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WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said in a new report Monday that Social Security is facing a $13.6 trillion shortfall and that delaying reforms is not fair to younger workers. A report issued by the Treasury Department said that some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases will need to be considered to permanently fix the funding shortfall. But White House officials stressed that President Bush remains opposed to raising taxes. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he hoped the new report would help find common ground on the politically divisive issue, but a key Democrat charged that the administration will...

KeepArkansasLegal met with Vic Snyder and tried to get some answers about what he is doing to stop illegal immigration. Here is the video footage of that meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3v-3bsbbBE

While posting on another thread, the SS "totalization agreement" with Mexico came to mind. I did some searching around and havent found anything indicating that the President has signed this yet. From the Social Security wepage on it:  Effective date of an agreement with Mexico In the United States, once the agreement is signed, the President will submit the agreement to Congress where it must sit in review for 60 session days. If Congress takes no action during this time, the agreement can move forward. In Mexico, once the agreement is signed, the Mexican Senate must approve it. The linked...

Eased Trucking Regulations Under Scrutiny By Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau Mexican trucks will begin rolling onto American highways in 60 days, despite warnings from critics that the endeavor is fraught with safety risks, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said Thursday. Peters vowed that all Mexican trucks entering the United States under a limited pilot program will be subject to tough regulations - including license checks and drug tests - that will be closely monitored. Mexican truckers in the program also will not be allowed to make domestic deliveries, will not be allowed to carry hazardous materials and...

Last week I introduced a bill that will protect Social Security, especially for the millions of Baby Boomers who will soon be receiving retirement benefits. The Social Security Protection Act will prohibit illegal aliens from receiving Social Security benefits for time they were in the country illegally. If we give millions of illegal aliens Social Security benefits, there is no doubt—Social Security will go broke. That is why I introduced this bill to ensure that Social Security is protected for the millions of Americans who have legally earned their benefits.� Baby Boomers are quickly approaching retirement, and we are already...

PERFECT STORM: Fed Chairman Bernanke speaking about the two-headed monster looming on the horizon: capping future medical and retirement costs. Fed boss Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that the nation is facing a potential economic disaster as the aging Baby Boom generation is set to drain the nation's retirement and health care funds. The Federal Reserve chairman's remarks to the Senate Budget Committee didn't include any of the typical chitchat about the short-term outlook for inflation or his thoughts about monetary policy. Those are due in mid-February, when Bernanke is scheduled to testify before both houses of Congress on...

The U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement currently being drafted by the Social Security Administration is not far from implementation. After the current agreement is finalized, approved by the State Department, and signed by the President, Congress will have 60 days to pass a resolution of disapproval of the agreement. If Congress does not disapprove, it will automatically go into effect. Though the stated aim of the totalization agreement is to coordinate the Social Security programs of both countries to our mutual benefit, the actual advantages clearly lie in Mexico's favor. Though there are no official statistics on how many Americans...

Let's have a vote on 'Totalization Agreement' Nevada Sen. John Ensign warns that -- if coupled with a pending immigration reform bill that stalled last year -- a U.S.-Mexican "Totalization Agreement" could allow U.S. Social Security benefits to flow to huge numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants. So the senator has introduced a bill that would require the Senate and House to vote on the agreement. Under current law, should President Bush sign the deal and Congress take no action on it, the deal would automatically go into effect after 60 days. Totalization agreements are designed to prevent dual Social Security...

President George W. Bush's secret plan for Social Security has just been released to the public in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by TREA Senior Citizens League, a million-member seniors advocacy group. For years the president carried on an energetic public relations campaign to promote his plan to privatize part of Social Security, but he kept under White House lock and key the "totalization" agreement his administration secretly made with Mexico in June 2004. A U.S. Border Patrol agent patrols along the fence line of the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., on Thursday, April 6, 2006....

Pro-amnesty politicians know something they won’t tell us: illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime. The victims are American citizens - who are not only victims of murder, rape, child molestation and traffic accidents at the hands of illegals – but who are forced to pay mightily for the privilege. Read this 16th installment of the FSM series on the horrors of illegal immigration to learn the stupefying facts of how much this is costing each and every one of us. You will revolt! As detailed in Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of...

