Opinion: Tony Snow’s bad news
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Before he disappointed me by taking the job as chief White House spokesman, Tony Snow was one of the sharpest and most lucid conservative commentators in contemporary media. It was encouraging that he seemed to have weathered his 2005 battle with the big C, and I’m sad to see that his cancer has spread. He has been a rare example of somebody who stakes out a position for the Republicans or the Democrats and still manages to remain interesting, and even, dare I say, unorthodox. Dig the defense of illegal immigrants he gave to Reason back in the day, before taking a job where such frankness tends to be frowned upon:
Immigration is not the pox neo-Know Nothings make it out to be. Begin with the astounding influx of illegal immigrants, the vast majority of whom hail from Mexico. While the population includes an eye-popping number of crooks, drug dealers, and would-be welfare sponges, it also provides a helpful prop for sustaining American economic growth and cultural dynamism. Princeton University sociologist Douglas S. Massey reports that 62 percent of illegal immigrants pay income taxes (via withholding) and 66 percent contribute to Social Security. Forbes magazine notes that Mexican illegals aren’t clogging up the social-services system: Only 5 percent receive food stamps or unemployment assistance; 10 percent send kids to public schools. Skeptics counter that immigrants have clogged our hospitals, which is true—but primarily in places that offer lavish benefits to illegal immigrants.
(This last point, by the way, is always worth considering when you wonder why the immigration debate is so much more virulent in California than it is in other states.) Snow and the White House are giving the standard we’ll-lick-this-thing bromides, and I wish him the best in his fight—though as Michael McGough noted the other day, relapses are pretty much the worst news you can get. Here’s hoping Snow will still be around for a post-White House career.