Social Security for Mexicans closer to reality (Millions of immigrants to collect benefits)

www.wnd.com ^ | December 11, 2003 | WorldNetDaily

[VU4G10]

The prospect of millions of Mexicans receiving United States Social Security checks is moving closer to reality.

The Gannett News Service reports U.S. and Mexican officials are discussing a "totalization" agreement that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in payments south of the border. The plan would allow documented and undocumented immigrants to return home but still collect U.S. benefits.

WorldNetDaily reported the idea to merge both countries' Social Security systems was pushed late last year by Mexican President Vincente Fox as payback from President George W. Bush for failing to secure major new immigration reforms beneficial to Mexico City.

"When the legalization talks began going nowhere, the Mexicans began focusing on this," Maria Blanco, national senior counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told the Washington Post.

Excerpts from a U.S. Social Security Administration memo dated December 2002 said the agreement "is expected to move forward at an accelerated pace."

The pact is the latest and largest attempt by Washington and Mexico City to ensure that people from one country working in another aren't taxed twice for Social Security benefits. In the first year alone, the agreement is expected to trigger 37,000 claims from Mexicans working in the U.S. legally who paid Social Security taxes but haven't been able to claim their checks, said the memo, prepared by Ted Girdner, the Social Security Administration's assistant associate commissioner for international operations.

Supporters say the proposal would improve the daily lives of Mexican citizens, many of whom are still trapped in poverty a decade after the North American Free Trade Agreement promised prosperity to the nation's 103.4 million people.

"Let's be honest, there are millions of Mexican immigrants contributing to the Social Security system and the U.S. economy," Katherine Culliton, an attorney with the Washington, D.C., office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, told Gannett. "It's only fair they get back a benefit they deserve that will keep them from dying in poverty."

Critics, as well as some on the Bush administration economic team, worry that adding more beneficiaries would burden an already ailing system, just as American baby boomers begin to retire.

Currently, around 94,000 beneficiaries living abroad have been brought into the U.S. system under the auspices of about 20 international treaties designed to help Americans sent abroad by their employers signed since 1977. The accords are mostly with European countries, but also include Canada and South Korea.

Of the $408 billion distributed in Social Security benefits in 2001, according to Gannett, the federal government paid $173 million to about 89,000 foreigners living abroad.

Opponents contend the number of Mexican beneficiaries added to the fold would dwarf the total numbers from the 20 other countries. One estimate puts the number of Mexicans coming into the system at around 164,000 in the first five years.

Social Security Administration officials estimate about 50,000 Mexicans would collect $78 million in the first year of a U.S.-Mexican agreement. By 2050, the number is predicted to swell to 300,000 Mexicans collecting $650 million in benefits a year.

But that number doesn't include the potentially eligible, undocumented Mexican immigrants – numbering about 5 million, according to federal estimates – a recent General Accounting Office report pointed out.

Accounting for illegals, the agreement could cost U.S. taxpayers $750 million within five years of implementation.

Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, says if Mexicans receive the $8,100 in benefits that Mexican-born retirees in the U.S. currently get, the total expenditure for the program will easily surpass $1 billion annually.

Beyond the cost, Republican lawmakers worry the proposal will fuel further illegal immigration.

"Talk about an incentive for illegal immigration," Gannett quotes Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, as saying. "How many more would break the law to come to this country if promised U.S. government paychecks for life?"

Any "totalization" agreement ultimately reached must be approved by Congress.

[3catsanadog]

Count me in.

[NewRomeTacitus]

No means no when a rape is in progress.

[Eala]

When the rule of law can no longer be trusted or depended upon to provide fairness for the citizens of this nation

Taken a look at the decisions emanating from SCOTUS lately? There is no rule of law anymore.

[John R. (Bob) Locke]

But this bill will have to pass congress and we can Freep the day lights out of them--enough to scare them off.

How do you propose to "scare" them? Are you going to threaten to not vote for them? What happens when the rest of the FR crowd starts shouting, "But the Democrat will win!", at election time?

How many Republicans do you think lose any sleep over such a threat from conservatives?

[lainde]

really shocking!

[Senormechanico]

I spent a few years in Mexico on a sailboat. While there, I got to know some locals in a few places. When we talked politics, I found how bad the taxes were in their families.
When I said, "Why don't you revolt?", they said it wasn't "bad enough. We still have enough to eat."

Probably "Slavery 101" in some political book somewhere. (sigh)

SM

[Kozak]

The sooner it's ruined the better for us who want it privatized.

I wish that were true. I bet the next step will be to loot all the private retirement accounts that we have been contribuing to. A pile of money that big is just too tempting for polititians to leave alone. Watch the whine begin about the injustice of it all that some have private funds to support them while the majority ( including all the south of the border beneficiares) don't.

[Senormechanico]

MAJOR PING !!!!!!!!!

[Mrs Zip]

ping

[Blue Collar Christian]

OH, is it time!

I saw on the news this mornig some congressman Avila was going to introduce a bill to the state to allow latino non-U.S. citizens to vote!

This, along with the latino "boycott" tomorro over Sportspecker pulling the driver's licenses for illegals.

We gotta get outa this place, if it's the last thing we ever do.

[Fledermaus]

While millions of Americans under 30 will never see a dime.

It's time to dump this socialist program.

[nutmeg]

read later

[Fledermaus]

How bad is this mess going to get before the taxpayers decide to do something about it?

As bad as you can possibly imagine. Taxpayers are some of the stupidest people on the planet. They NEVER hold our government accountable.

[Blue Collar Christian]

"Any "totalization" agreement ultimately reached must be approved by congress."

You mean the same congress that recently passed legislation, then signed by W that the Supremes upheld as law to discount the 1st ammendment? That congress?

[cherry]

the Manchurian Canidate.....

[cherry]

well, this is just an underhanded way for us to have the one world government...its' just that we don't know it yet...

maybe they won't come right out and say it, but with this new SS disaster, which the hard working Americans pay into for their whole freaking lives, its like us redistributing our wealth to the world in a round about way....

I don't know what else to do about it except cheat....

[cherry]

maybe we all just have to move to a huge commune and the hell with the govt.....but they would probably put the tanks to us.....

we need to learn about the underground economy and the maifia....that may be the only way hard working folks can get their fair share...

[Blue Collar Christian]

"we need to learn about the underground economy and the mafia...that may be the only way hard working folks can get their fair share."

How about we get Mexican citizenships, renounce our U.S. citizenships, sneak back across the border and work tax free?

Here in the U.S. we could get gov't medical benifits, welfare...

[JustPiper]

I sure don't see SS being around for my generation even and what Bush is doing, what DHS isn't doing, forget it, we're just a hapless country very soon

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Globalization bump.