Your both misinformed. Illegals cannot draw social security. The only people that can draw SS benefits without paying into it are; spouses, widows, children under 18 or who have not graduated high school who are survivors of a person that paid into the system.
Social security has never been raided. The law was written, from the beginning, stating all excess funds were to be placed in the general fund and a special interest bearing bond was then given to the social security trust fund.
I thought the same things you guys did but then had a buddy I served with got a job at social security and told me I was wrong about those two things(and others). Like you guys probably don’t believe me I didn’t believe him. So I researched it myself and he was right. I think as conservatives we should have the correct facts when we discuss the issue so I encourage you to research it yourself. I recommend reading the original social security act of 1935. You can find it online.
If what you write is true (and I have no reason to doubt you), then the struggling system is in even more trouble than I thought. This is not reassuring.
1) Illegals do claim SS benefits but do it illegally by identify theft. They do it more with tax "refunds" (the IRS giving back more than you put in is not, in my opinion, a refund). But they also do it with SS benefits, too.
2) As OIF pointed out the SS fund invests in U.S. treasury bonds. Those are the "IOU's" Congress uses to "steal" from SS. So on the one hand Congress hasn't stolen from the SS anymore than Congress steals from any of us who invest in U.S. treasuries (which I do some when I expect a stock market downturn, like I'm doing now). Like OIF, I wish others would quit saying Congress raided the SS fund.
But at the same time, IMHO, the SS being the #1 buyer of U.S. treasuries (basically the government "owes" itself more than it owes China or Japan) gives Congress more leeway to spend more than they should. So when Congress says, "We'll just spend more money. No big deal. All we're doing is adding to our debt." -- what they're really doing is telling the U.S. Treasury to generate more treasury bills (IOU's), which in turn devalues the treasury bills already in the market. In short, it devalues the treasury bills owned by the SS fund. Since by law the SS fund can invest in only U.S. treasuries, running up our debt does in some way "raid the SS" by devaluing the SS fund's only means of investment growth. Does it make the SS fund's investments lose money? No. A million dollars invested in treasuries 20 years ago is worth more than that today. But it does make the SS fund not earn as much on its investments as it would if Congress wasn't spending money like my ex.
“...all excess funds were to be placed in the general fund and a special interest bearing bond was then given to the social security trust fund.”
And those bonds must be redeemed with current tax dollars. In other words the funds accounting is just a shell game. Today’s recipients are paid from today’s taxes. Futures recipients will be paid from taxes collected at that time.
This makes SS a welfare program. It has rules that make it seem like a pension or trust but the SC ruled early on that SS is whatever Congress wants it be. Spend, create dependency, buy votes, tax.
SS cannot go broke, it cannot be robbed, and it cannot be mismanaged any more so than any other wealth transfer scheme. Politicians current and future will make a political calculation on cost (taxes) vs benefits (votes) and rule accordingly.
SS is much like the fabled gas tax for highway spending.
You are right that illegal aliens cannot collect SS. But they do collect SSI and SSDI.