Sometimes it’s hard to choose which villain to hate the most.
Take the case of Loretta Robinson, a South Carolina mother who lost her son, Justin Walker, in June, 2011, to a drunk driver.
For Robinson, tragedy was followed by outrage–which came in four stages.
First, the tragedy: Justin Walker, her oldest son, died when his car was struck by another vehicle on White Horse Road in Greenville, South Carolina.
Then, the outrage–Stage 1: The driver of the killer-car turned out to be drunk.
Outrage, Stage 2: The driver of the killer-car also turned out to be an illegal alien named Anna Gonzalez.
Outrage, Stage 3: Gonzalez had been living in the United States for 12 years–but had never bothered to get a driver’s license. She had been stopped for license violations in 2011, prior to the accident. But she was never detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Outrage, Stage 4: Loretta Robinson found herself billed for the various charges associated with the accident, including a $50 charge to clean her son’s blood off the road.
On June 19, 2012, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to drunk driving and driving without a license, and causing the fatal accident. She was stenced to 17 years in prison.
But, for Robinson, the verdict could not possibly compensate for her injuries.
- For several months, she had to pay for storage of her son’s wrecked car in case of a trial.
- She had to pay to have the vehicle towed.
- She was issued a bill to cover the cost of cleaning up her son’s blood from the road. She said that was the bill that hurt the most–paying $50 to have the street washed.
- She has had a hard time working because of the emotional effects of the accident. Bills keep arriving when she cannot pay them.
The South Carolina State Office of Victims Assistance offers a combined total of up to $15,000 for medical, funeral, counseling and wage compensation for the families of victims of crime. Robinson received some money from this agency, but it did not cover the costs of cleanup or storage.
“We have to be able, as a country, to figure out a way [to deal] with people here who are illegal and commit crimes,” Robinson said.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen.
In June, President Barack Obama directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt deportations for up to 800,000 illegal aliens who entered the country as children. The decision halts any deportation proceedings for two years and allows aliens the opportunity to apply for a work permit.
So it’s hard to know which is the greater villain:
- Federal authorities who, through collusion or incompetence, allowed an illegal alien to not simply remain in the country for 12 years but to drive without a license virtually that entire time; or
- Local authorities who callously demanded thousands of dollars from a grieving mother, without regard to her emotional or financial state.
The Federal guidelines on dealing with illegal aliens–as issued by the Department of Homeland Security–will likely remain in place at least until the November Presidential election.
It’s been widely charged that Obama offered what amounts to a limited amnesty to woo the Hispanic vote. This promises to be a close election, and the President isn’t taking any chances.
The reaction of the local authorities portends a startling new development: Not simply blaming the victim but financially penalizing him.
In Colorado, the jobless are now being forced to pay the government.
The state accidentally overpaid $128 million in unemployment benefits in 2011. That included more than $98 million from state coffers, with the rest coming from the federal government’s extended-benefits plan, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
And now it is billing the jobless to get that money back.
Nor is this problem limited to Colorado. In 2011, states across the country accidentally overpaid $5.1 billion in unemployment payments.
The overpayments result primarily from clerical errors and not fraud, said government officials quoted in the Denver Post.
In 2011, Colorado recovered $73 million in unemployment benefits that it had accidentally overpaid.
“If we deliberately lie about our information, they are quick to prosecute,” said Amelia Kelii of Parker. “But if they make a mistake, we still have to pay for their mistake.” She owes the state more than $1,000, which she says she cannot pay.
In May, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship. He did so to avoid a 15% tax on capital gains when Facebook launched its IPO. Singapore–where he had lived since 2009–does not have a capital gains tax.
Millions of desperate Americans like Loretta Robinson and Amelia Kelii survive–literally–from one check (unemployment or not) to the next.
For them, the demands of politicians like Mitt Romney to abolish taxes on the wealthy seem not only irrelevant, but a sick joke.
