Social Security for immigrants: at President Bush's behest, plans have been created, and are being implemented, for a "totalization agreement" with Mexico--which would give U.S. Social Security benefits to millions of Mexican citizens.(Cover story)

When Social Security was created in the 1930s, intelligent observers said it would fail.

Its first recipient, Ida Fuller, contributed less than $25. After 35 years of retirement, Fuller died, having pocketed nearly $25,000. Not a bad return. At the program's inception, numerous workers paid into the program compared to the number of people receiving benefits. That's the situation no longer. With baby boomers retiring soon and the so-called trust fund filled with IOUs, the Social Security system is headed for disaster.

Now President Bush wants to add a few million people to the rolls of Social Security. Adding more Americans would be bad enough. But Presidente Arbusto wants to bring Mexican citizens onto its rolls, most of them now illegal aliens.

The president's position is hardly surprising, given his amnesty plan for illegals and the not-so-secret blueprint for melding the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a North American Union that would erase American citizenship and sovereignty. But perhaps the effrontery of the idea, which slaps the face of every real American who involuntarily contributes to Social Security, will sink this ship before it sails.

"Totalization"

Illegal aliens would receive Social Security under an agreement hatched in 2004, awaiting the signature of Bush, similar to agreements the United States has signed with many countries. These pacts, all of them unconstitutional, of course, are called "totalization agreements." They permit an American living abroad, or foreign worker living here, to escape the double taxation that would occur if he paid into each country's government retirement plan. As well, the agreement permits a person to "totalize" his social security payments into each country's program if he never worked in one country long enough to qualify for benefits from either.

The United States maintains totalization agreements with many countries, almost all of them European. Now, the president wants to sign a totalization agreement with Mexico. Problem is, the relationship between the United States and Mexico is of a different breed than that between the United States and Europe.