Thread: Feds Hide Social Security Deal With Mexico

Feds Hide Social Security Deal With Mexico

Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Monday, July 3, 2006

WASHINGTON -- "We might be on the cusp of giving billions of dollars worth of our senior's Social Security money to illegal Mexican workers, and it's getting almost no media attention whatsoever," warned Brad Phillips, a spokesman for TREA Senior Citizens League, one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups with 1.2 million members.

TREA Senior Citizens League filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in U.S. District Court Thursday morning - after what the group styled as "numerous refusals over three years by the U.S. Department of State and Social Security Administration to provide a draft of - or virtually any pertinent information regarding - the impact of the Totalization Agreement with Mexico on the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund."

The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund. The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is awaiting President Bush's signature.

"President Bush has expressed his support for this Agreement, and we believe that regardless of the current immigration debate, his most likely window for signing it is immediately after the 2006 midterm elections when no one is looking," TREA spokesman Brad Phillips told NewsMax.

Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without congressional vote, either house would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.

"We are outraged that our government won't tell us how much they plan to take out of the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for the Totalization Agreement with Mexico, and we want to know what they're hiding," said Ralph McCutchen, Chairman of the TREA Senior Citizens League.

"Our 1.2 million elderly members didn't play by the rules and sacrifice through two World Wars so we could fund millions of workers who crossed the border and decided to work here illegally," McCutchen added.

Under the Totalization Agreement, millions of illegal Mexicans working in the United States today could claim benefits from the Social Security Trust Fund for work performed while in the United States illegally. They could do so through immigration amnesty, through which they could claim past Social Security payments for illegal work.

They could also potentially return to Mexico and claim credits for illegal work in the U.S., or claim payments through other as yet undisclosed methods.

The U.S. currently has 21 similar agreements in effect with other nations, which are intended to eliminate dual taxation for persons who work outside their country of origin. All of the agreements are with developed nations with economies similar to that of the U.S.

For example, a worker who turns 62 after 1990 generally needs 40 calendar quarters of coverage to receive retirement benefits. Under Totalization agreements, a partial benefit can be paid based on the proportion of the worker's total career completed in the paying country.

The agreements allow the Social Security Administration to "totalize" U.S. and foreign credits if the worker has just six quarters, or 18 months, of U.S. coverage.

But, according to TREA, Mexico's retirement system is radically different - since only 40 percent of non-government workers participate, as opposed to 96 percent of America's workers. In addition, the U.S. system is progressive, meaning lower wage earners get back much more than they put in.

Contrast Mexico, where workers get back only what they put in, plus accrued interest.

"The Social Security Trust Fund should be for Americans in their retirement years. I vigorously oppose a Totalization Agreement with Mexico, which would allow millions of illegal Mexicans to access those funds," said Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va.

"The Social Security Administration and State Department should provide TREA Senior Citizens League with the information they are requesting on behalf of seniors. I support a resolution to disapprove Totalization with Mexico if and when the President signs off on this bad deal," Goode added.

According to TREA, the original FOIA request, filed in August 2003, as well as all subsequent requests, demanded a copy of the actual agreement, as well as other relevant documents, including those showing the financial impact the Totalization Agreement with Mexico would have on the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund and on America's senior citizens.

Despite numerous attempts to ascertain such information, the State Department and Social Security Administration steadfastly refused to provide virtually any relevant documents, explained TREA Senior Citizens League spokesperson Brad Phillips.

"Any Social Security exchange with Mexico will cost Americans a king's ransom," said Marti Dinerstein, Fellow with the independent, nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies. "We should apologize to Mexico for leading them on and get out of this terrible deal."

The Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary has estimated that a totalization agreement with Mexico would cost the U.S. $78 million in the first year, growing to $650 million (in constant 2002 dollars) by 2050.

That determination, however, assumed that the initial number of newly eligible Mexican recipients would be equal to the 50,000 beneficiaries then living in Mexico, and that the eligible number would grow to only 300,000 over the next 48 years.

The Government Accountability Office has opined that the SSA is too conservative in its projections of costs.

"[T]his proxy figure does not directly consider the estimated millions of current and former unauthorized workers and family members from Mexico and appears small in comparison with those estimates," determined the watchdog agency.

According to the Social Security Administration, the Social Security Trust Fund will begin paying out more than it is taking in by 2017, and will be exhausted by the year 2040.

TREA Senior Citizens League says its general mission is "to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for."

AARP spokesperson, Nancy Thompson, told NewsMax her organization "has no position" on the social security totalization treaty with Mexico.

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This is disturbing. Thank you for the information about that senior site. I hadn't heard of them before. Seems they are also against amnest for the illegals.

AARP spokesperson, Nancy Thompson, told NewsMax her organization "has no position" on the social security totalization treaty with Mexico.

Well I was going to ask where the AARP was. They are always there whenever the government wants to mess with Medicare or SS, but on this they have no opinion.

Same thing I wondered too and surprise, surprise......just as "non-commital" on this as illegal immigration.

I am sure that many members of the AARP wouldn’t be too pleased with their lack of an opinion on this issue.

I wonder what the AARP position on this is. I contacted them and they gave me a # to the state office here in Tucson. I asked them where they stood on this issue. The man said that he was not sure but that they represented the seniors on social security. I advised him that this was about giving possibily billions of that security to illegals here in America if Bush signed it. He said he would look into it; I asked him to email me the response. He was not sure if they had taken any political stance on the issue.

By the way he was hispanic. I hope that they send a respose and will post it if so.

AARP spokesperson, Nancy Thompson, told NewsMax her organization "has no position" on the social security totalization treaty with Mexico.

I obviously did not read this!!! Well, maybe he will say why.

This battle royale has been steeping for years. And AARP is a liberal organization that'll say they're for seniors when seniors actually are secondary to their insurance business and their socialist agenda. I've always believed if illegal aliens want to share in the US Social Security System, they need to identify who they really are and whose identity they used when they contributed. If either is fraudulent or unprovable, they need to be prosecuted to the max and denied membership. Regarding the identity used fraudulently to make contributions, well, that should be a windfall, sorta' like rent money for the ID. And if the ID is from a dead person, it's prima facie fraud and all contributions should be used to build a better fence.

Can you imagine with the Mexicans how many new affiliateds AARP won't have?
I cannot understand how come the hole media, right and left don't say a word about anything. And congress ? nothing