Congressman Tom Tancredo said:

"The fact that we know that Social Security numbers are compromised, the fact that thousands of people, maybe millions of people, we don't know for sure how many people, filed an income tax form with a fake Social Security number -- we also know that there's absolutely no communication between the IRS and Social Security Administration."

Tancredo made that statement when we found out that the House-passed version of the Bush stimulus plan was going to pay a windfall of up to $28 billion to illegal aliens!

Then GOP Senator John Ensign said he could fix that glitch.  He proposed that only people possessing Social Security numbers be eligible for rebates. 

That solution looks good at first glance.  In fact, we applaud Senator Ensign's good faith effort.  Unfortunately, however, the so-called "Ensign Fix" will not fully correct the problem.   It's like plugging a leaky faucet with chewing gum.

As all 100 senators surely know, it's almost as easy to buy a Social Security number in some places as it is to buy a Big Mac.  According to some government estimates, the buying and selling of fake Social Security numbers is now a 50-billion-dollar-a-year business.

With as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the United States, we're talking about megabucks snatched out of the wallets of hard-working taxpaying American citizens.

If only 2 million -- that's 10% of that potential number of illegal aliens in the United States -- held fraudulent Social Security numbers, taxpayers would be bilked out of at least $1.6 BILLION in rebates!

But that's simply assuming each of these folks were single.  If they're married and have children (or if they simply claim to be married with children), that's BILLIONS MORE!

Oh, yes.  And you can add that to the estimated $338.3 billion American taxpayers like you and me already shell out each year on food stamps, Medicaid, free education, incarceration of alien criminals, and other government programs.

And when Uncle Sam cuts these illegal aliens their checks, two things will inevitably happen:

(1)         They will send most of this money back home and enrich the economies of other countries;

(2)         It will encourage more illegal border crossings.  With American taxpayers footing the bill -- handing out free welfare and now, cold hard cash -- why wouldn't more people cross our border illegally?

What Else Did Tancredo Say?

Here's what else Tancredo has said of the Ensign Fix:

"Unless language is added to the package that both expressly prohibits the issuance of rebate checks to illegal aliens and directs the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to share information and work together to prevent these payments from being made to illegal aliens, we will not address this glaring deficiency in the stimulus legislation."

Indeed Tancredo went to the heart of the matter when he said:

"Whether the total amount of checks cut to illegal aliens from the U.S. Treasury amounts to $600 or $6 billion, I do not believe the American public supports a stimulus package that reinforces the idea that there is really no difference between illegal aliens and American citizens.

Congressman John Shadegg (R-Arizona), a staunch conservative, said this:

"Simply put, the IRS has no way to know whether the individual who filed the tax return is an illegal alien or not.  As a result, it will issue checks to all illegal aliens who filed a return."

And according to a New York Times story from last April, the number of illegal aliens who file tax returns has risen recently to a record high.

So right now, how can we tell if we're giving rebates to citizens and not to economic poachers with false Social Security numbers?

We can't!

As Shadegg put it:

"It's a little like going out on Halloween and telling your babysitter that she should only give out candy to kids from your neighborhood.  But, she has no way of knowing which kids are from your neighborhood and which are from somewhere else, so she just gives it to all the kids who come to your house."

Press One For English And Two For Government Give-Aways.

Stop a moment and see what's happened as a consequence of our federal government continuing to turn a blind eye toward the 12-20 million illegal aliens currently in our country.

The President's stimulus package -- which was initially sold as a plan to give people rebates of monies they actually PAID in taxes -- is morphing into a flawed piece of legislation, another windfall for illegal aliens and a monstrous burden for Congress and the overtaxed American people.

Yet too many people on Capitol Hill are saying: "We've got a vital economy, a healthy population, and a safety net for the poor.  Come on up and ruin it for us!  We'll give you hundreds of millions of dollars.  All you have to do is show us a Social Security number."

You see, we're not only being forced to press "One" for English and "Two" for Spanish.  We're also compelled to question economic policy all because we have a massive illegal immigration problem in our country.

Illegal aliens have herded their children into our public schools, resulting in massive expenditures on bilingual education for children who can't speak English, while English-speaking American children have been forced to attend schools where only Spanish is spoken. According to the liberals, that's compassion.

Illegal aliens have glutted our health-care facilities, demanding and getting free medical care.  As a result, some hospitals have shut their doors and declared bankruptcy because federal law mandates that they treat indigent illegal aliens.  Hospitals shutting their doors?  Is that the liberals' idea of compassion?

And now we're being asked to spend millions, maybe billions more on illegal aliens under the guise of revving up our sluggish economy.  Giving money away -- on the backs of middle class Americans -- to people who are violating our laws and shouldn't be here in the first place?  I guess that's compassion too.

Congress Can and Must Act Now!

Again, we applaud Senator Ensign for his good-faith effort to prevent illegal aliens from receiving tax rebate checks.

But to repeat again what Congressman Tom Tancredo said:

"Unless language is added to the package that both expressly prohibits the issuance of rebate checks to illegal aliens and directs the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to share information and work together to prevent these payments from being made to illegal aliens, we will not address this glaring deficiency in the stimulus legislation."

Let's send the message loud and clear that the American people want this language added to the stimulus bill, and they want it now!

The time for talk and pandering is over.  The American people want action!