Immigration Bill Would Slash Deficit, Congressional Budget Office Finds

[Bill USA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/us/politics/boehner-says-he-wont-push-through-an-immigration-bill.html?_r=0


WASHINGTON — Congressional budget analysts said Tuesday that legislation to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws would cut close to $1 trillion from the federal deficit over the next two decades and lead to more than 10 million new legal residents in the country.

A long-awaited analysis by the Congressional Budget Office found that the benefits of an increase in legal residents from immigration legislation currently being debated in the Senate — which includes a pathway to citizenship — would outweigh the costs.

The report estimates that in the first decade after the immigration bill is carried out, the net effect of adding millions of additional taxpayers would decrease the federal budget deficit by $197 billion, even with higher spending on border security and government benefits. Over the next decade, the report found, the deficit reduction would be even greater — an estimated $700 billion, from 2024 to 2033.

The report was quickly seized on by backers of the bill as a boost to its prospects. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and one of the bill’s authors, said the report “debunks the idea that immigration reform is anything other than a boon to our economy.”
(more)