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WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said in a new report Monday that Social Security is facing a $13.6 trillion shortfall and that delaying reforms is not fair to younger workers. A report issued by the Treasury Department said that some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases will need to be considered to permanently fix the funding shortfall. But White House officials stressed that President Bush remains opposed to raising taxes. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he hoped the new report would help find common ground on the politically divisive issue, but a key Democrat charged that the administration will...

KeepArkansasLegal met with Vic Snyder and tried to get some answers about what he is doing to stop illegal immigration. Here is the video footage of that meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3v-3bsbbBE

While posting on another thread, the SS "totalization agreement" with Mexico came to mind. I did some searching around and havent found anything indicating that the President has signed this yet. From the Social Security wepage on it:  Effective date of an agreement with Mexico In the United States, once the agreement is signed, the President will submit the agreement to Congress where it must sit in review for 60 session days. If Congress takes no action during this time, the agreement can move forward. In Mexico, once the agreement is signed, the Mexican Senate must approve it. The linked...

Eased Trucking Regulations Under Scrutiny By Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau Mexican trucks will begin rolling onto American highways in 60 days, despite warnings from critics that the endeavor is fraught with safety risks, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said Thursday. Peters vowed that all Mexican trucks entering the United States under a limited pilot program will be subject to tough regulations - including license checks and drug tests - that will be closely monitored. Mexican truckers in the program also will not be allowed to make domestic deliveries, will not be allowed to carry hazardous materials and...

Last week I introduced a bill that will protect Social Security, especially for the millions of Baby Boomers who will soon be receiving retirement benefits. The Social Security Protection Act will prohibit illegal aliens from receiving Social Security benefits for time they were in the country illegally. If we give millions of illegal aliens Social Security benefits, there is no doubt—Social Security will go broke. That is why I introduced this bill to ensure that Social Security is protected for the millions of Americans who have legally earned their benefits.� Baby Boomers are quickly approaching retirement, and we are already...

PERFECT STORM: Fed Chairman Bernanke speaking about the two-headed monster looming on the horizon: capping future medical and retirement costs. Fed boss Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that the nation is facing a potential economic disaster as the aging Baby Boom generation is set to drain the nation's retirement and health care funds. The Federal Reserve chairman's remarks to the Senate Budget Committee didn't include any of the typical chitchat about the short-term outlook for inflation or his thoughts about monetary policy. Those are due in mid-February, when Bernanke is scheduled to testify before both houses of Congress on...

The U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement currently being drafted by the Social Security Administration is not far from implementation. After the current agreement is finalized, approved by the State Department, and signed by the President, Congress will have 60 days to pass a resolution of disapproval of the agreement. If Congress does not disapprove, it will automatically go into effect. Though the stated aim of the totalization agreement is to coordinate the Social Security programs of both countries to our mutual benefit, the actual advantages clearly lie in Mexico's favor. Though there are no official statistics on how many Americans...

Let's have a vote on 'Totalization Agreement' Nevada Sen. John Ensign warns that -- if coupled with a pending immigration reform bill that stalled last year -- a U.S.-Mexican "Totalization Agreement" could allow U.S. Social Security benefits to flow to huge numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants. So the senator has introduced a bill that would require the Senate and House to vote on the agreement. Under current law, should President Bush sign the deal and Congress take no action on it, the deal would automatically go into effect after 60 days. Totalization agreements are designed to prevent dual Social Security...

President George W. Bush's secret plan for Social Security has just been released to the public in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by TREA Senior Citizens League, a million-member seniors advocacy group. For years the president carried on an energetic public relations campaign to promote his plan to privatize part of Social Security, but he kept under White House lock and key the "totalization" agreement his administration secretly made with Mexico in June 2004. A U.S. Border Patrol agent patrols along the fence line of the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., on Thursday, April 6, 2006....

Pro-amnesty politicians know something they won’t tell us: illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime. The victims are American citizens - who are not only victims of murder, rape, child molestation and traffic accidents at the hands of illegals – but who are forced to pay mightily for the privilege. Read this 16th installment of the FSM series on the horrors of illegal immigration to learn the stupefying facts of how much this is costing each and every one of us. You will revolt! As detailed in Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of...

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- For more than a decade, I've written about the need to reform Social Security. And I've blamed older generations of Americans for not fixing a program they know is unsustainable into the future. My bad. It turns out, if I wanted to get everyone up in arms, all I needed to do was blame illegal immigrants. Ah, yes. The folks who, we are told, wrecked our schools, ruined our environment and lowered our wages are now poised to steal our Social Security. Oh, there's some stealing going on all right, but it doesn't have anything...

