Posted on 03/13/2006 12:17:02 PM PST by cope85
Free Inside Every 'Guest Worker' Plan: A Ticking Social Security Time Bomb. Barbara Anderson
March 8, 2006 ‘Yessirree, ladies and gents, step right up. Get yer 'guest worker' elixir with secret ingredient that will fix what ails ya. Goes down smooth and easy and costs just pennies a day.” So say the snake oil senators trying to sell this poison.
Every “guest worker” program (read amnesty) plan being advanced in the Senate has in it provisions for acceptance into the Social Security program the millions of illegal aliens who have managed to sneak into the country and can “prove” with dubious documents that they have worked here for some length of time. Nobody knows just how many of these workers there are, as nobody is allowed to ask a person’s citizenship status when applying for welfare benefits, for instance. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is applied by most government agencies. The Bear Stearns estimate is 25+ million. This is just for the workers and some family here, but there are many more waiting in Mexico for the word to come. These other family members are the recipients of the $20 BILLION dollars sent home, and out of our economy, to Mexico from the U.S. last year. If they choose not to come, they may still be eligible for benefits from the primary worker’s “right” to Social Security benefits. Thus, they may be eligible for Social Security benefits even if they have never lived in the U.S.
SSA is an Executive branch agency whose director is appointed by the President. Director Joann Barnhardt is so eager to give U.S. Social Security benefits to Mexicans that she signed the U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement in July 2004 and built an SSA building in Mexico: sort of a branch office, paid for by American taxpayers. Barnhardt is among our many civil servants who can’t keep accurate records. She told the Senate that her agency isn’t able to prevent fraudulent wage transfers for years prior to 2004. Her solution: give away benefits paid for by citizens of this country to people who don’t deserve them.
We are not entirely in the dark as to how this amnesty would affect Social Security. In 1986 we were sold the same elixir. We don’t hear the leading salesmen, Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch or John McCain, who are touting the 2006 rerun of amnesty, bragging about their 1986 votes. In 1986 we were promised that amnesty would be given to 300,000 illegal aliens, and that would be the final, final amnesty. The reality was that the final count was nearly 3 million. Well, we know how things just grow in the atmosphere of Washington, D.C. when you take your eyes off them. The “one-time” amnesty showed INS and SSA knowingly accepted massive numbers of fraudulent rent receipts, earning records and birth records. The country is now awash with fake I.D. and other documents produced by entrepreneurs who seized on the lax requirements of businesses and government for these documents.
When an illegal alien attains legal status, whether by marrying an American or by “guest worker” program, that person is issued a genuine SSN. It is used to earn future wages and Social Security credits, obtain public funded benefits, financial aid for education, and the list goes on. That new SSN enables the illegal alien to retroactively access wage credit for money in the Earnings Suspense File, even if they were using a bogus SSN or “borrowing” a valid SSN assigned to someone else! It’s the little bomb in each and every “guest worker” program.
Even with a speeded up program, one can imagine the literally millions of illegal aliens in line applying for a SSN, who will be given first priority at SSA offices, bogging down the system for legal American workers. Those already in the system can look forward to their benefits being handled in a much less efficient way, unless an enormous amount of new personnel is brought in to handle the hordes of new people being enrolled in the system. Even that remedy will ensure chaos because of the vastness of the task.
However, the same people who are saying we don’t have the means and personnel to track down those who are here illegally, are perfectly willing to accept the enormous task of trying to determine…….who are allowed benefits.
By law, if an illegal alien had bogus pay stubs or W-2s (making up numerous names and SSNs) from 1980-2000, and was given amnesty OR became legal, we would have to give them “credit” for those 20 years of illegal work. Considering the money at stake, both in past Social Security payroll deductions and future benefits, can anyone doubt that these illegal aliens will do all possible to lay claim to “wage credits” and FICA deductions for the SSN they’ve been fraudulently using? Does anyone suspect they might also try to take wage credit that doesn’t belong to them?
This little bomb is currently in every guest worker plan, no matter who is pushing it: McCain, Kennedy, Hatch, Craig, Domenici, Specter or any of the other senate panderers. If you see your senator in this lineup, you should be especially indignant, since these are the main pushers, but there are plenty of others poised to join them, if their constituents don’t make too much noise. Republicans pander to their contributors who love cheap labor, while Democrats are already counting the heads of those they think will be voting for them. Oh, did I mention that voting rights come along with this little package, once they are deemed legal.
