host: robert rector? guest: immigrants come here for economic opportunity but they also get a lot of welfare. the largest group that receives the most welfare group happen to be legal immigrants, particularly the lower- skilled illegal immigrants. that cost is going to cost over four trillion dollars altogether. the reality is that every time you have a high school dropout in the united states, it doesn't matter if it is an immigrant, if that individual produces twice as much productivity as they receive in wages and therefore they would have us believe that the illegal immigrants boost the standard of living of u.s. citizens by 1%, it would also follow the high school dropout that report here in the united-- that were born here in the united states, raised the standard of living of other americans through their externalities', they raised your standard of living by 10%, according to that assumption. host: derek is on the line from minnesota. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you. this is the epitome o

robert rector if we took the millions who will are already in the u.s.out of status and made a large number of them legal residents, what are the major costs involved? >> well, one of the things that the bill does when you grant legalization is you're granting 10 until to 11 million people who are current legal access to a wide range of government benefits, such as obamacare, over 80 means-tested welfare programs, such as medicaid and food stamps, ultimately to social security and medicare. the 11 million immigrants have an average education level of tenth grade so they pay very little and will pay very little in taxes. they are inherently net beneficiaries. therefore, when you grant them access to all of these programs it's extremely expensive to other taxpayers in want united states. >> suarez: robert lifn, do you agree there are a lot of costs involved bringing people into a legal framework. >> there are costs but the benefits far exceed the costs. what we know is every time in the passed when we have legalized immigrants here undocument, we have seen

. >> robert rector told us that amnesty costs a fortune. amnesty could also cost something more than just money. it could cost a nation. >> don't come in to be a taker. come in to be a giver. and if you'll come in to be a giver, give us your tired, your poor, because we'll give you a chance to work. but we should not be giving a chance to be a taker. >> wow. that was a rally on capitol hill today hosted by conservative republicans as you can tell. much of their volume focused primarily around the cost of immigration reform. you might remember robert rector. who you saw in that clip. he was part of a duo at the heritage foundation to put together awhile back estimating amnesty would cost taxpayers over $6 trillion. the study was used as a rallying cry for conservatives even though it got panned by economists who questioned its methodology. well, you might also remember the other co-author of the study. was a guy by the name of jason rich wine who had to resign from the foundation after he argued that hispanic immigrants had substantially low

you might remember robert rector.part of a duo at the heritage foundation to put together awhile back estimating amnesty would cost taxpayers over $6 trillion. the study was used as a rallying cry for conservatives even though it got panned by economists who questioned its methodology. well, you might also remember the other co-thor of the study was a guy by the name of jason rich wine who had to resign from the foundation after he argued that hispanic immigrants had substantial little lower iqs. last night the budget office put out a report challenging other critics who argued it would cost too much. $900 billion, that's the amount of the immigration bill will reduce the deficit over the next 20 years. 25% that's the estimated reduction in illegal border crossings pr this bill because it will be more effective at stopping illegal crossing. in total the bill would grant legal status to an estimated 8 million illegals. the bill has been put on life support. yesterday a much bigger story, republican speaker john boehner

host: robert rector? fort: immigrants come here economic opportunity but they also get a lot of welfare. the largest group that receives the most welfare group happen to be legal immigrants, portico the low-skilled legal immigrants. the lower-arly skilled illegal immigrants. that cost is going to cost over four trillion dollars altogether. every time is that you have a high school dropout in the united states, it doesn't matter if it is an immigrant, if that individual produces twice as much productivity as they receive in wages and therefore they would have us believe that the illegal immigrants boost the standard of living of u.s. citizens by 1%, it would also follow the high school dropout that report here in the united states, raised the standard of living of other americans through their externalities', they raised your standard of living by 10%, according to that assumption. derek is on the line from minnesota. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you. this is the epitome of why our country is ridic

tomorrow on "washington journal," robert rector and alex nowretah debate immigration policy.ck will set the congressional agenda before the july 4 recess. then a discussion on the recent iranian presidential election. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> in a lot of ways, this is a challenging time for conservatives. we've got not only a democratic president but quite a liberal democratic resident who is not -- who has not only been elected but relented after putting into play some ideas and programs and projects that i think are very wrongheaded. the public had a chance to think about that, and they did reelect him. it is a challenging time. it is also an exciting time if what you are trying to do -- many others are trying to do it, modernize conservatism, bring it into line with the challenges the country faces now. to help conservatives and the country think about how to confront the challenges of the 21st century. neither side in our politics is doing a very good job of that. there is a lot of opportunity for thinking about what america in the 21st

