Hasta La Vista, Social Security

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Hasta La Vista, Social Security

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 1/4/2007

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 an agreement signed on June 29, 2004, between the U.S. Commissioner of Social Security and the director general of the Mexican Social Security Institute that allows illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits if they have as little as 18 months of employment history. U.S. citizens must show 10 years, or 40 quarters of job history, to collect benefits.

The first public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement has been obtained, and, no, it wasn't on the first page of the New York Times. It was obtained after three years of wrangling and a Freedom of Information Act request by the TREA Senior Citizens League (tscl.org) which represents more than 1 million seniors. And, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

The agreement, which awaits President Bush's signature, can take effect without Congress' approval. All the Democratic Congress has to do is nothing. It doesn't have to vote to approve it — it has only 60 days to disapprove it, which isn't likely because they likely support allowing it to become law.

The agreement would drain more billions from a system with a $14 trillion liability and assets of only $3.5 trillion, according to a 2003 report by the Center for Immigration Studies. TREA notes, "Ominously, these assets include not only the trust's current reserves ($1.4 trillion), but also the present value of the taxes that current workers will pay for the rest of their working lives ($2.1 trillion).

Totalization agreements are common — the U.S. has them with 20 countries. And their goal is legitimate — to avoid double taxation when employers assign their employees to work temporarily in another country. Totalization was not designed or intended to cover millions of illegals sneaking past the U.S. Border Patrol from what is a borderline Third World country.

Workers from those 20 countries come here with employer documents verifying they are authorized to work here. Nearly all these countries are on an economic and industrial par with the U.S. And the numbers are limited. Our agreement with the U.K. covers just over 2,000 people.

Totalization agreements also assume rough equivalency in both country's retirement systems. TREA notes that in Mexico only 40% of nongovernment workers participate in their system, but 96% of our nongovernment workers do. Our system is progressive, meaning lower-income workers get more than they paid in. Mexican participants get back only what they pay in, plus interest.

In a review requested by Congress, the Government Accounting Office said the agreement with Mexico involves "highly uncertain" costs and would affect the long-term solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund if the SSA has underestimated the number of beneficiaries by more than 25%.

The review also notes that the SSA "assumes that the behavior of Mexican citizens would not change and does not recognize that an agreement would create an additional incentive for unauthorized workers to enter the United States."

Guest workers, yes, but invited guests, and benefits should follow only if they follow the same rules as American citizens, both in the requirements they must meet and in the contributions they must make, on both sides of the border.

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Schwarzenegger's Proposal to Insure Illegal Aliens Opens Californians to Billions in Additional Costs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's proposal to provide health coverage to every child in
California, including illegal aliens, could leave the state liable for
untold billions in unforeseen costs in the future, warns the Federation for
American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The conservatively estimated cost of
$400 million a year could easily balloon to many times that figure. Costs
will grow as the numbers of illegal aliens in California increase and may
rise even more dramatically as legal residents of other states take
advantage of a federal law that requires that state benefits made available
to illegal aliens must be made available to all legal U.S. residents.
The irony of Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal to publicly fund health
insurance for an estimated 6.5 million residents who lack basic coverage is
that illegal immigration has been one of the key factors in creating
millions of uninsured Californians. A large percentage of U.S. citizen
children without coverage are the offspring of illegal immigrants.
Moreover, the presence of millions of low-wage illegal aliens in the
California labor force has led to many employers dropping coverage that
they used to provide to workers and their families.
"Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal, if enacted, would create yet another
magnet attracting still more illegal aliens to California," commented Dan
Stein, president of FAIR. "Illegal aliens themselves will be attracted by
this very generous benefit the governor wants to make available, and the
knowledge that the taxpayers will pick up the tab for health insurance will
convince still more California employers to shift that cost burden to the
public."
Another factor apparently not accounted for by Gov. Schwarzenegger is a
provision of a 1996 federal immigration law that requires a state that
provides a benefit to illegal immigrants to make that same benefit
available to all legal residents of the U.S. "There are millions of
children all across the country who do not have health insurance," observed
Stein. "If this proposal is enacted, all of them could claim the same
health benefits in California, according to federal law. Gov.
Schwarzenegger is either unaware of this law, or ignoring it."
California voters have made it repeatedly clear that they oppose
granting benefits to illegal aliens and that they demand fiscal
responsibility from their elected officials. "The governor's proposal runs
afoul of the public's distaste for being burdened with the costs of illegal
immigration -- even if the state had the resources, which clearly it does
not. In addition to creating a vast and expensive new entitlement for
illegal aliens, Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan is short on details about how he
plans to pay for it now and into the future," said Stein.
"Illegal immigration is the leading cause for the increase of uninsured
families in California and throughout the U.S. The problem can only be
addressed by enforcing laws against illegal immigration, not through
unsustainable schemes that will only encourage more illegal immigration,"
Stein concluded.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national,
non- profit, public interest membership organization of concerned citizens
who share a belief in stronger border enforcement, an end to illegal
immigration, and a reduction of immigration levels consistent with national
interests.


SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform