Is Our Conservative Think Tanks Learning, Massive Racism Edition

by evanmcmurry

So the coauthor of that Heritage Foundation study claiming that immigration reform will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion—a number that’s about $7.8 trillion too high, according to conservative estimates—turns out to be a giant racist. Whodathunk?

Here’s his thinking, via Jennifer Rubin*:

The average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations. The consequences are a lack of socioeconomic assimilation among low-IQ immigrant groups, more underclass behavior, less social trust, and an increase in the proportion of unskilled workers in the American labor market.

This isn’t irrelevant. The Heritage study gets its massively inflated figure in part by assuming immigrants will be on the welfare rolls their entire lives. Assuming they’re genetically inferior is a necessary precondition for that assumption.

You’ll recall in Heritage President Jim DeMint’s USA Today op-ed lambasting former BFF Marco Rubio over immigration that DeMint relied on a 2007 Heritage study by Robert Rector claiming reform will cost around $2.5 trillion, but promised breathlessly that new numbers were on their way. In other words, DeMint could tell his current figure wasn’t doing the trick, and he was casting about for someone who would give immigration a bigger price tag. Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess, though Heritage is now in full retreat mode.

* This blog gives Jennifer Rubin a lot of shit, but she’s been ruthless with the Heritage Foundation over this. Good on her.