Bush Bankrupting Social Security

The Bush administration signed a confidential agreement with Mexico in 2004 that could send billions of tax dollars to Mexico in the form of Social Security payments.

Under current law, illegal aliens are not eligible for Social Security benefits. Under the secret agreement, however, anyone who obtains legal residence can use their work history to obtain benefits for them and their dependents — and although the benefit amount is governed by work in the U.S., work history in Mexico counts in qualifying for benefits.

As Congress is on the verge of granting yet another blanket amnesty, this legislation has the potential of costing the teetering Social Security system billions of dollars, hastening the certain bankruptcy of the system.

The Social Security Administration claims that the agreement will only cost $105 million over the first five years, but the Government Accounting Office places that figure much higher.

• A 2003 GAO report said the agreement with Mexico was shoddy work that didn't investigate the reliability of Mexico's data or take into account the millions of illegal aliens who would become eligible.
• They also disputed the Social Security Administration's estimate that the agreement would cost $105 million a year for the first five years, saying the costs could be much higher given the uncertainty of who could benefit.

The TREA Senior Citizens League, an offshoot from a group of retired military personnel, sued the government to obtain the text of the  U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement after three years and a half years of stalling by the government. After reviewing the agreement, TREA says that the payout could be in the tens of billions of dollars.

Those aligned against the agreement say that it is potentially a huge drain on the Social Security trust fund and may encourage even more illegal immigration. Those supporting it say that it is only fair that those who paid into the system should receive the benefit.

Of course, many of those who paid into the system did so after having stolen the identities of real Americans. A loophole in the current Social Security law would authorize benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers.

Currently, wages that can't be posted matched to an individual worker because official records don't contain a name/SSN match go into an "earnings suspense file". Illegals who are able to obtain a real SSN will be able to claim those earnings, even if they are not citizens.

Note that the earnings suspense file now contains over a half trillion dollars. Further, according to the congressional testimony of SSA Inspector General Patrick P. O'Carroll in February 2006:

We believe the chief cause of wage items being posted to the earnings suspense file instead of an individual's earning record is unauthorized work by non citizens.

Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number -- whether a legal citizen or not -- wages earned while in the U.S. unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account. The Congressional Research Service reports the earnings suspense file currently stands at approximately $520 billion.

And of course, all illegals who paid into the system did so as criminals that were here illegally. That's why it's called illegal immigration.

Thankfully, there are those like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) who see to the heart of the matter:

My record is clear: I do not believe that those who engage in illegal activity should benefit financially for their illegal actions.

Bush has not yet signed the agreement nor sent it to Congress for consideration, who will then have 60 days to reject it or it becomes law. Politicians don't have to go on record to vote against it, it'll just happen! Given that the alien-friendly, terrorist coddling, criminal loving Democrats take power today, it is not a stretch to imagine that Congress will see it soon. Nor is it unreasonable to imagine that they will either vote to further destabilize our retirement fund, or ignore the issue so that it automatically becomes our tax burden.

Yep, I'll be working until I'm 72 for sure. So will many of you.

Blog post #6410 in category Immigration
posted 4 January 07