Democrats Have Touched the Third Rail

Vice President Kamala Harris recently claimed that Trump’s policies would be “catastrophic” for Social Security and Medicare – an accusation eagerly parroted by the liberal media. But the reality is that the biggest threat to seniors’ benefits this election is from the millions of illegal aliens that Ms. Harris hopes to make American citizens.

According to a new study from Americans for Tax Reform, Harris’s Medicare-for-All scheme could cost Medicare $2 trillion in spending for illegal aliens. Another analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that each illegal alien granted amnesty would place an added net cost of nearly $130,000 on Social Security and Medicare. Multiplied by 10-20 million likely amnesty recipients under the Harris plan, that cost balloons to a staggering $1.3-2.6 trillion.

In my home state of New York alone, about 3.8 million people are enrolled in Medicare, while 4.3 million receive some form of Social Security. Democrats’ plans for mass amnesty would threaten to take away benefits from every one of them.

During her convention speech in August, Vice President Harris explicitly promised a “pathway to citizenship” for migrants. The Democrat Party platform also outlines a plan to grant amnesty and a path to citizenship to virtually every migrant illegally residing in the United States.

Apologists for the open borders policies of the current administration argue that illegal aliens are net contributors to Social Security and Medicare. They point out that illegal aliens are paying into those programs through taxes but in most cases are not eligible to receive disbursements.

This argument not only ignores the enormous level of fraud that is taking place, it also elides the fact that mass amnesty would turn illegal aliens into crushing drains on the system.

Social Security and Medicare have progressive benefit structures. This means that low-wage workers – which the vast majority of illegal aliens are – receive more than they pay in.

Additionally, most migrants work only a fraction of their careers in the United States but live out the entirety of their retirements here. As a result, the Federation for American Immigration reform estimates that illegal aliens could expect to receive up to 140 percent of what they pay into the system.

It’s not just Social Security and Medicare that are under threat, either. Under the Harris amnesty plan, illegal aliens would also begin consuming vast amounts of other federal benefits, including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid, and welfare, further threatening the fiscal solvency of those programs. Seniors and other vulnerable groups whom Democrats purport to represent would be most harmed by this.

Outside of these catastrophic financial ramifications, mass amnesty would also make it more difficult for beneficiaries to obtain the health care they need. One third of Medicare enrollees already report having to wait more than a month to see a doctor. Adding millions of illegal aliens who would be competing with American citizens for appointments would make this problem exponentially worse.

These threats are not just hypothetical; mass amnesty has now become the official policy of Ms. Harris’s campaign. The Democrat Party’s 2024 platform includes explicit support for the U.S. Citizenship Act. That bill would place millions of illegal aliens under the new status of “lawful prospective immigrants.” This standing affords them a defined pathway to citizenship and ultimately access to Social Security and Medicare.

Even if plans to pass this devastating amnesty plan through Congress fail, Ms. Harris would be almost certain to follow in the footsteps of Presidents Obama and Biden by attempting to ram through amnesty by executive action. Mr. Biden has notably engaged in egregious abuse of the president’s parole authority, simply closed more than 350,000 asylum cases, and recently extended Obamacare coverage to millions of illegal aliens. How long before Social Security and Medicare benefits follow?

Whatever path she chooses to accomplish it, after the past four years there can be no doubt about Ms. Harris’s goal – to ensure that every illegal alien let in becomes a U.S. citizen. Ms. Harris and her Democrat allies have repeatedly accused Mr. Trump of being a threat to Social Security and Medicare. But their mass amnesty schemes make clear that these attacks are mere projection.

That is why, as the head of an organization that advocates for seniors, I have urged Congress to consider legislation declaring that if you have ever entered the United States illegally, you will never be eligible for Social Security or Medicare. I have also invited the president of AARP to join me.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential contest this November, illegal aliens should not be allowed to destroy the benefit programs seniors rely on. At the very least, every American citizen deserves to know where their elected representatives stand on this critical issue.

For decades, threatening Social Security and Medicare has been the unspoken third rail in American politics. But now Democrats are standing right on it.

Rebecca Weber is the CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens and a lifelong resident of Long Island.