difference between green card and us citzenship

[TheRealCanadian]

A PRL's rights include that of fair wage and right to labor without discrimination. Revoking someones right to services paid for in essence by the same individual isn't even debatable. Enjoy your 4th...

That's true, but Social Security is a "pay as you go" system. Congress has the right to change benefits at any time, and they have done so on several occasions. Whether they would be able to discriminate against non-citizens legally present in the United States is another matter, however.

If you're an alien outside the US, on the other hand, I'd expect anything is fair game, but I'm also not a constitutional lawyer.

 

[Jackolantern]

There you go again.. Always a few lines to scare people. Be it speeding tickets and now SS benefits.
Did you ever hear of equal rights? This is one of the principles this country has been founded on. A PRL's rights include that of fair wage and right to labor without discrimination. Revoking someones right to services paid for in essence by the same individual isn't even debatable. Enjoy your 4th...

They passed a law in 1996 that retroactively turned minor offenses into deportable crimes, and they deported several permanent residents using that law. If they can do that, they can surely stop paying SS to permanent residents.

However, if they do that, it won't save much money, because almost everybody permanent resident who is of retirement age and has contributed to SS for 10 years is eligible to become a citizen. So if they pass a law to stop paying SS to PR's, the PRs will simply become citizens. If they cut off benefits to PRs it would be nothing more than a political gesture to please angry citizens who protest about how SS can be paid to foreigners when SS is in danger of being unable to pay citizens.

SS is not a guaranteed right. They can change the law to stop paying it to PRs and/or citizens if they want to or if they have to.

 

[Jackolantern]

If you're an alien outside the US, on the other hand, I'd expect anything is fair game, but I'm also not a constitutional lawyer.

It already is the case that you lose your SS benefits if you are an alien who moves outside the US, if you are not a citizen of any of the few dozen countries on the list (which I posted a link earlier in this thread) that are eligible to collect.

 

[thankful]

Whether they would be able to discriminate against non-citizens legally present in the United States is another matter, however.

It would be a somewhat tough constitutional question. The federal government has had more leeway than states to discriminate on the basis of alienage. But the outer limits of that power has not been well-defined.

But just in terms of politics, I do not see how something like this can get passed.

 

[thankful]

I think this argument will be worthless as when we retire, social security will eventually dissappear.

Social Security is the moral and political debt owed by the United States government. There will be changes on the edges (raising retirement ages etc) but one way or the other the obligations will be honored.

 

[sotiredofwaiting]

Moral and political?? What's that??
If they have no money, they will simply change the law and recompute your benefit.

I hope none of you is factorying the SS payment when planning for retirement.