Social Security Trust Fund - Steve Gross "Bombshell"

This blog post is about how the administration is suddenly making political use of the fact that many illegal immigrants have been (as a matter of course) paying into the Social Security system (on their ill-gotten social security numbers or taxids).

Keep in mind for context that there is no big "pot of money" as a result, or in social security in general. All social security revenues are immediately spent by the general government. Also, since illegal workers simply displace domestic workers, they aren't "giving" us anything (in fact, they are actually deflating wages).

So this is not what it at first seems in terms of "giving amnesty in exchange for the trust fund assets." Especially since illegal proceeds are automatically forfeited in all legitimate areas of the law -- we certainly shouldn't have to "give amnesty" in exchange for them. But this "trust fund windfall" is likely to be conflated with a political argument for amnesty.

The Administration will use the Goss revelation to prove to the American people that illegal workers have made a major contribution to the US economy via the taxes they paid to SS. This will be done to blunt the growing tide of ire among those who actually live here. There could be another chapter to this story. It could be the ticket whereby some illegals get legal. The cost for a Green Card would be that the applicant would have to (among other things) agree to give up their rights to any future SS benefits based on prior contributions made to SS. They would be entitled to benefits based solely on what they were taxed in future years. Any previous contributions (both employer and worker) would be given up as a penalty. This thinking would set up the possibility for two extraordinary outcomes.