The Wonk Room

Savage Blames Immigrant ‘Gang-Bangers’ For ‘Destroying California’

Yesterday, Media Matters highlighted statements made by “shock-jock” radio host Michael Savage on his Friday show in which he lashed out at immigrant “gang-bangers” for “destroying California.” Savage, whose inflammatory rhetoric recently got him banned from entering the U.K., vowed that only God himself will shut him up:

SAVAGE: The illegals [immigrants] have destroyed the state of California. They’ve sucked it dry like lemons. They’ve sucked it dry. Free medical, free schooling, knocking out babies like tasty bread. What do you want me to say it’s not true? What do you think I’m blind? You think they’re going to reign me in? You think those people on the left are going to scare me into not telling you what’s real? I’m never going to stop. God will stop me, not you. Go walk around and see who’s having the babies in the state of California–14 year-old-gang-banger children are knocking them out like tasty bread.

Savage proceeded to victimize California white males for carrying the economic burden of the state:

SAVAGE: Go blame everybody. Go blame the white male who makes the money in the state. Blame the white male who makes all the money in the state for bankrupting the state. Go ahead.

Listen:

California’s budget crisis is no white man’s burden and white males certainly aren’t the only individuals contributing to the state economy. Immigrants have been called the “super-stars” of California’s profitable high-tech industry. Google, Ebay, and Intel were all started by California’s immigrants.

And while Savage might like to think that most of California’s immigrant population is busy robbing grandmas and pushing baby carriages all day long, immigrants — both legal and illegal — make up more than 1/3 of California’s labor force. In fact, according to economist Giovanni Peri of the University of California, immigrant workers complement native-born California workers and most native-born Californians have experienced wage gains as a result. While there is a cost associated with immigrants and their children — as there is with any individual who lives and goes to school in the United States — California’s immigrants pay roughly $30 billion in federal taxes, $5.2 billion in state income taxes, and $4.6 billion in sales taxes each year.

Most sources attribute California’s budget shortfall to the state’s long-term investment projects that rely heavily on income taxes during a time of high unemployment and the state’s inability to pass workable solutions due to the political stalemate caused by the complicated state legislative system.