised of your neighbors and your local church. The government had nothing to do with keeping people fed or housed. Just for the record, we obviously lost the War on Poverty and we need to admit that and end it. Rand Paul may be on to something.
On Thursday, The Center Square reported:
With billions of American taxpayer dollars on the line, and funding for over a dozen welfare benefits for refugees set to continue, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is taking a stand.
Paul introduced the End Welfare for Non-Citizens Act to end taxpayer benefits for refugees, asylees and illegal immigrants.
As previously reported by The Center Square, nearly $6 billion in continual funding for refugees is poised to be approved.
Funding for the refugee program skyrocketed under the Biden administration as part of the Refugee and Entrant Assistant programs.
The funding rose from less than $2 billion in fiscal year 2021, the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term, to nearly $9 billion the next fiscal year – the first year of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Right now we have too many people sitting in the wagon and too few people pulling the wagon. It’s not right to take large sums of money from people who earned it and give it to people who did not.
The article concludes:
Congressionally appropriated spending on refugee and migrant assistance programs rose sharply under the Biden administration, totaling roughly $30 billion over those four years.
In particular, lawmakers significantly increased appropriations for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance programs – housed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – which provide benefits to eligible refugees.
In fiscal year 2021, the last year of Trump’s first term, Congress appropriated $1.91 billion for REA programs. That number shot up to $8.92 billion the following year, coinciding with the influx of Afghan refugees and record-high border crossings.
Total federal assistance for refugee programs in fiscal year 2023, however, reached $10 billion, as an OpenTheBooks investigation highlighted.
“With a national debt exceeding $38 trillion, Washington should not be running a welfare system on autopilot,” according to a release from the Rand’s office. “The End Welfare for Non-Citizens Act puts America First by stopping taxpayer dollars from being siphoned into benefits for non-citizens. If we want a sustainable safety net and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, this bill is a must-pass.”
Among his first acts upon his second inauguration in January 2025, Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, sayng “it would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
We cannot afford to continue doing what we are doing.