Posted on 01/04/2007 4:55:18 AM PST by markomalley
WASHINGTON — A confidential 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico could require Social Security to pay billions of dollars in benefits to Mexicans who paid payroll taxes in this country, according to a senior citizens' group that forced the document's disclosure.
The Social Security Administration insists that the agreement — which has yet to be signed by President Bush and sent to Congress for consideration — would cost the retirement and disability fund a relatively scant $105 million annually for the first five years.
But the TREA Senior Citizens League, an offshoot from a group of retired military personnel, and some members of Congress contend the agreement opens the door to paying benefits to millions of Mexicans who have worked illegally in the United States, as well as their dependents, even if they now reside in Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Bills like S. 2611 show me that our legislators have a very different plan for the US than we do. Agenda 21 is what they are following ...... to the letter!
Just imagine what would be going on if we didn't have the internet. All these Bills would be getting passed and 1/10000th of the people who are aware of it now would know anything at all about them.
Thanks for trying.
I seem to remember when Dubya ran the first time he said something like "My opponent thinks Social Security is part of the government "
Didn't he ? However the politico's do not need Social Security nor do they understand how many of us will not survive without it.
Every member of the Congress who does not vote against this needs to be replaced. Period
Is it 6 or 40 ?
I promise you that immigrants with zero USA work history are getting on SSI disability
"We have to have these reciprocal agreements, because if we don't, our ex-pats are treated badly or with the same rules we use on theirs."
"We have to have". What a joke. What part of Mexico are you from? The U.S. has survived without these agreements for 200 years and now you, Fox and Bush think "we have to have". By the way, this is an agreement not a treaty.
It is totallly obvious you haven't read anything pertaining to the agreement.
"Also, several law suits were filed on this issue from Mexico in 2003. I assumed it was a done deal until today. "
Link to the law suits please. Also, think twice about "assuming".
Try reading this from the Social Security Administration and the Government Accounting Office. The GAO explains why this agreement is a bad idea.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03993.pdf
.
Very well said. And the revolution starts with 1 person, now 2 and my co-workers feel exactly the same.
The Revolution can start with "withholding tax payments" and if enough people do it they will not be able to prosecute. Stop financing the Government, implement Term Limits and let the people make their voice known. Taxes will assuredly be collected but a Tax protest might gain momentum and let the government know we are fed up.
A significant fact that has serious policy implications is the explosive growth in the number of noncitizens receiving SSI benefits in California. In recent months, the public has been made aware of elderly immigrants who rely on SSI because their sponsors are no longer capable of caring for them. However, a frequently overlooked fact is that many recent immigrants, in collusion with their sponsors and unscrupulous translators, have taken advantage of the loopholes in U.S. immigration laws and the government's inability to enforce the "affidavits of support."30 This is supported in a statement made by Ms. Doris Meissner, the current Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner appointed by President Clinton, and by the authors of two recent studies examining the number of noncitizens receiving SSI benefits. Commissioner Meissner states, "Sponsorship is an expression of intent, and it is one where the government assumes as a goodfaith matter that if a family attests to its willingness to sponsor...then it will be carried out. This area of elderly immigrants is one where it is not working so well."31
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:5cd60KWhtmQJ:www.pacificresearch.org/pub/sab/health/welfare/welfare.html+%22SSI+disability%22+chinese+immigrants&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4
I looked at the documents that were retrieved by the the senior group. No, this is not the same.
Never in 2004 did we hear that this agreement was supposed to be in effect by October 1, 2005. Bush, Jo Anne and Fox missed their deadline. Check out page 7 of 10.
http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/Totalization_Agreement.pdf
Bush hasn't signed it yet - let's hope it stays that way.
Prior to this, we had just inked a new deal with Great Britain and it had much more reporting associated with it.
I can't recall the exact date that this info hit the forum. Rush mentioned it today on his show and recalled discussing it.
I don't think it's all that important. Most illegals work under the table anyway. The legal residents with passports are a large number, but not 20 million. If they are legal residents of Mexico and work here, then there should be a mechanism to rebate their SS taxes or not deduct it in the first place.
