Conservative Pundit Says Offering Illegal Aliens Social Security Will Cost Boomers
by Chad Groening
January 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - A pro-family activist and former presidential candidate says Baby Boomers have every right to be concerned about reports that the Bush Administration is looking into the idea of allowing illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits in connection with the president's new "guest worker program."Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families says it is bad enough that President Bush has introduced a program to reward illegal aliens for breaking the law by registering for a guest worker program. But now he says there are also reports that the Administration is considering a so-called "totalization program," which would pave the way for illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits.
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Gary Bauer |
Bauer says the Bush Administration is working on a plan that would allow illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. to benefit from the Social Security payments they may be making in jobs they are holding illegally. "Again, we're sending exactly the wrong message about illegal immigration," he says.The conservative spokesman insists that such a plan would undoubtedly hurt American citizens, particularly members of the group known as the Baby Boomer generation.
"I think many Baby Boomers are very concerned," Bauer says, "about whether the Social Security System will still be in place by the time we retire. In view of that, it makes absolutely no sense to put an additional burden on the system. This is a bad idea and it's bound to hit us in our pocketbook; and it's bound to affect future Social Security recipients."
Bauer says this is the same kind of idea that the Clinton Administration pushed, and he is surprised to see the Bush White House following suit. "It's the kind of thing that, when Bill Clinton tried to do it, we vehemently opposed it and stopped him," Bauer says, "and it's a deep disappointment to me that President Bush appears to be going down the same road."
The conservative spokesman says since many Baby Boomers are concerned about the present state of the Social Security fund, it makes no sense to further stretch the already overburdened Social Security system as he says the totalization program would do.
