The Senate immigration bill contains language that would provide substantial federal funding for special interest groups and expose the government to legal fights — at taxpayers’ expense.

Heritage Foundation expert Hans von Spakovsky explains that in addition to costing American taxpayers, by granting funding to immigrant advocacy groups these provisions “could expose the government to costly litigation going forward.”

The legislation establishes a $50 million grant program for nonprofit organizations to assist applicants for legal residence. “These grants can be used for legal assistance and effectively commit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to providing grants for lawsuits against itself,” von Spakovsky explains.

In addition to these grants, the proposed bill includes very broad language granting legal services to aliens: Continue Reading »

Last week, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told Bloomberg Television that he would “probably not” support the Marketplace Fairness Act, an Internet sales tax bill that passed through the Senate by a 69–27 margin.

Boehner’s reasoning for not supporting the bill? “Moving this bill where you’ve got 50 different sales tax codes, it’s a mess out there,” he said. “You’re going to make it much more difficult for online retailers to be able to comply.”

Many small business owners are already frustrated by the complexity and high costs associated with the Internet sales tax. The Heritage Foundation has put together this infographic to highlight some of their concerns:

Do you think the complexity of the sales tax codes will over-burden small business owners?

Congress is holding hearings today about the September terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of four Americans. Heritage Foundation experts have identified several questions that remain unanswered and how to anticipate and mitigate similar threats in the future.

To get more graphics like this every day, like Heritage on Facebook.

Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint and Heritage expert Robert Rector shed light on the real cost of granting amnesty to illegal immigrants in today’s Washington Post:

For centuries immigration has been vital to our nation’s health, and it will be essential to our future success. Yet immigrants should come to our nation lawfully and should not impose additional fiscal costs on our overburdened taxpayers. An efficient and merit-based system would help our economy and lessen the burden on taxpayers, strengthening our nation.

A properly structured lawful immigration system holds the potential to drive positive economic growth and job creation. But amnesty for those here unlawfully is not necessary to capture those benefits . . .

An exhaustive study by the Heritage Foundation has found that after amnesty, current unlawful immigrants would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay more than $3 trillion in taxes over their lifetimes. That leaves a net fiscal deficit (benefits minus taxes) of $6.3 trillion. That deficit would have to be financed by increasing the government debt or raising taxes on U.S. citizens.

Do you think our nation’s taxpayers can afford to cover the $6.3 trillion cost of granting amnesty to illegal immigrants?