A law professor has a great new idea. Why don't we pay for Trump's wall on the Mexican border by taking money out of the Social Security Trust Funds? It's only fair. Many undocumented migrants from Mexico have paid into those Trust Funds but will never draw benefits because they worked under phony Social Security numbers. Who could object to taking that money out of the Trust Funds to pay for the wall?
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While at first I thought this is an absurd idea...OIG report from 2015 says the Earnings Suspense File is at 1.2 trillion. If it is included in the data, that would mean roughly half the trust funds are never going to be given out. if it is not included, that means there is an extra 1.2 trillion just sitting there. Anyone know of regulations addressing the Earnings Suspense File? I would be curious how it could or could not be used.
That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard; no wonder college students can't read and do math.
There is no money in the earning suspense file. It is it just a list of past unaccounted for earnings. It is a very rough way of estimating the cumulative contribution of undocumented workers who are unquestionable a net positive for the Trust fund's financing.
Can we use the Trust Fund to pay off Stormy Daniels?
Let's see. The earnings in the ESF are not in the trust funds, it is the taxes so you would have to determine the taxes based upon the rate for each year. And not all earnings in the ESF are from illegal aliens as are some earnings from illegal aliens that are not in the ESF. And while no benefits will be paid from these earnings, much legal work activity results in no benefits, such as from dual-entitlement or early death and no survivors,so the rationale of no payment does not work. Why not go after the employers who hire undocumented workers and make them pay for the wall?
Because--and this is obviously the reason why even after controlling the two branches you need to pass stuff initially (and arguably the third branch at this point), conservatives haven't done anything meaningful on curtailing the immigration they so loudly despise--some of the largest, richest corps in the country (who are big republican donors, duh) use TONS of cheap, easily exploitable undocumented migrant labor. Think pretty much any large operation involving the early stages of production of food products and that is who I'm talking about. So of course those folks are not interested in cutting back on the flow of those people because their tidy profits depend on them.
Let's hope his understanding of things legal is better than his understanding of things fiscal.
No, that would be an illegal campaign contribution.
No, that would be an illegal campaign contribution.
yeah, there isn't $1.2 trillion sitting anywhere. There is a list of wages totaling $1.2T reported to SSA by SSN that they think might not match up with who actually earned it.
A bunch of that money was really earned by someone with a legit SSN and someone (the worker, their boss, SSA) just did the paperwork wrong. SSA hasn't devoted the staff to figuring out whose record it should go on. And with fewer Social Security statements being mailed out and longer waits at the field offices and on the 800 number, fewer workers are noticing problems with their reported wages or getting anywhere in resolving these issues.
Some of the money was earned by undocumented people. Some will eventually normalize their status and try to get credit for it; most won't. But guessing at how much FICA taxes actually came from those folks and pulling it out to build the wall is asinine. People already think Congress steals from the trust funds because they don't understand that putting the money into T bills and getting interest makes good sense and has postponed insolvency for years. The phones in Congress would be ringing off the hook as soon as AARP sends out an email saying Congress was going to take billions from the trust fund and hasten the time that the trust fund will no longer be able to pay full scheduled benefits.
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