Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Taxes, Social Security and illegal workers

"Fifty billion dollars a year is collected from illegal workers who will never receive any benefits." That does not take into account other federal and state taxes, sales taxes and other economic activity fueled by their participation.

I was just waking up and heard something like this on NPR's Morning Edition. It's not online yet, but here is the link. Audio should be available later, so if I got it wrong I will make a correction. But I think I heard right.

Fifty. Billion. Dollars.
That's a lot of french fries and chicken legs, as we used to say in the food business.

I know a lot is collected because I know for a fact that illegal workers have the same deductions for FICA and Medicare as everyone else. And even though I know of several illegal workers who lost their jobs, some after two or three years empoloyment...

I never saw a single dime on the P&L Statement indicating that the US Treasury returned money collected on their behalf because they couldn't find an account in which to make a credit.
US Treasury returning money! Hehe...sounds like a joke, no?

3 comments:

Hoots said...

I heard correctly. The number, however, was for the year 2003. Three years ago. I doubt it has decreased since them.

The link is still active and the audio is now available. it takes three minutes to listen to the report. Listen, return to work, and give it some thought.

Anonymous said...

How much in Social Services do they recieve? Go to the border towns and go into a mini-mart, what will you find? Private P.O. Boxes are big business there with all the Social Services being paid out to people that are illegal, not to mention alot actually live across the border. I don't have a problem with them, I have a problem with Governemnt allowing it to happen. Sure there is some money coming in, but there is HUGE amounts going out. Not to mention that when there is an influx of illeagals in it drives the wages significantly down.

Just the facts.

Hoots said...

"Facts? You want facts?
"You can't handle the facts!"

Sorry. I couldn't resist.
Anyway, later posts than this one have more details. Go to National Immigration Forum for a comprehensive overview of immigration issues. Also check out my post of May 20 with links to a couple of other places.

Immigrants are more than a modest asset to the economy. They are an essential component.