US can control immigration, end tax breaks for seniors and other commentary

Border patrol: US Can Control Immigration

For all the claims “that it’s impossible to rein in illegal immigration” without “comprehensive immigration reform,” observes Jeffrey H. Anderson at City Journal, “The Congressional Budget Office has recently made clear that all it really takes is a president willing to enforce federal immigration laws.”

Just before President Trump took office, “the CBO estimated that a net 1.1 million ‘other foreign nationals’” — that is, illegal migrants — “would be added to the US population in 2025. Now the CBO has revised that estimate downward by a whopping 1.5 million”: not a 1.1 million increase but a drop of  360,000.

Why? The CBO points to Trump policies, especially requiring asylum seekers to leave the country to apply.

That is, Trump stopped the “lawless practice of releasing illegal aliens into the US interior.”

Contrary to Kamala Harris and The Wall Street Journal editorial board, “fixing the problem required only executing the laws already on the books.”

Libertarian: End Tax Breaks for Seniors

The idea of “expanding property tax breaks for senior citizens” is “bad policy,” argues Reason’s Eric Boehm, yet seems to be “gaining traction” as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wants them exempted from property taxes.

No! Seniors are “wealthier than average,” get “outsized government benefits” like Social Security and Medicare and already benefit from many special tax breaks.

Making it easier for them to remain in their empty nests drives up prices for younger Americans. Rather than hand more breaks to seniors, we should reverse those already on the books.

“Seniors should pay property taxes, just like everyone else.”

Health beat: Dems Should Back Fighting Fraud

“Vice President JD Vance has made health care a central focus of the Trump administration’s anti-fraud agenda,” cheer the Washington Examiner’s editors, but Democrats “are reflexively treating every enforcement action as a partisan attack.”

Why? Such fraud is “a direct threat to elderly, poor and disabled people.”

Dems’ resistance to efforts to fight fraud “probably says much about their guilty consciences” over enabling this theft — but they, of all people, “should care about fraud because its prevalence undermines support and further funding of the programs they cherish.”

Sure, “insist that enforcement be accurate and fair, and protect legitimate care, but they should stop treating anti-fraud work as a Trump plot.”

Hate watch: Targeting Helen Mirren

“There is no low to which those pathologically obsessed with the state of Israel won’t stoop in order to intimidate and denigrate their opponents,” including “the elderly actress Helen Mirren,” huffs Spiked’s Hugo Timms.

She’s not “Jewish, but she supports the existence of the Jewish state,” portrayed “Golda Meir in a 2023 biopic” and “has spoken out against the boycotts” of Israel.

Now viral video shows an “anti-Zionist” loudly harassing Mirren and her husband on a London street, “yet further proof of what a twisted and deranged ideology anti-Zionism can be.”

If this hate is so warped that “yelling at an elderly woman and her husband is a noble action,” then “we are in a very dark place indeed.”

Eye on energy: Renewable-Power Push Spikes Costs

“Electricity prices are spiking, our power grid is struggling and it’s all Jimmy Carter’s fault,” grumbles James B. Meigs at The Wall Street Journal.

“For decades, federal and state policies nudged operators to retire dependable coal, gas and nuclear plants and replace that electricity with wind and solar power.”

It started when Carter suggested weaning “the US off energy imports” in favor of renewable power, “including solar, wind and biomass.”

The “price of renewable electricity doesn’t account for the huge expense of integrating massive surges of wind and solar power into our current grid.”

And vast battery banks for power storage is “yet another infrastructure expense needed to make wind and solar work.”

Energy policy must be “guided by engineering and economic reality — not politically motivated wishcasting.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board