Stats just distract from broader issue

Wednesday’s opinion page was interesting. Josh Hoxie, director of the Project on Taxation and Opportunity at the ultra-liberal Institute for Policy Studies, makes his argument that, as his headline states, “Undocumented immigrants more than pay their way.”

As liberals always do, he dumps a couple pounds of statistics on the reader, hoping that he or she isn’t interested enough to either check for accuracy or consider the broader issue. In this case, Hoxie does a good job of illustrating one side (only one side) of the equation but omits any mention of the costs that undocumented immigrants generate as well.

His primary source? The “nonpartisan Institute on Taxes and Economic Policy.” Nonpartisan? I’ll let you investigate that claim, but suffice to say it is one of the “go-to” stat generators for liberals seeking to get into your wallet (assuming you pay taxes).

Of course, mixed in with this left-oriented work of propaganda is the requisite hit job on the new president, mentioning that many uninvited immigrants pay more (tax rate percentage) than President Trump does. The relevance of that is left to the reader to decide.

I can find no credible study that puts the “balance sheet” for government payments to unauthorized immigrants in the “black.” None. Hoxie likely knows this, but, being a good liberal, he ignores that altogether.

And so, his headline goes beyond misdirection; it’s dishonest. Linda Smith Casselberry