Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills, authors of a recent study on Comprehensive Immigration Reform have been promoting the Obama administration’s position on CIR. They are encouraging business owners to become more involved in the issue by contacting their representatives while congress is in recess.
Muñoz, author of “The Economic Benefits of Fixing Our Broken Immigration System” has outlined several important points in her study. These findings investigate economic effects of CIR. Some of the important points are as follows:
• Implementing the Senate CIR would increase the Social Security Trust Fund by $300 million over a ten year timespan and would also allow the system to remain solvent for two more years.
• The Federal Budget Deficit would be decreased by approximately $850 billion over a 20 year period. The federal debt would also be decreased by three percentage points 2023.
• The Senate CIT bill would strengthen the labor force by an additional 3.5% in the year 2023 and an additional 5% in the year 2033. This boost in capital investment would help stimulate higher wages.
• Estimates state that implementing CIR would increase real GDP by 3.3% in 2023 and an additional 5.4% in 2033 or $700 billion in 2023 and $1.4 trillion in 2033
The importance of personal involvement with members of congress is to create more familiarity and although meaningful reform is an actual possibility, there are still many obstacles in its way. Small businesses are mobilizing in order to strengthen the push for CIR. They are supporting CIR because it will strengthen small businesses financially by giving more funds to consumer spending.
Although long term economic growth is an important factor, it should not take attention away from the short-term economic growth that CIR would have by strengthening immigrant entrepreneurship. According to current experts in the field, immigrants are three times more likely to start a business when compared to native-born individuals. As stated by the Partnership for a New American Economy, in 2011, immigrants started 28 percent of new businesses while only making up 13% of the U.S. population.
Supporters of CIR hold firm to the belief that if implemented, this reform will lead to massive revenue gained from small businesses and state and federal taxes. Let’s hope that supporters of CIR follow Ms. Muñoz’s advice and voice their desires directly to their federal representatives.
