Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, December 3, 2023
ISSUE #1184
Costly Immigrants, Perplexing Protesters, and Losing Our Heroes.

Congress reported last week that the cost to taxpayers is $451,000,000,000 per year to provide housing, food, and health services for illegal immigrants. No wonder the mayors of New York, Chicago and other cities are complaining about having to layoff police, teachers, and other providers of essential services to balance their budgets.

Think about that number for a while: $451 Billion. Do you remember when Congress refused to provide President Trump $25 Billion to “build a wall?” He somehow scrounged $15 Billion and built about 450 miles of a 30-foot wall.

Today, based on the cost of the completed portion, the total cost to finish the 1954 miles along the border with Mexico, where feasible, would be at least $100 Billion. If taxpayers were allowed to vote on this issue, they would surely favor finishing a secure border wall over spending almost half a Trillion a year to deal with illegal immigrants.

The stupidity of the rabid pro-Palestine protesters is baffling. And perplexing. Are they demanding that Hamas release the remaining 150 hostages? Are they demanding that Hamas terrorists surrender so the citizens of Gaza can live in peace with their neighbors? No. In fact, they never mention the hostages. Instead, they demand the elimination of Israel as they shout, “From the river to the sea.” (That means Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.)

How did young people in America get through school without learning about Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews? Don’t they know that the United Nations, in 1948, carved out a small slice of the Middle East to restore the ancient homeland of the Jews? The Land of Israel has been their home for 4000 years.

We keep losing our American heroes. Henry Kissinger died at 100. He was the Secretary of State for President Nixon and advised every president since. I bet the protestors don’t know that he was born in Germany, and came to the United States in 1938 as a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi persecution.

The first woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor, died this week at 93. She was a real cowgirl, growing up on an isolated ranch in Arizona. When she graduated from Stanford University with a Law degree in 1952, no law firm would hire her because she was a woman. Twenty-nine years later, she was a Supreme Court Justice.

Another prominent person who died last week was Charlie Munger, at 99. He was Warren Buffett’s partner in Berkshire Hathaway as they built the company to one of the largest in the world. Did he and Warren make brilliant investment decisions? Suppose you had bought one share of Berkshire Hathaway stock in 1973 for $80. Fifty years later, your one share is worth $540,000.

To show how smart I was, about that time I bought stock in Sears.

X

    Contact Randall Reeder