Free Inside Every "Guest Worker" Plan: A Ticking Social Security Time Bomb
"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. So, even if some people have never been in this country, they may still be entitled to benefits.
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 are brought in to handle the hordes of new people being brought into 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.
Barbara regularly writes for CapitolHillCoffeeHouse. She also appears in California Chronicle, Border Patrol, and Citizens Caucus. Her primary interest is illegal immigration, but she writes about other subjects as well.
Barbara lives in a large city on the West Coast. Her loyalties are with God, family, country, heritage and borders.
She enjoys music, painting, poetry and song writing.
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