As to the illegals, that is problematic, and needs to be clarified. I doubt their SS number is always valid, and for those who have valid numbers, they must have lied to get it. Most illegals had legal documentation at one time, and overstayed their VISA. This poses the problem of a legal situation that became illegal after a time.
There will likely be another immigration bill soon, and I suspect this will be addressed.
We shall see......It's a legal morass.
Removing elected people from office by not re-electing them would be a start. We have to find a way of removing the unelected officials who tend to make policy without votes of the people or congressional approval as well.
Wake up or shake up! Congress is on notice. The past election should be an example of what can happen when the people are stirred from their nap.
Return of the Great Social Security Giveaway
by Rep. Ron Paul, MD
Last year around this time I wrote about a serious threat to Social Security that was moving ever closer – a threat so great that it could truly break the bank of our already dangerously fragile Social Security system. The threat is the ongoing "totalization" negotiations between the US and Mexican governments. An agreement on "totalization" would make hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens eligible for American Social Security. Press reports just last month reminded us that these talks are continuing and will likely be completed this year.
As I wrote last year, under such a "totalization" agreement, even if a Mexican citizen did not work in the United States long enough to qualify for Social Security, the number of years worked in Mexico would be added to bring up the total and thus make the Mexican worker eligible for cash transfers from the United States. To qualify for American Social Security, a Mexican citizen would need to work in the US as short as just 18 months!
Totalization is nothing new. The first such agreements were made in the late 1970s between the United States and several foreign governments to help American citizens who were sent abroad by their companies. From there we have come, nearly 30 years later, to the point where an estimated 160,000 Mexican citizens would be eligible for US Social Security in the next five years.
Ultimately, the bill for Mexicans working legally in the US could reach one billion dollars by 2050, when the estimated Mexican beneficiaries could reach 300,000. Worse still, an estimated five million Mexicans working illegally in the United States could be eligible for the program. According to press reports, a provision in the Social Security Act allows illegal immigrants to receive Social Security benefits if the United States and another country have a totalization agreement.
Those in favor of sending US Social Security benefits to Mexican citizens argue that the crushing poverty in Mexico demands some form of US assistance to that country's aged. While the poverty in Mexico is truly deplorable and saddening, the fact remains that the US Congress has no Constitutional authority to enact what is essentially another foreign aid program. I would applaud any private citizen who wishes to help his fellow man living in poverty, whether in the US or Mexico or wherever he wishes. But for the US government to force this kind of "charity" is both immoral and illegal.
When Congress returns late this month, it should take the opportunity to re-affirm that Social Security is an American program designed to benefit American retired workers. That is why I introduced HR 489, the Social Security for American Citizens Only Act, in the current Congress. This act forbids the federal government from providing Social Security benefits to non-citizens. It also ends the practice of totalization.
Bringing hundreds of thousands of impoverished foreign workers into the Social Security system will surely break the bank, depriving millions of our seniors who contributed to the system all their working lives of that which is rightly theirs. That is no way to treat our seniors, be they from this generation or coming generations. As I said last year, we should be shoring up the system for those Americans who have paid in for decades, not expanding it to cover foreigners who have not.
January 6, 2004
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
He's blowin' out his flip flop!
GOOD post!
The #1 goal of these politicians is to be re-elected. I have heard that inside the politicians offices they count a mailed letter as the view of about a thousand people. Less for a phone call, less to almosy nothing for an e-mail.When I get wound up, I do all three to make sure they get the point.
Myself, I use the phone. These days, now that the election is over and the politicians are once again comfortable in their offices, they are trying to figure out how they can reward the heavy contributors, not how to deal with the few Americans who give a damn about our country.
They also have the problem of needing to obey the Party higher ups who are the ones who make the decisions about which heavy contributors will get the pork contracts.
So, you can see the life of a career politician is a tough one. Decisions, decisions, decisions!
Welcome to the New World of Dis-Order.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.