From Kathy in MO:

From Judy: on Social Security Issue and how Senato...":

Judy, you referenced www.snopes.com but did not get the same impression I did when I read about this controversial vote. The roll call vote you show did not vote to give Soc. Sec. to illegal aliens at all. This seems to be another email cirulating around full of half truths. Here is what snopes said about this vote:


* The subject of the proposed amendment was not about giving (or denying) Social Security benefits to illegal aliens; it was about whether a select group of
formerly illegal workers (i.e., those who might obtain legal immigration status if the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 were enacted) should be able to receive credit for payments they made into the Social Security system using phony Social Security numbers (i.e., numbers that were invalid or had been assigned to others). Such persons would still be eligible to collect Social Security benefits in the future; they just wouldn't receive credit for payments they had already made into the system.

* The senators named didn't vote against Senator Ensign's amendment; they voted (by a 50-49 margin) in favor of a Motion to Table. (That is, they passed a motion to remove the amendment from consideration before the Senate voted on it.)

In a nutshell, the amendment referenced above wasn't about "giving illegal aliens Social Security benefits"; it was about whether formerly illegal aliens (who had since become legal) should be credited for monies they themselves had paid into the Social Security fund while they were in the U.S. illegally. The senators listed above did not vote in favor of this proposition; they voted to withdraw the amendment from consideration.

We have to be so careful about passing these emails around when they are obviously slanted to give the wrong impression.