I know I was kinda hard on JD about what he said to Powell about immigration and inflation the other week. But the stuff Trump said at his acceptance speech about immigration and entitlements was even dumber.
Essentially, he made the case that he would protect programs like social security from Democrats, who were overloading the system with increased immigration.
Immigrants tend to be younger workers while our population is aging and social security is funded pay-go. We have not just an aging population but also declining birthrates which places a greater strain on the system (as in the ratio of workers paying into the system versus beneficiaries drawing from it is rapidly going in the wrong direction), while immigrants tend to both be younger and have more children than native born Americans.
New immigrants can't draw from it for like a decade or something. And when it comes to illegal immigrants? They tend to not be eligible for federal benefits ever, but many use TTIN numbers instead of SS numbers... meaning they're paying into the system yet unable to draw from it. A greater amount of illegal immigrants is even better for preserving the program longer than legal ones in some ways, even. Without the high levels of immigration we have, social security would be in even worse shape than it is.
Trump's take is entirely backwards. The only way immigration would possibly be a negative for social security is if you wanted the system to collapse sooner because you don't think it'll be reformed until it does. Like... unless you're a collapsitarian, the entire thought is absolute nonsense and poppycock. This is as unserious as Biden's proposal to lift the caps and such, and deserves ridicule.