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- For more than a decade, I've written about the need to reform Social Security. And I've blamed older generations of Americans for not fixing a program they know is unsustainable into the future. My bad. It turns out, if I wanted to get everyone up in arms, all I needed to do was blame illegal immigrants. Ah, yes. The folks who, we are told, wrecked our schools, ruined our environment and lowered our wages are now poised to steal our Social Security. Oh, there's some stealing going on all right, but it doesn't have anything...

While Americans keep their eyes on the war in Iraq, we're quietly being conquered on the home front. From within. And without a whimper. In Minneapolis, Muslim cab drivers make their own rules as to who they will allow to ride in their cabs. If you're carrying liquor, you're out of luck. Meanwhile, in Texas, a food chain has started accepting Mexican pesos for American pizzas. In Washington, newly elected congressman Keith Ellison takes the oath of office on the Koran while managing to dodge legitimate questions about where his ultimate loyalty lies. In San Diego County, 40% of U.S....

For years, the trustees of Social Security have warned Congress and the president about the fiscal crisis that the Social Security program faces in the not-too-distant future. As the representative with the largest number of Social Security beneficiaries in Congress, it is my goal to listen to all ideas and seek solutions that ensure the long-term stability of the program. Over the years, modifications have been made to Social Security that protect a worker's right to a safe and secure retirement. One of these modifications, called a totalization agreement between two nations, allows people who spend significant portions of their...

Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, a private group recently obtained a copy of a 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico that will allow hundreds of thousands of noncitizens to receive Social Security benefits. The agreement creates a so-called “totalization” plan between the two nations. Totalization is nothing new. The first such agreements were made in the late 1970s between the United States and several foreign governments simply to make sure American citizens living abroad did not suffer from double taxation with respect to Social Security taxes. From there, however, totalization agreements have become vehicles for noncitizens...

And the federal government approves Concerned about illegal aliens coming here and getting just as good a deal from our government "entitlement" programs as U.S. citizens? Have your friends and acquaintances, perhaps, gone so far as to suggest you may be a little "paranoid" on this score? Well, they're right, and it turns out you were wrong all along. Foreign nationals are not going to be able to come here illegally and get just a good a deal from our Social Security system as legal immigrants and American-born workers. They're going to get a much better deal. On June 29,...

Will Bush back lifting payroll tax cap? January 8, 2007 BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist More than the ascension of Nancy Pelosi & Co. was disturbing congressional Republicans last week. They ask this question: Will President Bush embrace a tax increase that would produce potential economic disaster and guaranteed political catastrophe? Henry M. Paulson Jr. is a shark on Wall Street but a rookie on Pennsylvania Avenue. As Bush's third secretary of the Treasury, he has engaged in secret bipartisan talks discussing an increase in the current $97,500 limit on personal income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That...

The U.S.- Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement ...an agreement signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has already warned that as a result of this agreement, the number of unauthorized Mexican workers and family members eligible for social benefits will likely increase. The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within decades of bankruptcy - yet they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise...

WASHINGTON -- As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government released this week the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement, an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. TREA Senior Citizens League, a Washington-based nonpartisan seniors group, announced this week that after Freedom of Information Act lawsuits it filed against the government, it had received the secret agreement document. Brad Phillips, a spokesperson for TREA, told NewsMax that the language in the agreement "raises more questions than it answers — such as what...

On its way to bankruptcy, Social Security will get there a bit sooner if President Bush, Republican senators John McCain, Chuck Hagel and Sam Brownback...... The Bush administration has reached an agreement with Mexico that would permit illegal aliens.....to claim Social Security benefits for the work they performed while in the United States illegally, even if the illegal aliens committed felonies by using fraudulent Social Security documents to obtain their jobs. It would automatically become law if Congress does not reject it. Opposing this deal should be an easy decision. But last year the Republican-led Senate narrowly rejected an amendment...

Entitlements: About to become law is an agreement allowing illegal aliens to get Social Security benefits after only 18 months of employment in the U.S., further burdening a system on the brink of collapse. Surveys have shown that more Americans believe in the existence of unidentified flying objects than in the promise that they'll ever get back what they've put into the Social Security system. It also is against current law for employers knowingly to hire individuals who are in this country illegally. So it must be somewhat disconcerting for them to find out that about to become law is...