In The Mouse That Roared, a 1955 comic novel by Leonard Wibberley, a tiny English-speaking country in Europe loses market share for its only export, a wine label, to a cheap American knock-off. Seeking compensation for the loss, the duchy decides to do the only rational thing: declare war on America, and then, after the inevitable defeat, reap the rewards of reconstruction financing.
I was reminded of the book when reading about another of the Obama Administration’s subsidy programs, uncovered by Sen. Rand Paul. The program gives money to illegal aliens deported to their country of origin, El Salvador, to start small businesses.
Sort of a Small Business Administration program for deportees.
But Congress’s involvement is nil, and the SBA has nothing to do with it, either. The program, according to the Rand Paul press release, “is administered by the non-profit Instituto Salvadorno Del Migrante (INSMI — translated to Institute of Salvadorian Migrants) and funded through a $50,000 grant from the taxpayer-backed Inter-American Foundation.”
It is not big money, certainly not by profligate Washington standards. Nor is the premise of the program likely to win it praise from anyone looking for a solution to illegal immigration. Indeed, the best way to describe the program is how Rand Paul’s team did describe it: “absurd.”
In The Mouse That Roared, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick makes a crucial mistake in its plan to profit from American largesse: it wins the war.
But some things haven’t changed since then. The American government throws around money absurdly.
And little countries make fools of Big America.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Subsidizing Illegal Aliens”
.… little countries make fools of Big America’s little politicians and bureaucrats .…
America suffers dreadfully around the Earth in large part due to the fact most countries are dictatorships and/or are otherwise so authoritarian there is only one employer in town — the government — and it gets the absolute cream of the crop and all of the competence. In America, twenty-five thousand of the world’s best businesses, companies and corporations fish the American talent pool before the government gets to sift through what’s Left.
And, having, for decades, all around the world, worked with them and alongside of them , I can attest to the fact We The Sovereign American People and our nation are the worst-represented,by our public servants, politicians and bureaucrats alike, on Earth! In any number of negotiations in which I’ve participated and/or have been privy to the discussions, there’s been a One Hundred IQ Point differential between the leading foreigner and our ambassador and/or Deputy Chief of Mission.
Brian Richard Allen
To Brian: Darn scary observation. However I do not think it is unlikely form the results we ordinary people can see.