Bummed about this country
So Erik and I found out today that our Economic Stimulus package is not late, it is in fact not coming at all.
It turns out that in an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving the ESP, Congress wrote into the law that people who are married and filing jointly where one spouse doesn't have a Social Security Number are ineligible. I don't have a Social Security Number, so Erik won't be receiving a cheque. (Here's the L.A. Times article with all the details.)
Apparently, this has affected millions of families composed of legal immigrants or American citizens who are married to immigrants. So we're not alone, but I'm not optimistic that those in power will do anything to help, since everyone affected is either an immigrant or married to one.
On the one hand, I'm disappointed. We have been working so hard to save for a house down-payment, and I was looking to this money to help us out with that. Worse than not getting the money is being one of the millions of families who will pay more in taxes down the line when China comes around asking for its $168,000,000,000 back. I'm already dreading what we'll pay when China wants us to return the money the government borrowed to bail out sub-prime mortgage lenders. Or, for that matter, the money it borrowed to pay for the war.
Even more than that, though, I am disgusted by the attitude of the people who wrote this law in the first place. This country has made it absurdly difficult to be a legal immigrant here, and their attitude toward all immigrants comes across as overtly hostile. I'm starting to wonder if Isabel will pick up on that sentiment and believe it's okay to decide how you feel about someone based on where they were born or the status of their paperwork. I want her to understand that she is worth exactly as much as one person who was born in Mexico, not more because she is an American citizen. That seems to basic to me and yet I have honestly come think it is a minority opinion in Texas, and I don't think I can take it for granted that Isabel will agree. I am starting to think more and more often that this is not the place where we want to raise a child.