While Americans keep their eyes on the war in Iraq, we're quietly being conquered on the home front. From within. And without a whimper. In Minneapolis, Muslim cab drivers make their own rules as to who they will allow to ride in their cabs. If you're carrying liquor, you're out of luck. Meanwhile, in Texas, a food chain has started accepting Mexican pesos for American pizzas. In Washington, newly elected congressman Keith Ellison takes the oath of office on the Koran while managing to dodge legitimate questions about where his ultimate loyalty lies. In San Diego County, 40% of U.S....

For years, the trustees of Social Security have warned Congress and the president about the fiscal crisis that the Social Security program faces in the not-too-distant future. As the representative with the largest number of Social Security beneficiaries in Congress, it is my goal to listen to all ideas and seek solutions that ensure the long-term stability of the program. Over the years, modifications have been made to Social Security that protect a worker's right to a safe and secure retirement. One of these modifications, called a totalization agreement between two nations, allows people who spend significant portions of their...

Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, a private group recently obtained a copy of a 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico that will allow hundreds of thousands of noncitizens to receive Social Security benefits. The agreement creates a so-called “totalization” plan between the two nations. Totalization is nothing new. The first such agreements were made in the late 1970s between the United States and several foreign governments simply to make sure American citizens living abroad did not suffer from double taxation with respect to Social Security taxes. From there, however, totalization agreements have become vehicles for noncitizens...

And the federal government approves Concerned about illegal aliens coming here and getting just as good a deal from our government "entitlement" programs as U.S. citizens? Have your friends and acquaintances, perhaps, gone so far as to suggest you may be a little "paranoid" on this score? Well, they're right, and it turns out you were wrong all along. Foreign nationals are not going to be able to come here illegally and get just a good a deal from our Social Security system as legal immigrants and American-born workers. They're going to get a much better deal. On June 29,...

Will Bush back lifting payroll tax cap? January 8, 2007 BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist More than the ascension of Nancy Pelosi & Co. was disturbing congressional Republicans last week. They ask this question: Will President Bush embrace a tax increase that would produce potential economic disaster and guaranteed political catastrophe? Henry M. Paulson Jr. is a shark on Wall Street but a rookie on Pennsylvania Avenue. As Bush's third secretary of the Treasury, he has engaged in secret bipartisan talks discussing an increase in the current $97,500 limit on personal income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That...

The U.S.- Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement ...an agreement signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has already warned that as a result of this agreement, the number of unauthorized Mexican workers and family members eligible for social benefits will likely increase. The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within decades of bankruptcy - yet they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise...

WASHINGTON -- As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government released this week the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement, an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. TREA Senior Citizens League, a Washington-based nonpartisan seniors group, announced this week that after Freedom of Information Act lawsuits it filed against the government, it had received the secret agreement document. Brad Phillips, a spokesperson for TREA, told NewsMax that the language in the agreement "raises more questions than it answers — such as what...

On its way to bankruptcy, Social Security will get there a bit sooner if President Bush, Republican senators John McCain, Chuck Hagel and Sam Brownback...... The Bush administration has reached an agreement with Mexico that would permit illegal aliens.....to claim Social Security benefits for the work they performed while in the United States illegally, even if the illegal aliens committed felonies by using fraudulent Social Security documents to obtain their jobs. It would automatically become law if Congress does not reject it. Opposing this deal should be an easy decision. But last year the Republican-led Senate narrowly rejected an amendment...

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 organization of retirees has announced the release, after three years of arguments and a Freedom of Information request, by the Social Security Administration of a copy of the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The TREA Senior Citizens League said the document reveals what was expected, a huge threat to the future of Social Security, because any Mexican worker who has as little as 18 months of employment history in the United States could end up qualifying for some Social Security retirement benefits. The organization of retirees, whose leaders have tried to convince Congress...

An agreement the Bush administration reached with Mexico on Social Security benefits would allow illegal aliens granted amnesty in the future to claim credit for the time they worked illegally. The TREA Senior Citizens League, a Social Security advocacy group, recently obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act, and said it confirms the group's worst fears. The document is a jumble of definitions and legal language, but a spokesman for the group said what's important is what's not in the text: It does nothing to prevent undocumented aliens who later get legal status from receiving benefits for the...

(CNSNews.com) - Illegal aliens who work under borrowed, stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers could collect retirement benefits based on their illegal earnings as the result of a Bush administration plan. Critics charge the federal government has grossly underestimated the cost of the proposal, which they believe could run be billions of dollars per year. Congress is expected to vote on some combination of proposed changes to immigration laws as early as next week, according to sources working with the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees. While members have not been able to reach agreement on the details of a...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After numerous refusals over three and a half years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The government was forced to make the disclosure in response to lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million-member nonpartisan seniors advocacy group. The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund. The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is...

