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Inside Job: The Mexican Totalization Pact
Posted by PHX - G. Salientian on Friday January 7, 2005 at 10:57 am MST
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=17669

What do you get when you cross Social Security with illegal immigration? You might reasonably assume that an issue integral to two of the hottest and most contentious political topics today would be explosive, red letter, above the fold, big time news. But you’d be wrong.

In fact, what you get when you cross Social Security with illegal immigration is the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico, arguably the most under-reported story of 2003 and 2004. Despite its conspicuous newsworthiness, the "Great Social Security Giveaway," as Texas Rep. Ron Paul dubbed it, has been next to invisible in the major news media.

You say you’ve never heard of the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico? Well, then, prepare to be infuriated. Among other provisions, the Mexican totalization agreement has the effect of permitting illegal aliens working in the United States to draw Social Security benefits after as little as 18 months of employment. Even illegal immigrants using bogus Social Security numbers (a crime in itself) would be eligible. Jointly signed last year by Social Security Administration Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart and her Mexican counterpart, this totalization agreement is widely expected to enter into force in autumn of this year, unless Congress musters the grit to quash it with a "resolution of disapproval."

Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan research organization, estimates the cost of totalization "could easily surpass $1 billion per year." This figure does not include the at least $50 million in so-called "back payments" sought from us by the Mexican government.

It seems inconceivable that mere months after Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan touched off a firestorm of controversy by fretting publicly about the long term viability of Social Security, Commissioner Barnhart quietly added potentially millions of new beneficiaries. Greenspan recommended steep benefit cuts – or failing that, tax increases – to rescue Social Security from certain catastrophe. And yet we are now poised to extend benefits to individuals with no legal right to be working here in the first place, adding billions in new liabilities to a system which we’re now supposed to believe is verging on collapse.

Despite Social Security’s new hot-topic status, and the simmering controversy over illegal immigration, totalization remains strangely obscure, unmentioned, a foregone conclusion. Why?

With the exception of the Washington Post, the Washington Times, and the Los Angeles Times, totalization has been largely disregarded by major print newspapers, and utterly ignored by television and radio news. The Bush Administration clearly wants totalization, but has publicly downplayed it as a minor accounting formality. Since there is virtually no news coverage of totalization, no official party positions, and no widespread public outcry, it’s easier for Congress to ignore this than to address it.

If Congress does not actively disapprove Mexican totalization, it becomes the law of the land. Sadly, only a relative handful of Congressmen such as Ron Paul, Dana Rohrbacher, Mac Collins, and Arizona’s J.D. Hayworth have exhibited the audacity to tackle this prickly issue rather than sitting back and allowing passive ratification. Worse still, the few House measures introduced to thwart totalization have never reemerged from the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee to face a House vote, allowing Congress to avoid the issue altogether.

The White House is mounting a campaign to convince Americans that Social Security is "headed for an iceberg" and that cuts up to 46% may be necessary. No anti-totalization campaign is on the agenda. Indeed, since Rep. Collins’ Resolution of Disapproval (H.R. 720) died in committee in last year’s session of Congress, there has been no discernible progress on the totalization front.

There is clearly a well-orchestrated campaign to quietly convert our beleaguered Social Security system into a stealth foreign aid program, and they have nearly succeeded. The people responsible, our President among them, have no qualms about slashing benefits to American citizens while simultaneously expanding the rolls to include millions of illegal aliens; no qualms about enticing illegals across our borders with additional rewards; no qualms about toying with the precarious legacy of millions of retired and soon-to-be-retired American citizens.

It’s happening right under our noses, as usual. And the clock is ticking. Very quietly.

RELATED LINKS

Center for Immigration Studies’ totalization analysis: Examining a Lopsided Agreement with Mexico http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/back904.html

General Accountability Office report: Proposed Totalization Agreement with Mexico Presents Unique Challenges http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d031035t.pdf

Senior Citizens’ League totalization FAQs http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101801.asp

SBD

[Barbie2004]

Do you ever get the feeling that this "one-world country" is marching toward fruition despite our objections??

Some of the following come to mind:

United Nations
International Court of Justice
International Law
World Trade Organization
World Health Organization
International Monetary Fund
World Bank, etc.

Those are just a few off the top of my head. I need to do some research for others. I would appreciate anyone adding to the list for those I have overlooked.

Hey folks, I have never been a "conspiracy" theorist before, but you know, I sometimes can help but feel that both of our political parties dance to some other entity besides us, the electorate.

Finally, I am more than mad, I am down right frightened!!

[SBD]