Since the numbers don’t fit
Trump’s bias, the study has been stuck in a drawer.
Trump administration officials who
were under pressure from the White House scrapped a study which found that
refugees had brought in more government revenue overall than they had cost in
benefits, the New York Times reports.
The Trump administration has been
unable to rationalize its move to reduce the number of refugees allowed into
the United States next year, so it rejected a study by the Department of Health
and Human Services which concluded that refugees brought in $63 billion more in
government revenues over the past ten years than they cost.
The New York Times reports:
The draft report, which was obtained by The New York Times, contradicts a central argument made by advocates of deep cuts in refugee totals as President Trump faces an Oct. 1 deadline to decide on an allowable number. The issue has sparked intense debate within his administration as opponents of the program, led by Mr. Trump’s chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, assert that continuing to welcome refugees is too costly and raises concerns about terrorism.
Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer has claimed that he was a mentor of Stephen Miller’s and said that his mentee is a white nationalist. Miller denied that affiliation with Spencer, but his actions prove that he’s an extremist.
The study concluded that refugees
“contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of
government” between 2005 and 2014 via the payment of federal, state and local
taxes. “Overall, this report estimated that the net fiscal impact of refugees
was positive over the 10-year period, at $63 billion.”
The White House claims that the study
was politically motivated.
“This
leak was delivered by someone with an ideological agenda, not someone looking
at hard data,” a White House spokesman said. “The actual report pursuant to the
presidential memorandum shows that refugees with few skills coming from
war-torn countries take more government benefits from the Department of Health
and Human Services than the average population, and are not a net benefit to
the U.S. economy.”
According to two sources, Miller
personally intervened to ensure that only the costs — and not any fiscal
benefit — of the program were considered, so it appears that he intentionally
left out a few major details.
Trump has filled his administration with
swamp-like creatures, including Steve Bannon, who once played a large role in
the White House, and Stephen Miller who still occupies Trump’s ear.
Author Conover Kennard makes tea partiers cry as a hobby. She was Commander of Jade
Helm15 during the failed takeover of the South. She's also one of the biggest
arseholes on Twitter. At night, she can be found drinking Conservative tears
while pulling off the wings of flies just because she can. She is the founder
of a Marxist, Commie, Maoist, Socialist site and has contributed to several
other sites, blah blah blah. She is an awful person but she doesn't like to
brag about that.