The low down

12,545 / 50,000 (25.1%)

I received a petition from a friend I have known for many decades. It was about illegal aliens being given the right to file for social security benefits, contrasting a little old widow who buys day old bread and generic brands and shops at Goodwill and the Salvation Army or dollar and discount stores while some "possibly illegal alien" buys names brands and shops at well known stores like Macy's, J. C. Penney's, etc. There was a lot of hand wringing and heart string tugging along with a bit of hate mongering in the short paragraph before the list of names on the petition. Someone needs to inject a bit of truth into the situation.

First of all, the widow doesn't have to by generic or day old bread; she can buy name brands and fresh baked bread but she chooses to use her money that way. It's her choice, just as it's anyone else's choice to buy whatever and shop wherever they want using their funds their way. There are just as many frugal illegal aliens as there are frugal American citizens, and there are quite a few spendthrift American citizens and illegal aliens. That's the way people are and it's nobody's business but theirs.

Secondly, despite what the petition and many people say, illegal aliens have been contributing to social security and federal, state and local taxes right along with everyone else, unless they're being paid under the table, which is less often the case than you might think. Many of them are using stolen or fake social security numbers but they are paying, either into the original owner's social security account or into a general fund that has been growing for decades and sitting there because it is not attached to anyone's verifiable social security account. The government has always had the tools to find illegal aliens but these people are a tax paying, vital part of our national economy. Social security recipients have been living off their contributions to the general social security fund all this time, including the poor widow who buys generic brands and day old bread. The people who work and pay into social security, even illegal aliens, pay for the social security benefits that are being used right now. And social security often gives these illegal aliens a brand new social security card of their own so their money can go into the general fund. The government has known all along where these illegal aliens are and how to get in touch with them but they have done nothing about it. Social security collects and disburses the money and they don't get involved in INS or other governmental policies. It's not their job to round up illegal aliens and no one has asked them to provide their records to help other agencies; that is the way government agencies work--or don't.

So, when you get one of these petitions and think about signing it think about what's really behind all this. Illegal aliens have been getting welfare benefits for decades and risk their lives to have their children across the border in our country because they know they will get paid and that money is more than they will probably ever earn in their own countries. America has been financing the poor and indigent illegal aliens for a long time. In turn, illegal aliens finance Americans with their hard work and their government taxed earnings. It's time to take a good hard look at the truth and decide what to do about it. Signing a petition without all the facts is like going blind-folded into the voting booth and pressing the first lever or button that comes to hand.

That is all. Disperse.