So immigration is another way out of the deficit debacle.
The national debt just surpassed $10 trillion and will surely head higher. We need new taxpayers to help pay it off.
There are nearly 20 million vacant homes and apartments across the United States. We need new renters and owners to live in them.
There are companies that can't find enough competent employees. We need new workers to help them grow. There are retailers going bankrupt. We need new consumers to buy their stuff.
About 1 million people a year have immigrated to the United States recently, or one third of 1 percent of the population. A century ago, immigrants boosted the population by much more - 1 percent a year.
Good thing, too. Millions of new Polish, Russian, Irish, Italian and Greek citizens gave the country the economic strength it needed to win two world wars.
Opponents focus on the short-term costs of immigration - increases in social services use, supposed competition with domestic workers or alleged higher crime.
But these costs can be smart, long-term investments. The United States is living proof. No country is better at merging many into one, at building strength through diversity. Those who "packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life," as Obama described immigrants in yesterday's inaugural speech, helped themselves but also bequeathed a rich future to their descendants.
The U.S. government is spending trillions to bail out banks, consumers and everybody else.
Immigrants can bail out the bailer.
