Thu, Sep 25, 2008 4:26pm ET

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Rick Roberts claimed of immigrants: "[P]eople are collecting SSI checks that have never paid into it" -- but law bars undocumented immigrants from getting SSI

Summary: Savage Nation guest host Rick Roberts claimed of immigrants: "[P]eople are collecting SSI [Supplemental Security Income] checks that have never paid into it." However, according to the Social Security Administration website, only people legally present in the United States can receive SSI, and most legal immigrants must earn $42,000 before becoming eligible.
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Posted by SueEld

The Savage Nation has a guest host when Adolph Savage is not on the air?

Posted by snoopy in reply to SueEld

Yes, and his name is Benito Roberts. He's the soft underbelly of the savage nation.

Posted by Limit Corp. Ownership in reply to SueEld

Well, he's got the lies down...

If he can master the hate speech, he may have a great future in corporate, right-wing talk radio.

Posted by zamfir273114

When he says this country should stop sending money to other countries, I wonder if that includes Israel too?

Posted by donaldmaddog5642

Maybe Prick Roberts confused SS benefits with "privatization" accounts?

Posted by wzwriter

During the September 22 broadcast of The Savage Nation, guest host Rick Roberts stated, "I'm sure people are collecting SSI [Supplemental Security Income] checks that have never paid into it. As a matter of fact, I know that, I've done an investigation on it -- people who aren't U.S. citizens."

How did this clown conduct an investigation?  Did he read a few articles on NewsMax and World Nut Daily?

Posted by JLyons in reply to wzwriter

NewsMax and World Nut Daily are probably his main sources, what a wacko. Amazes me that people listen to this garbage.

Posted by shaggles

Roberts is a clueless idiot.  I'll say it again:  Roberts is a clueless idiot.

Posted by wesley

 -- only people legally present in the United States are allowed to receive SSI --mmfa

I have no idea if Roberts assertion is correct. What I do know is the rebuttal by mmfa is falling down funny.

So, his story cannot possibly be true because it's against the law? LMAO.

Embezzlement...uh uh...we've got laws against it.

Speeding Tickets...no way...it's against the law.

Burglary...nope...those darn laws prevent it.

Roberts provided nothing but bluster to support his assertion...and mmfa provided zilch in their rebuttal.

Posted by funnymanpants in reply to wesley

Wesely wrote:

>>I have no idea if Roberts assertion is correct. What I do know is the rebuttal by mmfa is falling down funny.

Maybe you should just stop with the phrase "I have no idea." Because your criticism is plain stupid. How exactly do illegal imigrans collect SSI? Do you think illegal imigrans can simply walk into a grocery store and pick them up like a loaf of bread.

Posted by wesley in reply to funnymanpants

What illegal aliens? Using mmfa's illogical argument...there can't be any here. Why? Because it's against the law...still lmao.

Roberts brings nothing...mmfa follows with nothing...and then there's you, shopping for a loaf of bread...

Posted by worrierking in reply to wesley

You say you have no idea whether Roberts assertion is correct. But if you were to venture a guess, what would you think Wes?

Roberts gets most of the facts wrong, he claims he's made his own investigation, yet supplies no details. 

I've been hearing this for years about illegals collecting, but if I were to guess, my guess would be that it's not a big problem. People like Roberts seem to imply that it's a systemic problem and it is not. 

In fact, most illegals working with fake Social Security cards will not be able to collect Social Security Benefits. I'd guess that they pay many times more into the system than even these lunatic Savage subs imagine that the illegals are being paid from the system. There is evidence to support that theory.

It's estimated that almost 75 % of other than legal immigrants have paid billions of dollars into he fund each year since the immigration laws were changed in 1986.

It's estimated that in 2002 illegals paid $6.4 billion dollars in Social Security taxes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html

"Illegal immigrants are paying taxes to Uncle Sam, experts agree. Just how much they pay is hard to determine because the federal government doesn't fully tally it. But the latest figures available indicate it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year. One rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per year."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2008-04-10-immigrantstaxes_N.htm

Posted by wesley in reply to worrierking

king,

My guess would be that some are collecting...however, I tend to agree with your assessment about the severity.

But the argument...neither supported by Roberts or rebutted by mmfa...is a moot question. The root cause is illegal immigration.

Regardless of which side you support...the real issue is billions of dollars of our economy is moving through, in, and out of our economic system because of an illegal activity...and that needs to stop.

Posted by worrierking in reply to wesley

I agree with you stopping the illegal activity, but disagree strongly with xenophobes like Savage, O'Reilly and Dobbs who operate on nothing but fear and hatred. 

