Rubio's amnesty isn't just bad for America, it's the end of America

EVERYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE SAID

While the GOP sleepwalks toward amnesty, there are a few voices pushing back. Mickey Kaus' blogging has been invaluable. Rich Lowry had a good piece on Schumer taking Rubio to the cleaners. And Ann Coulter ruthlessly gets to the point and unties the entire package of absurdities.

Rubio keeps trotting out the canard about the bounty of taxes we're going to collect from millions more minimum-wage workers when illegals are legalized, stoutly asserting: "In order to keep this legal status, you must be gainfully employed and you must be paying taxes."

It's as if he's talking to someone who has never been to America and is unfamiliar with its tax system.

By "paying taxes," Rubio means "filing a tax return and getting a payment back from the government in the form of the earned income tax credit." Another term for what Rubio calls "paying taxes" is "receiving welfare" -- which newly legalized illegals will start receiving right away under Rubio's plan. The only tax they'll pay is the same tax they pay now: sales tax.

But, incomprehensibly, Rubio swore up and down that the newly legalized illegal immigrants won't get government benefits: "And then they don't qualify for any federal benefits. This is an important point. No federal benefits, no food stamps, no welfare, no Obamacare."

How on Earth does Rubio plan to enforce this "important point"?

Just three weeks ago, the U.S. Senate voted down a proposal to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving benefits under Obamacare. At the time, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez sneered at Republicans opposing Obamacare for illegals, saying, "This is not a great way to try to do your outreach to the Hispanic and immigrant community."

Forcing Republicans to spend the next two decades arguing that poor Hispanic children shouldn't have access to government benefits like health care and food programs sounds like a terrific way to win over the Hispanic vote!

Is it going to be easier or harder for Republicans to deny welfare to 20 million newly legalized illegal aliens than it is for them to simply say that people who have broken our laws should not be on a fast-track to citizenship?

Coulter is right of course. The premise that you can combine a sellout under pressure with any kind of enforcement or red line is ridiculous.

In California -- which will be America if Rubio's plan goes through -- 82 percent of households headed by an illegal immigrant are on welfare, as are 61 percent of households headed by legal immigrants, according to the March 2011 Current Population Survey by the Center for Immigration Studies.

If you think Republicans are Hispandering now, wait until the children of 20 million illegal aliens start to vote. Rubio's amnesty isn't just bad for America, it's the end of America.

If you're running for the border, then you're not in any position to take a stand. Not now. Not then.