WASHINGTON -- "We might be on the cusp of giving billions of dollars worth of our senior's Social Security money to illegal Mexican workers, and it's getting almost no media attention whatsoever," warned Brad Phillips, a spokesman for TREA Senior Citizens League, one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups with 1.2 million members. TREA Senior Citizens League filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in U.S. District Court Thursday morning - after what the group styled as "numerous refusals over three years by the U.S. Department of State and Social Security Administration to provide a draft of -...

President Bush has refused to meet with border law-enforcement officials from Texas for a second time. His response to their request came in the form of a letter Monday, angering both lawmakers and sheriffs. In fact, some Republican members of the House, upset by what they call the administration's seeming lack of concern for border security, are preparing to hold investigative hearings in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, early next month. Members of the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation hope to expose serious security flaws that could potentially lead to terrorist attacks in the country, said Rep. Ted...

Nearly 159,000 immigrants whose visas will expire in the next five years will continue working illegally in the United States, federal investigators say. That would cost the government money in unjustified Social Security payments. It would aggravate the overall illegal-immigration burden, which Congress is now closer to confronting again. And it could threaten homeland security, investigators warn. "Unauthorized work by immigrants ... weakens Social Security numbers' integrity and may require that the agency pay future benefits to these individuals," Social Security investigators note in their new report. Moreover, "they may obtain employment in sensitive areas." But the latest evidence about...

The U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement The U.S. Commissioner of Social Security signed a totalization agreement with the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute on June 29, 2004. Now that the agreement has been signed, it must be reviewed first by the State Department, and then by the White House, which will submit it to Congress. Congress will have then have 60 "legislative" days to review the agreement. During this period, current law authorizes either Chamber to pass a Resolution of Disapproval of the agreement, or it will take effect automatically at the end of the 60-day period. In addition,...

Totalization With Mexico Could "Total" Social Security Recently, I received a letter from Edward I. Nelson, the Chairman of United States Border Control, regarding a proposed “Totalization Treaty/Agreement” with Mexico. This is not a subject with which I am unfamiliar, as I wrote an article about it while I was a reporter for Talon News/GOPUSA.com, viewable here. (I have to refer you to this website, as the archives at Talon News are no longer available since the “Gannon-gate” ordeal.) Totalization agreements were begun to help employees sent abroad to still have enough credits to draw Social Security benefits with the...

President George W. Bush wants to give illegal aliens the Social Security lockbox key.His Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico will give illegals money he claims will not be there when younger Americans retire. The diabolical brilliance of Dubya's self-fulfilling prophesy is extraordinario. That's Spanish for extraordinary, amigo.Or as the two cutout figures in the Guiness beer commercials say --"brilliant!"If Congress is stupid enough to agree, it will make Bush's case that Social Security insolvency is just around the corner (a street corner full of illegals taking jobs that should be for Americans).The United States has totalization programs with 20...

QUITO, Ecuador Mexico and Washington agreed to introduce similar legislative initiatives whereby Mexican workers who paid into Social Security in the United States will be refunded their contributions when they return to their homeland, President Vicente Fox said here Monday. "The initiatives entail the recognition of all those (Mexicans) who have worked in the United States legally or otherwise, so they will have the right to the savings they accumulated while working in the neighboring country," said Fox, who is visiting Ecuador. During a news conference with Mexican journalists accompanying him on his travels, Fox announced that he and U.S....

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT Aired September 22, 2004 Three million illegal aliens will enter this country this year. As many as 12 million are already here. So why all the talk of amnesty? We'll have a special report. And an exclusive report on what the governments of the United States and Mexico had hoped would be a secret agreement, an agreement that would encourage millions more illegal aliens to enter this country. REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CA: If we spend more money and we provide more benefits to illegal immigrants, there will be more illegal immigrants. (END VIDEO CLIP) DOBBS: Congressman...

A year ago, this organization warned that the Bush Administration was planning to do something unthinkable - they were seriously considering signing a pact with Mexico that would give any Mexican who had worked in the U.S., including illegal aliens, full U.S. Social Security benefits, paid out of your Social Security Trust Fund! It seemed so far fetched, we had trouble convincing the Congress that it could happen. A White House spokesman denied our claim that it was on a fast track, stating the ongoing discussions for Totalization were just informal and preliminary. But we knew better. We had obtained...