How many years have we been hearing that Social Security is going broke? Younger people paying into the plan have all but given up any hope of ever seeing anything of what they have put into it. Older people have had a false sense of security about the safety of their benefits, it seems. With 25+ million (including beneficiaries) coming onto the rolls of Social Security, who can doubt that all benefits will be sharply curtailed.
The Senate is developing its immigration bill right now. There is a strong push for “guest worker” (amnesty) provisions to be added to, or replace, the commonsense bill passed by the House, which has no Social Security provisions in it. Every senator knows the pernicious effects such an amnesty will have on the country, mostly on low-wage earners and the middle class. It was known in 1986 when it was passed with the promise it was a one-time amnesty, but the same mindset that promoted and allowed amnesty in 1986 is rampant in the Senate today. Senators who will vote for this know what will happen, but are keeping quiet about it as they did in 1986. Are your senators among them?
Giving amnesty to several millions of illegal aliens, which automatically entitles them to future AND PAST Social Security would be like throwing anchors on a sinking ship. This ship is named the U.S. Social Security.
I simply do not understand why President Bush does not get the extreme animosity his base has for illegal immigration. This is the one thing he has done that annoys people the most. It almost seems deliberate.
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I simply do not understand why President Bush does not get the extreme animosity his base has for illegal immigration.
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He understands but doesn't care, because he thinks he and Rove can scare the base into voting Republican no matter what Republicans do.
The illegal has to have the check stubs and prove that he is the one that was paid/deducted. The employer records have to confirm. The Social Security Administration has to confirm.
"It almost seems deliberate."
It is deliberate. Its a sop to various business interests who have an interest in cheap labor.
1]He's not running again 2] Users of illegal immigration are big GOP contributors to Congress
No doubt a much more realistic estimate than the low-ball numbers we hear repeated.
Ah yes, the "guest worker": When the Law of Supply and Demand just isn't good enough anymore.
1. He didn't care when he was running.
2. Name one big contributor that admits breaking the law and hiring illegals. They all say they don't break the law. If you have proof that a big contributor to the GOP is committing a crime post it. Break the story right here.
I'd be willing to bet any such documented revelation would be all over the news by tomorrow morning.
I'm going to give you folks some straight talk about Social InSecurity. You may not like what I have to say, but demographically it's undeniable.
The present crisis with SS is that the baby boom generation, our nation's largest, is heading for retirement. The boom generation had relatively few children, slowing down our population growth and ensuring a gap where there were lots of boomer retirees and few "busters" to support them.
The only way to solve this problem is to have fresh blood, such as mexican, central and south american immigrants, enter the country and work. If whole fleets of 20something people start paying into the system now, it's possible to actually solve the problem. They are starting their careers here by paying for the retirement of the boomers.
Since our population growth has stabilized and even the busters are having kids, paying for their retirement should not be a massive problem.
Now, I am a vehement opponent of Social InSecurity because the program rips you off - it charges much more for retirement than you are ever going to get out of it. But the crisis of SS, where it will be unable to pay even the pathetic promised benefits, is due to the boomer retirement, and allowing more immigration has the potential to fix the problem.
So don't say that bringing these people into Social InSecurity will exacerbate the problem; quite the contrary; it may actually solve it.
Incidentally, even Americans are better off retiring in foreign countries where the cost of living is lower than in the US. This is especially true for people whose only retirement "savings" come from SS. Criticising Mexicans for wanting to do the same thing is a little silly when thousands of citizens leave the US in search of a better, cheaper life in countries like Mexico, Costa Rica and the Philippines.
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"check stubs"?
All these day laborers are paid off the books to escape taxes - theirs and the employers.
Given the skills the illegals have developed for fake passports, social security cards, and drivers licenses, how long before they will be producing bogus pay stubs?
Your numbers are wrong.
Given the small contributions these amnestied and uneducated illegals will pay in over a lifetime, and the minimum payouts guaranteed by the program and the other benefits paid out without regard to earnings taxed, these people will be a negative draw on the Social Security fund, not a rescuer.
The Republicans want cheap labor which harms the middle class is just Marxist nonsense. Every American who speaks English and went to school has economically valuable goods that surpass those of illiterate Mexicans. You don't see Americans standing outside the Home Depot, because they don't compete with the Mexicans. They have better opportunities.
If hiring illegal immigration is not a crime then woe is us.
It is a crime, but the administration refuses to enforce the law.
So, David. You're going to blame the legal boomers over the illegals?
The boomers who, as you admit!, have had our money taken from us, over the illegals who take from the system?
I don't know how old you are, but if you're of child bearing age, your children's America will NOT look like it did for you growing up.
I guarantee it.
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