. >> well, i think the best study in this regard is by an expert named robert rector of the heritageoundation. he thought, given the folks that will be legalized, it will cost the taxpayers more than new revenues into the treasury. we went through a very deliberate process to come to those conclusions. and the net negative impact is billions of dollars. so i'm very concerned about that side as well. lori: you also point out some of these pet projects are eyebrow raised. south carolina republican center lindsay gramm once more for the meat industry. senator charles schumer pressed for special treatment for irish workers. such arubia looking for help from the cruise ship industry. does this suggest to you that these lawmakers may be more interested in keeping their jobs? >> well, i don't know. i bought your march were supposed to be banned, but maybe he's -- their special interest provisions for themselves, their states, very narrow provisions that clearly came out of this gang of eight, their individual states. so there is something going on. lori: so as you know, they fell short of 7

. >> tomorrow, robert rector and lex nowrasteh debate immigration policy. bob cusack discusses congressional issues. and a discussion of the recent iranian presidential election. live sunday at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> in a way this is a challenging time for people who are conservatives. we have not only a democratic president but i think a quite liberal democratic president who has not only been elected but re-elected after putting in some kids and projects that i think are very wrong held. the public had a chance to think about that and they did re-elect history so it's a challenging time but it's also an exciting time if what you're trying to do -- i'd say i'm trying to do and many others are is modernize conservatism. bring it in line to the challenges the country faces now. neither side in our politics, neither party is doing a very good job of confronting the problems. there's a lot of opportunities for thinking about what america in the 21st century needs to change about the way it governs itself to get back to economic growth, prosperity, a kind o

so i would suggest these people who are attacking robert rector or the heritage foundation or the people that are making allegations that the rector report's not dynamically scored, go in there and dynamically score the rector report then. tell me, what is your number? it's not good enough just to criticize somebody else's data without actually addressing the data. what's your number? how much do you think the gangs of eight bills are going to cost the taxpayers for the people who would be legalized instantly? how much? and then they say, i want more legal immigration, more legal immigration. and you could ask them, how many are coming in here legally now? most of them who make such a statement would be stumped, mr. speaker. they don't know. if you don't know how many people are coming in here legally, say over the last decade, how can you assert whether there should be more or less? and, if they think -- if they do know the number, then i would say to them, you'd think there should be more legal immigration, how many is enough? how many is too many? there's two more stumping questions i

on "washington journal" robert rector and all lex nowrrasteh debate the mmigration policy. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. the senate returns on monday at noon to debate on the immigration bill. senate majority leader harry reid has set a bill to debate the bill. that is at 5:30 eastern. the final passage of the bill is expected some time next week. live coverage of the senate when they return on monday on c-span2. the house returns on tuesday at 2:00 p.m. eastern. they are going to take up oil drill and agriculture spending. live coverage when they return here on c-span. friday president obama nominated james comey as the director of the f.b.i. he served deputy attorney general under president george w. bush. from the white house, this is ust over 10 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, accompanied by mr. bob mueller and mr. jim comey. >> good afternoon, everybody. these have a seat. for more than a century, we have counted on the dedicated men and women of the fbi to keep us safe. in that time, the fbi has been le

robert rector's study at the heritage foundation and both of them did stellar work yesterday, his study only con tell late ps 11 spnt 5 -- 11.5 million people, the reduced number, the boiled down number of those we know are here, it essentially reflects off the united states census. that's the people who admit they're here when you ask them, are you here illegally? a number approach 1g1 million said yes, i am, i confess. we know in the 1986 amnesty act, with roughly a million people anticipated it became over three million people. use the 3-1 multiplier that does reflect pretty close and it's not the formula used by numbers u.s.a. that formula is a kearful formula that calculates family reunification and the record we have on human activity on how they react to the legislative changes that take place. but if the formula was one three and 86, it became million, those with came in before the amnesty act was signed or after it was tine signed to take part in that and lied about when they came here, the one million became three million. it doesn't stretch my imagination to see that the 11 m

robert rector from the conservative think tank in washington, d.c., a study in , he was heavily involved in crafting the welfare reform bill for u.s. taxpayers. is also focused on how to fix american immigration and focus on the broad overhaul of 2007. his recent paper, the fiscal cost of amnesty to the u.s. taxpayer, looks of the ethics created by the program as $6.30 trillion. fromlds a master's degree johns hopkins university. now i would like to turn it over to our panelists for some brief opening statements. look at the economic costs and benefits of immigration reform. analysissis of my starts from the understanding of the redistributive nature of government. to psychoanalysis applies government in general. i look at total taxes paid in and all the benefits paid by individuals, including national defense, looking essentially of how much is redistributive from the upper class to the bottom half of the population. is roughly $1 trillion transferred from the top to the bottom, not particularly controversial. the other thing that i showed this startling, the average household in the un