Illegal workers are keeping Social Security solvent. Yaaay!

The hell, I say? No, it's Obama's SSN man who says it:
"If for example we had not had other-than-legal immigrants in the country over the past, then these numbers suggest that we would have entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover [payouts] starting [in] 2009, or six years earlier than estimated under the 2010 Trustees Report."You must be scratching your heads. Me, too.
So why did I turn my attention from the Dems' circular firing squad to social security? It all started when Bruce Krasting, one of my favorite econbloggers, emailed me this question (and I totally blew it):
Assume: A person comes illegally to the US and illegally obtains a fake SS and using that fake # finds work. This person stays in the US continuing to work illegally for many years. During that period this person has SS payroll taxes deducted from their paycheck. This person returns to (Mexico) and at age 62 applies for SS retirement benefits.
Question: Is this person entitled to receive benefits? If so what are the conditions for payment?Here was my quick off-the-top answer:
"Good question. I have argued that the hue and cry about illegals using someone else's SSN is BS. All it does is enrich the victim. Boo hoo.
But to answer your Q (and I'm no SS expert) my answer is: no. Because they committed fraud at the outset. While they'd have a weak argument for unjust enrichment, they did the enriching themselves, knowingly, voluntarily, and fraudulently."So . . . drum roll please . . . I didn't just blow it. I was DEAD WRONG. We're talking DOA. I hate it when that happens.
Obama's Social Security Chief Actuary says illegal workers are just as entitled to social security benefits as legally employed workers. The only qualifier is that the illegal workers must receive their U.S. benefits in their own country. They cannot receive the benefits here in the United States (and benefit our economy by spending their money here).
Curious and more curious. So what's really going on?
Oh, probably the Obama Administration, in the face of the Arizona immigration anti-lawsuit backlash, wants to tout the contributions that illegal workers make to our country. And how much money are we talking, here? How much have these workers already paid into SS? Oh, around $320 billion.
Of course, these contributions wouldn't be nearly as "helpful" to Social Security if the illegal workers actually filed for and collected their benefits.
But, because the Administration knows the number of illegal workers who will (1) leave the U.S., return to their own country and (2) file for benefits they obtained through fraud are . . . well, pretty damn low, this $320 billion is enough to keep our wobbly Ponzi-schemed social security system solvent. At least for now.
Still, the whole notion of paying social security benefits to illegal workers who obtained jobs illegally using fraudulent social security numbers is pretty breathtaking.
Bruce did some digging and discovered the Rs sponsored a bill in 2006 that would have halted the payment of these obtained-through-fraud benefits. But . . . the Dems defeated it, 49-50.
P.S.: is this video a glimpse into our future?

Labels: Benefits, Bruce Krasting, Fraud, Illegal Immigration, Illegal Workers, Social Security, Social Security Trust Fund, Stealing Social Security Numbers