I am not disputing that French has more cognates with English, especially for the erudite, but noting that for a society that is trying to assimilate tens of millions of native Spanish speakers, there is going to be more overlap in those jergas (or argots, if you prefer the French) that move back and forth among speakers in a growing part of the US than there would be in educated discourse. After all, which is the second-most common language on food labels in the US and which language appears on the majority of streets in certain sections of major US cities such as Miami?

That may be a reason why Spanish is much more stressed in the US than French and why it's considered to be "easier"; we hear it much more often.