Posted by pete592 in reply to wesley

"The root cause is illegal immigration."

The root cause is illegal hiring.

Posted by wookie in reply to wesley

SSI checks come from the government. Don't you think they would have records of who gets them and who should?

Posted by IRONY 101

Just proves they'll let anybody host a right wing talk radio show nowadays. No skill, no talent, no preparation, no brains needed. Just give'em a freakin' microphone and let them do right wing free association. Might as well speak in tongues while they're at it...makes about as much sense as what these fools say.

Posted by pithaughn in reply to IRONY 101

One  could say that becoming a Right wing ranting lunatic radio pie hole is as easy as sneaking into Arizona, except it's not. Not one of the radio yakkers would survive that trip through the Sonoran dessert. I am not thrilled with the downward pressure on wages caused by illegal workers, but to blame most of our problems on a few million hardworking, tenacious Mexicans is pure scapegoating.

Posted by Kaliman

"You know, I've got two kids. My son may want a brand new $60,000 truck. Guess what? He's not getting it unless he can come up with the money on his own, and I'm pretty sure he can't. Some people can't afford to buy a house, very few of them in that case can even afford a place to rent. That doesn't leave much room for a life. The government stole from Social Security, so now it's almost bankrupt. I'm sure people are collecting SSI checks that have never paid into it. As a matter of fact, I know that, I've done an investigation on it -- people who aren't U.S. citizens." Could this be considered "class warfare", "class envy", racism, or all three? Is Rick Roberts trying to incite envy of illegal aliens collecting SSI? Can illegals getting SSI afford the 60,000 dollar trucks Rick Robert's presumably white kid MAY want? What the heck kind of truck does this dude's son want that an illegal is keeping him from attaining? Shoot, I'm a grown-ass Mexican-American man who works for a living and I STILL can't afford (nor have need for-but that doesn't matter) a 60,000 dollar truck. Thank you Dick Bobber for telling me who to blame for me not having the money necessary to satisfy my material urges. If we figure out a way to get the 60,000 dollars back from those illegals that are living like Kings off it, wouldn't that be considered redistribution of wealth, though? Isn't that against God's law or something? Thanks, MMFA, for putting a face to that farting sound I heard coming from the radio when my syphillitic Uncle Weiner was out nursing his sore rectum last week.

Posted by taygee

Um, in the summary, MMFA destroys its own argument. I am in no way anti-immigrant. But it is a fact that documented immigrants who are not citizens of the US can in fact collect SSI. I have known one woman personally who did just such a thing. She didn't sidestep the law. She was not here illegally. She was of senior citizen status, had not worked ever in the US, got here by the sponsorship of her citizen/immigrant daughter, and legally took advantage of SSI. And while I deplore racism and anti-immigrant viewpoints, on this specific point, MMFA does absolutely nothing to help bring such viewpoints to light when taking a matter of fact and trying to paint it in a bad light. In short, stick to the stories that actually matter - rather than saying "he said it - it's true - but he said it, so he's bad". That's just ridiculous.

Posted by snoopy in reply to taygee

I believe you just blew your own response. Documented immigrants aren't illegal, are they? By definition, documented immigrants have green cards. You are trying to muddy the waters by your statement "the sponsorship of her citizen/immigrant daughter", but what does that have to do with anything? I work with a guy who came here via evacuation from vietnam at the end of the war, he waited 15 years to get the rest of his family here and guess what? They get SS benefits too, now that they are all green carded.

You need a lot more than that argument to suggest there is something funny going on here...

Posted by taygee in reply to snoopy

no, snoopy - you just blew MMFA's article on this.  Roberts, according to what MMFA has reported, said there are immigrants who collect SSI without ever having paid in - in that quote above, according to MMFA, he didn't say "illegal".

who's argument is blown?  Not mine, certainly.

Posted by pithaughn

He misses the point like most of these " I'm tired of my money going to (fill in the blank scapegoat), I work too damn hard for it!!" It is impossible to have a perfect system of paying out the welfare, SS, food stamps etc. As a compassionate people, we decide to err on the side of some amount of larceny instead of erring on the side of some truly needy person not getting benfits they are entitled too.

Posted by cpinva

it's pretty obvious this nimrod has confused FICA with SSI. individuals don't pay into SSI, they (and their employer) do pay into FICA. further, to actually receive either, in addition to being in the country legally and having the requisite quarters and earnings, you have to have a valid SSN, which most illegal immigrants don't have.