13 Apr 2017 Cooper Debates Sanctuary Cities and Social Security

Who’s hypocritical, Democrats or Republicans, when it comes to immigration policy and the roles of state government and federal government?

Last night, Thom Hartmann – the host of “The Big Picture” on RT Network – cited a study indicating that there is a lower crime rate in sanctuary cities, and argued that the federal government thus shouldn’t force local communities to enforce federal immigration law.

Horace Cooper, the co-chair of Project 21 and legal fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, noted that the Obama Administration opposed federalism by preventing Arizona cities from enforcing immigration law, and now Democrats are howling that cities can’t decide immigration policies for themselves.

“So you’d like to let the local community decide whether or not they’d like that [crime rate] benefit, but you don’t want to let the cities of Scottsdale or Phoenix decide, ‘we’d like to not have our schools overwhelmed by people that aren’t lawful residents,’” responded Cooper.

Hartmann and Cooper also discussed a proposal to do away with the payroll tax to fund Social Security. Hartmann opposes it because he doesn’t want Social Security to be funded by general revenue, which is considered discretionary spending subject to the budget process.

“I’m not convinced at all that we’re going to see Social Security stay the same as it was in 2016,” said Cooper. “Eventually we’re going to have to make changes.”

Hartmann responded that the Koch brothers should pay the same percentage toward Social Security as others have to.

Cooper’s response: “Our [Social Security] system caps the maximum that people can be paid, so of course it caps the maximum tax that they pay in…. If you don’t do that, then it’s the equivalent of just a general tax program.”

Cooper’s entire appearance can be viewed below.