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What's 'Immoral' About Caring for America's Poor First? - Real Clear Politics

Congressional Democrats are butting heads with President Donald Trump over his demand for $5 billion to continue building a wall along the southern border. Rep. Nancy Pelosi vows not one dollar will go for a wall. She calls the idea of a wall "immoral."

Not building the wall is what's truly immoral. Allowing destitute, uneducated people with limited job prospects to flood across the southern border into the United States forces taxpayers here to toil longer and pay more in taxes to feed and house them, accommodate their children in public schools and pay for their medical care. For the same reason, Trump is also proposing that only immigrants who can support themselves without government handouts be granted green cards and permanent status.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman warned two decades ago that America could have open borders or a generous welfare system -- but not both. Open borders benefit a growing economy by providing a source of labor. But that works only so long as immigrants are barred from government benefits.

News on the Home Front

Trump to sign executive order promoting 'opportunity zones' in distressed towns - Washington Times

President Trump is signing an executive order Wednesday to create a new White House council for promoting private investment in "opportunity zones" in more than 8,000 distressed communities across the United States. The council, to be chaired by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, will help streamline applications for communities to qualify for the investments, White House officials said. "It allows more Americans to share in the economic success of this country," said Jeron Smith, assistant to the president for legislative affairs.

The 2017 tax reform law included provisions for opportunity zones by allowing for capital-gains tax cuts for investors who provide funds to revitalize depressed communities. Mr. Smith said 35 million people live in the 8,000 cities and towns identified so far, and the poverty rate is nearly double the national average in those communities. The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council will coordinate 13 federal Cabinet agencies to focus existing federal programs on the new zones and streamline applications.