CBO says immigration reform grows economy, reduces deficits

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate immigration bill grows the economy, cuts deficits, raises wages, legalizes eight million undocumented workers, makes the American workforce more productive, and adds more than 10 million workers to an aging economy.

That’s how Ezra Klein of the Washington Post sums up the new CBO report and here’s his description of the reaction from the “Gang of Eight” senators and immigration reform supporters:

“This isn't just a good CBO report. It's a wildly good CBO report. They're basically saying immigration reform is a free lunch: It cuts the deficit by growing the economy. It makes Americans better off and it makes immigrants better off. At a time when the U.S. economy desperately needs a bit of help, this bill, according to the CBO, helps. And politically, it forces opponents of the bill onto the ground they're least comfortable occupying: They have to argue that immigration reform is bad for cultural or ethical reasons rather than economic ones.”

While the bill increases spending by $262 billion over 10 years, it increases revenue by $459 billion, for a deficit reduction of $197 billion in total. Additionally, it projects $690 billion in deficit reduction in the second decade of implementation, from 2024 to 2033.

As is often the case on Capitol Hill these days, lawmakers praise CBO reports when the numbers help their cause. And when the numbers don’t back them up, they simply choose not to believe them.

“The bill's drafters relied on the same scoring gimmicks used by the Obamacare drafters to conceal its true cost from taxpayers and to manipulate the CBO score,” GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said in a statement.

Klein wrote on his Wonkbook blog that the CBO report will provide marginal help in rounding up Republican votes for the Senate immigration bill. But the biggest impact may be on the tone of the debate:

“Ultimately, the CBO report rips a layer of artifice from the immigration debate. Few critics of immigration reform really base their opposition on concerns about the deficit or the economy. Their real concern with immigration is cultural and sociological. But that’s dangerous political ground. It’s easier to frame opposition using the bloodless language of the budget than the combustible language of national character and composition.

“That’s the real damage the CBO did to the anti-immigration caucus. It took the bloodless language of the budget away from them. It left them only with their real concerns — the ones they’d prefer not to emphasize. That will perhaps lead to a slightly more truthful debate about immigration reform, but one that is much more dangerous for the anti-reform side, and for the Republican Party.”