None dare call it treason...

...or, yet another sign the invasion of America has been successful.

Investor's Business Daily: Hasta La Vista, Social Security
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 agreement signed on June 29, 2004, between the U.S. Commissioner of Social Security and the director general of the Mexican Social Security Institute that allows illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits if they have as little as 18 months of employment history. U.S. citizens must show 10 years, or 40 quarters of job history, to collect benefits.

The first public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement has been obtained, and, no, it wasn't on the first page of the New York Times. It was obtained after three years of wrangling and a Freedom of Information Act request by the TREA Senior Citizens League (tscl.org) which represents more than 1 million seniors. And, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

The agreement, which awaits President Bush's signature, can take effect without Congress' approval. All the Democratic Congress has to do is nothing. It doesn't have to vote to approve it -- it has only 60 days to disapprove it, which isn't likely because they likely support allowing it to become law.

TREASON!

The agreement would drain more billions from a system with a $14 trillion liability and assets of only $3.5 trillion, according to a 2003 report by the Center for Immigration Studies. TREA notes, "Ominously, these assets include not only the trust's current reserves ($1.4 trillion), but also the present value of the taxes that current workers will pay for the rest of their working lives ($2.1 trillion).

TREASON!

Totalization agreements are common -- the U.S. has them with 20 countries. And their goal is legitimate -- to avoid double taxation when employers assign their employees to work temporarily in another country. Totalization was not designed or intended to cover millions of illegals sneaking past the U.S. Border Patrol from what is a borderline Third World country.

TREASON!

Workers from those 20 countries come here with employer documents verifying they are authorized to work here. Nearly all these countries are on an economic and industrial par with the U.S. And the numbers are limited. Our agreement with the U.K. covers just over 2,000 people.

Totalization agreements also assume rough equivalency in both country's retirement systems. TREA notes that in Mexico only 40% of nongovernment workers participate in their system, but 96% of our nongovernment workers do. Our system is progressive, meaning lower-income workers get more than they paid in. Mexican participants get back only what they pay in, plus interest.

In a review requested by Congress, the Government Accounting Office said the agreement with Mexico involves "highly uncertain" costs and would affect the long-term solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund if the SSA has underestimated the number of beneficiaries by more than 25%.

The review also notes that the SSA "assumes that the behavior of Mexican citizens would not change and does not recognize that an agreement would create an additional incentive for unauthorized workers to enter the United States."

Guest workers, yes, but invited guests, and benefits should follow only if they follow the same rules as American citizens, both in the requirements they must meet and in the contributions they must make, on both sides of the border.