RUSH: As a number of people want to weigh in now on the Gang of Eight immigration bill. The CBO report has come out on this bill (chuckling), and the way it’s being interpreted is laughable. The idea that this is gonna grow the economy? It’s almost an exact replay of Obamacare, particularly in the way the whole thing is being scored.

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RUSH: The controversy on this continues to ratchet up as the pressure is being brought to bear by Dingy Harry to get this thing signed and sent over to the House. So the latest thing that’s happened is the CBO report has been issued on its cost-benefit analysis, the impact on the deficit and so forth. And the first report I had, I want to share with you is from Reuters. And the headline: “Senate Immigration Bill to Aid Economy, Budget Office Says.”

I’m telling you, folks, this is just factually impossible, but I’ll share it with you. They start by writing: “A White House-backed bill to overhaul the U.S. immigration system got a boost on Tuesday when the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the measure would cut federal budget deficits and boost the US economy.” By the way, just like the CBO said Obamacare was gonna cut the deficit and lower the cost of health care. See, the CBO can only score what they’re given, and one of the tricks that’s being employed here — you know and I know, whatever number of illegal immigrants are at some point going to end up on welfare.

Now, the Gang of Eight bill prohibits newly, quote, unquote, legalized on the pathway to citizenship illegals from accessing Obamacare benefits or any other federal welfare benefits. However, they are not exempt from state welfare benefits. So they will end up, as a net expense increase, they will be, the newly arrived illegals — ask the people in California, even now. That’s what Prop 187 was all about. Even the children of illegals now get health care benefits, any number of welfare benefits, at the state level. So even if they’re denied federal welfare benefits does not mean they’re not gonna end up on welfare rolls. They will. Well, one of the tricks that they’ve employed here in the Gang of Eight bill is that eventually all these people will have access to federal benefits, but in this bill not for 10 years.

So, whatever economic benefit is said to derive from their being legalized is not being offset by any cost because there aren’t any costs for 10 years. It’s like Obamacare. The way they scored Obamacare to keep it under a trillion dollars a year was to do this: They said, “It’s a 10-year bill,” and remember, the magic number on Obamacare was a trillion dollars because the Iraq war cost around $900 billion, they said. The selling point for Obamacare was, “Hey, we’re just gonna replace the Iraq war costs with Obamacare.

“We’re gonna end the war, we’re gonna end up helping people, and it isn’t gonna cost additional dime from what we’re spending now.” So that figure of a trillion dollars or less than a trillion had to be kept. The way they did it is the taxes for Obamacare begin immediately upon signage (and that’s already happened, as you know) but the benefits to Obamacare don’t fully kick in for three years. So there are three additional years of taxes before any costs, before any expenses.

So what you had in Obamacare is 10 years of tax increases, but only seven years of benefits. And they were able, with that trick, to tell us that the cost would be under $1 trillion. Now of course that’s out the window. Now the CBO says the cost of Obamacare is up to $2 trillion now. I think it’s $1.8 trillion. What, Obamacare’s two years old? In just two years the cost has doubled from the original estimate? Well, hello! The identical thing is going to happen the Gang of Eight immigration bill.

“According to the CBO, the Senate bill would boost economic output and significantly reduce federal budget deficits over the next 20 years.” Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, “attacked these findings, saying they failed to take into account longer-term costs related to the 11 million becoming legal residents and eventually qualifying for Medicaid, food stamps, and cash welfare,” and that’s true. In other words, the CBO says that legalizing all of these people will not add to the deficit as long as you pretend they’re not gonna get any government benefits.

But once you realize they’re gonna get government benefits, then there is no reduction of the deficit. Now, this business of “aiding the economy”? Folks, something is happening here with this that is highly offensive to me. The CBO and the proponents are trying to suggest that an influx of anywhere from 11 million… By the way, wait ’til you hear, after the break, the real number of illegals we are talking about here, and it isn’t 11 million; it’s 46 million, if you project not very far into the future.

But what we’re being told is that all of these new people are going to be really attractive employees, and they’re going to be hired, and they’re going to start working, and their output is going to be great, and the American economy is going to just explode in growth! Now, that assertion is an insult to our intelligence because you know and I know that these people are going to be paid as little as the people who hire them can get away with paying them. The amount of money they’re going to be paid is going to practically mandate they end up on welfare in order to be able to subsist.

They’re not going to be able to create economic growth; there isn’t going to be enough total compensation. They may not make enough money to be able to provide for themselves. That’s one of the reasons the “corporatists,” if I may use that term… That’s the term for the cronyism, the crony capitalism that’s taking place here, and that is the association of major Big Business with government to the benefit of government and business at the same time to the detriment of others.

Because these are purely unskilled, low-educated (and thus very low-wage) people that are gonna be comprising this workforce. The idea that the American economy is somehow gonna blossom and grow with the influx of that kind of labor force? That’s an insult to our intelligence. But they’re figuring the low-information voters are gonna eat this right up. It’s a government agency that said so, CBO! Now, there are other elements of the CBO report that just blow all of what I just told you that’s in the Reuters story to smithereens.

And I will share those when we get back.

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RUSH: Let’s look at some of the other aspects of the CBO report. We just heard from Reuters that it’s gonna be magic, it’s gonna cause economic growth, it’s gonna reduce the deficit — and those assertions are in the report, but so is this: “CBO projects 16 million new immigrants will be added by 2033 on top of the current law projected flow of 22 million and that 8 million illegal immigrants will be granted permanent status — for a total of 46 million legal immigrants, including a doubling of guest workers to 1.6 million in a single year.”

So 16 million new immigrants.

That’s on top of the number that are already being discussed as 11 or 12 million.

It’s 16 million new immigrants by 2033.

By the way, once this happens, that number is gonna skyrocket, because (sigh) these border security amendments just went down in flames yesterday. There is no added border security. So if this happens, we’re gonna grant a pathway to citizenship, guest worker program, whatever, it’s gonna be a magnet for others. So, “CBO projects 16 million new immigrants will be added by 2033 on top of the current law projected flow of 22 million and that 8 million illegal immigrants will be granted permanent status — for a total of 46 million legal immigrants…”

But, Rush! But, Rush! What’s wrong? You sound like you’re anti-immigration. We’re a nation of immigrants.

Folks, there isn’t a country in the world that isn’t a nation of immigrants. That’s no great thing. We’re not talking here about the great days of Ellis Island and people escaping the tyranny of Europe, the so-called magic days of immigration. Nobody I know is anti-immigration. Nobody I know is anti-Hispanic. Everybody I know knows that’s what this is not about. Now, the bill’s sponsors say that these 46 million new immigrants are gonna be ready to work.

They’re gonna be qualified, high class, and so forth and so on. It’s not the case. These new arrivals, nothing against them; facts are facts. That’s the one thing you can’t change. You can massage the political opinion. You can do anything. You can’t honestly and with integrity change facts, and the fact is that these new workers are going to be less skilled and have lower wages than the labor force under current law. There’s a whole different visa requirement for the super educated.

That’s the kind of immigration we really need to be focused on increasing.

But the Democrat Party needs a permanent underclass, folks, as people in this country elevate themselves economically and become less dependent on government.

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, a very simple question: If the influx of millions of new immigrants is gonna really grow the economy, then why aren’t the current illegal residents living in the shadows growing the economy? “Well, they’re gonna come out of the shadows, Mr. Limbaugh.”

It’s gonna depress wages is what it’s gonna do.

It’s going to reduce what people make.