Ted Cruz: You get a tax break for hiring a legalized illegal under Obamacare

**Posted by Phineas

The Senate voted yesterday to accept the Corker-Hoeven amendment to the immigration bill (really, the amendment is a replacement bill), so, naturally, senators hit the airwaves to explain their positions. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was interviewed on Sean Hannity’s show. It’s starts off as one of Hannity’s usual talking-points interviews, but then Senator Cruz makes a point I’d never heard before about the status of the would-be legalized under Obamcare. Watch the whole thing, it’s relatively short, and see if you don’t find yourself doing the same double-take I did,Β starting at about the 4:30 mark:

In other words, if the Senator is right, the “bipartisan” immigration bill creates a $5,000 incentive per employee for businesses to hire workers legalized under the immigration bill, in preference to citizens or legal immigrants.

The is one big example of why I dislike gargantuan “comprehensive” bills: there is always at least one bomb buried in some subsection, just waiting to go off. God alone knows why someone thought this would be a good idea, but it isn’t. If Cruz is correct, this stinks. It directly harms current Americans and legal immigrants in two ways: by not exempting them from that monstrosity, Obamacare, and by hamstringing them in the race for a job. The whole thing should be scrapped and each aspect dealt with as separate, easily read and comprehended bills, and only voted on after sufficient time for public comment and debate.

And then they should rename this crap sandwich the Senate is feeding us the “Congratulations On Avoiding La Migra Affirmative Action” bill.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)