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Shaw's Blog: Gallup Poll–Battleground State Nightmare for Obama

shawsblog2011.blogspot.com2/1/12

fox nation Today, Gallup released their aggregate state approvals for President Obama over the entirety of 2011. His drop relative to his 2009 standing is especially stark in battleground states. Here are some of the …

Webutante: Battleground States Show Sharp Decline For Obama

webutante07.blogspot.com2/1/12

Battleground States Show Sharp Decline For Obama. AS MITT ROMNEY MOPS UP IN FLORIDA TONIGHT, many of my fellow conservative commenters diss and whine about Romney's conservative qualifications, his …

The following data is from all of 2011, and 2012 is not looking any better.

The Good News For Obama

His political standing is in reasonable but not good shape in traditionally Democratic Midwestern battlegrounds such as Wisconsin and Michigan and the more Republican heartland state of Iowa where his rating is 46 approval/46 disapproval.

And his numbers in Virginia are better than those in other battleground states 45% approve, 49% disapprove.

His numbers in North Carolina 44/49 approve/disapprove and Florida 44/48 approve/disapprove and even in Georgia 45/48 approve/disapprove aren’t good, but given his overall numbers, they aren’t that bad either.

The Bad News For Obama

His job approval ratings in the other battleground states are solidly underwater however, and in many states, they are much worse than publicly perceived, mostly because of White House spin.

In Colorado, which is seen as a gateway to aggressively contesting the Southwest, Obama scored a net -12 job approval 40/52 throughout the year.

In Nevada, also seen as a major bellwether, Obama has a 41% approval rating, with 50% of respondents disapproving.

In the critical battleground state of Ohio, 50% of voters disapprove of his performance, with only 42% approving.

And in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, Obam’s job approval is underwater, with 45% approving and 48% disapproving.

More Bad News

New Mexico is seen as a Democratic-leaning state because of its voting history and its significant Hispanic population.

But Obama’s performance there, 42% favorable, 51% unfavorable, isn’t much different than his weak standing in the other Southwestern battlegrounds.

The Obama campaign argues that it has an outside shot at contesting Arizona, but his approval rating is at 40%, with 52% disapproving.

In New Hampshire, a state that John Kerry carried in 2004, Obama’s job approval is at 39%, with 54% disapproving, and it’s a state that with Romney heading the GOP ticket, is starting to look more and more out of reach.

So What Does Obama Have To Do To Win?

Based on the above numbers, the most plausible path for the president’s re-election runs through Virginia, Florida and Iowa, which isn’t a scenario that Team Obama drew up in its spin sessions, but if the polls are to be believed, then it’s likely the only way to go.

Obama Slaps Intimidation Lawsuit on South Carolina Over Illegals

www6.lexisnexis.com11/7/11

States and localities bear the brunt of the costs that illegal aliens impose on taxpayers. … State and local costs for services siphoned by illegal aliens and their anchor babies now total $391 million a year in South Carolina.

Illegal Aliens Not “Innocent Immigrants”; U.S., Dem. Party Wasting …

neosecularist.com1/27/12

Why would we want to reelect a man, Barack Obama, who would give the potential illegal alien that much more incentive to become a criminal illegal alien? Isn't it more cost-effective to the American taxpayer to advance a “no …

How Many Illegals In The US And What Is The Cost?

It’s obviously impossible to come up with exact figures because illegal aliens don’t reply to census questionnaires, but the U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz., says the total number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. today is somewhere between 12 million and 15 million.

And basing its figures on the "Current Population Survey", which is a monthly assessment of about 50,000 households jointly conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are between 11.5 million to 12 million "unauthorized migrants" living in the U.S. today.

Bear Stearns (download pdf) says however that based on school enrollments, foreign remittances, border crossings, and housing permits that, "there is significant evidence that the census estimates of undocumented immigrants may be capturing as little as half of the total undocumented population", meaning that there might well be as many as 20 million illegal immigrants in the US today.

How Much Are Illegal Aliens Costing The U.S. ?

The following estimates are in billions and not millions!

Illegal aliens are said to be costing the welfare system between $14 billion and $22 billion every year – Federation for American Immigration Reform

Medicaid use by illegal aliens costs the U.S. 7.5 billion every year- Center for Immigration Studies

In 2006, illegal aliens sent an estimated $65 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin, to their families and friends – rense.com

The following information was sourced from and interview on  - Lou Dobbs Tonight

Primary and secondary school  education for illegal aliens is said to be costing $12 billion dollars a year.

Anchor (American-born children of illegal aliens) children another $27 billion a year.

The incarceration of illegal aliens – $1.2 billion a year and 28% of all federal prison inmates are reckoned to be illegal aliens.

Every single year a massive $190 billion dollars is spent on welfare and social services for illegal aliens.

It is thought that illegal aliens cause American wages to be suppressed by around $200 billion dollars per year.

The above figures are not 100% accurate of course, but they’re based on extensive research, so it’s probably safe to say that illegal immigration is costing the U.S. around $500 billion a year and $500 billion is half a trillion dollars!

And How Much Do Illegal Immigrants Pay in Taxes?

Most experts agree that many illegal immigrants are paying taxes to Uncle Sam, but just how much they pay is hard to determine because the federal government doesn’t fully tally it.

"The latest available figures indicate however that it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year and one rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per year". – MSNBC

So What’s To Be Done?

Mass Deportation?

According to The National Policy Institute, the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, and you can download a free copy of the The National Policy Institute ebook entitled, deportation if you’re interested in more details.

How Much Overall Support Is There For Reducing Immigration?

What Steps Was It Recommended That The Government Take?

In 1995, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform asked the National Research Council / National Academy of Sciences to study the economic and fiscal effects of immigration.

Here are the principle findings of their extensive  analysis, published in 1997 as The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (ISBN 0-309-06356-6).

Their recommendations on Illegal Immigration were to.

Restrict the eligibility of illegal aliens for publicly-funded assistance.

Implement a nationwide system for easily verifying authorization to work (specifically, a computerized registry based on a secure
social security card).

Increase the resource for border management and interior enforcement.

Is There The Political Will To Implement Either Of The Above?

Obviously not, because in spite of a recent Pew survey (and all other polls that I’ve seen confirm it) showing that 73%of  those polled  approved of Arizona’s new immigration plan, and in spite of many other States wanting to adopt it, the Obama administration is seeking to have Arizona’s new law ruled unlawful.

The Answer To The Question

A Mexican journalist by the name of Evangelina Hernandez asked in Denver recently, "Illegal aliens pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes. What Happens to your country’s economy if 20 million people go away?".

The answer would of course be, that the U.S. would be close to $500 billion a year better off, and