SSI comes out social security and is paid to the poor, the lazy, the fraudulent, and what's left to retirees. That's why Clinton and Congress smiled big time as they claimed they cut back American welfare. Why do you think Bush rolled over so easily? Fear of the middle class? Or, fear of having to find another way to pay for welfare?
We are going to sign an agreement with Mexico that allows Mexicans to work far less quarters than Americans to earn SS benefits so when they return to Mexico with US dollars they can live well in a cheap economy.
You claim the middle-class is the big beneficiary? The middle-class collects a mere pittance on what they could have collected if they had invested their money in the market. When I am 66, I will have contributed 330,000 to SS. They will give me 2,029 a month or a return of 7.3% a year STARTING when I retire. If I wait to 70, it goes to 2,680 a month for a 9% return a year on 357,000. I have been getting a greater return on my private retirement funds STARTING when I made my first savings payment. My children will also inherit my private savings but not SS. Because SS is a PONZI scheme I have to sweat every day of my life it doesn't fall apart before I die. And, I don't believe the Congressional lie that SS is solvent for the next 30 years. This is simply a public relations promo to keep this generation of old people voting to support it.
And you say the rich don't benefit from ss! Why would they care about getting anything from SS when they can steal much more through corporations? The big lie about the rich paying for everything is just that. A lie. The rich live in an elite financial feudal system. These financial lords pay their cohorts well to make sure the lords maximized THEIR profits. CEO's and the like make obscene incomes. Corporate boards have a high rate of incestuous memberships to protect the racket. They have token socialist board members who they pay off to give them a fig-leaf of cover. The elite rich have the system rigged in THEIR favor.
To protect their system they are now going international. Screw America, that means we the people -- because the rich elite are going to protect THEIR interest in the global economy. The system is rigged to maximize the profits for the rich elite by making the middle-class work hard.
What is SSI? I'm not familiar with that term. Are you talking about welfare? Welfare is paid out of general federal and state tax revenues, as far as I know.