July 31, 2005
President Bush supports a Social Security "totalization agreement" with Mexico.
In January, Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) introduced H. Res. 20, entitled "Expressing the disapproval of the House of Representatives of the Social Security totalization agreement between the United States and Mexico." It has 40 co-sponsors, but no action seems to have been taken since then.
This undated page implies that the totalization agreement is stalled and awaiting action from Bush. After he pushes it forward, Congress will have 60 days to block it. I don't know if that's accurate; for all I know we're currently within that 60 day window. In any case, you can send free FAXes about this at the last link.
For the reasons you should oppose this, the coverage starts here, and see who else supports this agreement here.
Posted to Immigration2005b at July 31, 2005 01:10 PM
Comments
If SS reform/privatization would go thru, eventually (yeah, OK, that's a long time away) this would not be a problem. Only someone rabid would have any objection to people -- anyone, whether here legally or not -- having property rights to their own SS account plus earnings -- money they paid into it (perhaps with matching employer contributions). This is seen as a problem now because of the current dishonest, pay-as-you-go SS mess, where money SS recipients receives comes from taxpayers, instead of from payments and earnings previously paid into an existing individual account.
The sooner we begin moving toward SS privatization the better -- doing so would eliminate so many problems, including this one (and also the demographic one, i.e. not enuf workers for the number of benefit recipients/retirees).
Posted by: eh at August 1, 2005 11:19 AM
The TREA Senior Citizens League, where TREA stands for The Retired Enlisted Association, numbers over 1.2 million legal American citizens who are retired from military and civilian careers (website). They are raising the alarm about the Totalization Agreement with Mexico on the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.
Currently awaiting signature by President Bush, the agreement would pay out billions in US social security benefits to millions of Mexican citizens who worked in this country ILLEGALLY. For three years TSCL has been asking the government for a copy of the agreement, AND HAS BEEN REFUSED! Yesterday, they brought suit in US District Court under the Freedom of Information Act.
Current estimates suggest that Social Security lacks the funding to pay its current obligations to the Americans who have earned their pensions with a lifetime of blood, sweat, and tears. To incur additional massive unfunded obligation will hasten the bankruptcy of the system.
What is worse, the US Social Security system is a vehicle for the redistribution of wealth. High wage earners get back disproportionately less than they pay in, and low wage earners get back more than they pay in. Since the illegal Mexican workers are typically at the very low end of the wage scale, the net effect is the transfer of wealth from hard-working United States citizens to illegal Mexican aliens. Moreover, the Mexicans will return to Mexico to retire, where the cost of living is cheap. There they would still receive benefits, under this plan. So the net effect is also to transfer the wealth created by the United States to the country of Mexico.
Yesterday, TSCL issued this statement:
June 29, 2006 (Washington, DC) – TREA Senior Citizens League filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in U.S. District Court this morning after numerous refusals over three years by the U.S. Department of State and Social Security Administration to provide a draft of, or virtually any pertinent information regarding, the impact of the Totalization Agreement with Mexico on the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.
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 awaiting President Bush’s signature. Many critics believe he intends to sign it shortly after the 2006 midterm elections.
Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without congressional vote, either house would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.
Under the Totalization Agreement, millions of illegal Mexicans working in the United States today could claim benefits from the Social Security Trust Fund for work performed while in the United States illegally. They could do so through immigration amnesty, through which they could claim past Social Security payments for illegal work. They could also potentially return to Mexico and claim credits for illegal work in the United States, or claim payments through other as yet undisclosed methods.
“We are outraged that our government won’t tell us how much they plan to take out of the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for the Totalization Agreement with Mexico, and we want to know what they’re hiding,” said Ralph McCutchen, Chairman of the TREA Senior Citizens League. “Our 1.2 million elderly members didn’t play by the rules and sacrifice through two World Wars so we could fund millions of workers who crossed the border and decided to work here illegally.”….
TSCL chairman Ralph McCutchen also sent this letter:
It’s a sad day for me when I have to authorize a lawsuit against our own government.
But that’s what I had to do today. Was it the right thing? I hope you’ll let me know by signing our petition to the State Department and the Social Security Administration to get them to release the information on the so-called Totalization Agreement with Mexico.
For three years, TSCL has been warning you about a possible treaty-like agreement with Mexico that will grant Social Security benefits to more Mexican citizens who work in this country, even if they retire back to Mexico, and even if they work here illegally!
Naturally, when you hear of something this silly, it’s hard to believe. So I wanted to see a copy of the agreement for myself, and review it with TSCL’s legal and Social Security experts. But the Social Security Administration and the US Department of State won’t even let us look at the agreement!
Nor will they share their estimates of the costs on American taxpayers. You see, if even hundreds of thousands more people — not even American citizens — are allowed to collect Social Security benefits, then that cost will have to be borne by us and our children, probably in the form of reduced benefits for us.
After three years of asking, it’s time to get tough. So today we filed two lawsuits to get to the truth. The suits demand that the State Department and the Social Security Administration turn over the documents we’ve been asking for….
You can sign the TSCL petition here:
TSCL/TREA Senior Citizens Website, Washington, DC
1,000,000 and growing
Petition to Congress Protesting Illegal Alien Amnesty ‘Guest Worker’ Legislation
and U.S. Social Security Totalization With Mexico
Posted by: Tennessee Daughter at June 30, 2006 11:44 AM
