Can you believe it! Reuters is reporting on four anonymous leakers (inside and outside the Dept. of State) who are saying chief White House aide Stephen Miller is trying to skew numbers to make the refugee program look more expensive than they claim it is!
Most interesting to me is that a former State Department “official” is in on the effort to skewer Miller (and Trump of course!).
Can you say ‘Obama shadow government’!
Editor: Sorry I’m giving you a quicky post here. I am preparing for something this evening and have no time for more comment and analysis, except to say that getting at the true cost of the overall migration of impoverished third world refugees to middle America is almost impossible because in most states, the welfare offices do not track and separate out the different classes of immigrants using social services, medicare, or sending kids to school.
For federal budget planning, I’m guessing Miller is trying to get at the true cost to admit the refugees in the first place which is where the federal budget costs are initially incurred for decision-making needed by September.
Here is Reuters on the ‘Deep State’ undermining the White House (again!), getting more cocky by the day aren’t they!
Two studies that President Donald Trump hopes will buttress his case to cut the number of refugees are at the heart of a fight between senior White House adviser Stephen Miller and career U.S. government officials over immigration policy, four current and former officials said.
Trump in March ordered the U.S. State Department and other agencies to tally only the costs of resettling refugees but not the benefits that policy experts said refugees can also bring, including tax revenues, professional skills and job creation. [Virtually impossible, and are we going to tally medicare, schools, housing, SSI and criminal justice system costs for how many years?—ed]
A current official said Miller had convened meetings with State Department staffers to discuss the refugee cost reports. When department specialists proposed including refugees’ economic contributions in the studies to produce a more balanced assessment, Miller rebuffed the idea, one current and one former U.S. official said.
The White House said Miller did not hold meetings on the specific subject of the cost reports and that Trump’s overall fiscal year 2018 budget proposal sought to “make transparent the net budgetary effects of immigration programs and policy.”
The current and former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believe, however, that the administration wants to help make a case to restrict refugee flows by creating a skewed analysis.
“It’s a policy outcome in search of a rationale,” said a former U.S. official familiar with the debate.
Continue reading here and prepare to be outraged!
Endnote: If Henshaw and Bartlett are not the leakers, they better find out who is! They are responsible for whoever is talking to the press! Like it or not, they work for President Donald Trump!
