Republican Presidential Candidates Divert Focus From Economy

"The biggest applause lines on the campaign trail usually have little to do with a candidate's economic positions...The absence of debate over the economy is perhaps most apparent in the increasingly contentious relationship between the GOP front-runners...Republicans give more attention to other issues – immigration, abortion and a candidate's religion – than Democrats and independents do."

Nearly 12 million illegal immigrants are estimated to be living in the United States. The vast majority work in low-skill, low-wage jobs. More than half work in construction, manufacturing or leisure and hospitality. he most respected recent studies show that most Americans would notice little difference in their paychecks if illegal immigrants suddenly disappeared from the United States. That's because most Americans don't directly compete with illegal immigrants for jobs.Illegal immigrants seem to have very little impact on unemployment rates. Undocumented workers certainly do take jobs that would otherwise go to legal workers. But undocumented workers also create demand that leads to new jobs. They buy food and cars and cell phones, they get haircuts and go to restaurants. On average, there is close to no net impact on the unemployment rate.

More than a third of illegal immigrants live in just three cities: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. But even in these places, economists believe there is minimal impact on wages. That's because many Americans from other parts of the country choose not to move to areas with large numbers of immigrants, because they want to avoid competing for jobs.

Illegal immigration has both negative and positive impacts on different parts of the economy. As noted above, wages for low-skilled workers go down. But that means the rest of America benefits by paying lower prices for things like restaurant meals, agricultural produce and construction. Another negative impact is on government expenditures. Since undocumented workers generally don't pay income taxes but do use schools and other government services, they are seen as a drain on government spending.The economic impact of illegal immigration is far smaller than other trends in the economy, such as the increasing use of automation in manufacturing or the growth in global trade. Those two factors have a much bigger impact on wages, prices and the health of the U.S. economy.

So it is about jobs, good paying jobs, that have been shipped with the factories to China. RIPublicans still don't get it. The only way to get those jobs back is to fix the tax code to make it more expensive to take money from the economy without putting anything back in, to export jobs to other countries and to import products that could and should be manufactured here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/republican-presidential-candidates_n_10...