Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

Undertaker — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:53:11 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090824/ap_on_go_ot/us_social_security_smaller_check

WASHINGTON – Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.

By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

"I will promise you, they count on that COLA," said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal."

Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.

Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have suffered from declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.

"For many elderly, they don't feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up," said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. "Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses."

About 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,153 this year. All beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982.

More than 32 million people are in the Medicare prescription drug program. Average monthly premiums are set to go from $28 this year to $30 next year, though they vary by plan. About 6 million people in the program have premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security payments, according to the Social Security Administration.

Millions of people with Medicare Part B coverage for doctors' visits also have their premiums deducted from Social Security payments. Part B premiums are expected to rise as well. But under the law, the increase cannot be larger than the increase in Social Security benefits for most recipients.

There is no such hold-harmless provision for drug premiums.

Kennelly's group wants Congress to increase Social Security benefits next year, even though the formula doesn't call for it. She would like to see either a 1 percent increase in monthly payments or a one-time payment of $150.

The cost of a one-time payment, a little less than $8 billion, could be covered by increasing the amount of income subjected to Social Security taxes, Kennelly said. Workers only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of income, a limit that rises each year with the average national wage.

But the limit only increases if monthly benefits increase.

Critics argue that Social Security recipients shouldn't get an increase when inflation is negative. They note that recipients got a big increase in January — after energy prices had started to fall. They also note that Social Security recipients received one-time $250 payments in the spring as part of the government's economic stimulus package.

Consumer prices are down from 2008 levels, giving Social Security recipients more purchasing power, even if their benefits stay the same, said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.

"Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt," Biggs said. "Congress has to be able to tell people they are not getting everything they want."

Social Security is also facing long-term financial problems. The retirement program is projected to start paying out more money than it receives in 2016. Without changes, the retirement fund will be depleted in 2037, according to the Social Security trustees' annual report this year.

President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations.

Lawmakers are preoccupied by health care, making it difficult to address other tough issues. Advocates for older people hope their efforts will get a boost in October, when the Social Security Administration officially announces that there will not be an increase in benefits next year.

"I think a lot of seniors do not know what's coming down the pike, and I believe that when they hear that, they're going to be upset," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is working on a proposal for one-time payments for Social Security recipients.

"It is my view that seniors are going to need help this year, and it would not be acceptable for Congress to simply turn its back," he said.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

Lido — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:55:27 GMT

If the Dems get their way, this is only the beginning of the "screw the seniors" era.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

southern7162 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:39:29 GMT

All through the Bush years, my grandfather got steady COLA's three times a year, regularly as clockwork. Because Obama spent trillions of dollars, borrowed illegally from the Social Security Trust Fund, Social Security recipients can expect a 1.75% reduction in benefits every year until the next ice age.

Obama gave trillions of your tax dollars to his cronies -- most of them from foreign corporations -- to repay his horrifying huge campaign debts with all the interest that his creditors demand.

You will go in want during your retirement years because of Obama.

Bank on it.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

A Brown — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:27:01 GMT

I didn't vote for Mr. Obama, thank you. And I think I showed pretty good judgement.As for Social Security, didn't really expect anything different from him.If you can't kill us off gracefully, take the money that buys the medicine away. Social Security was the only department that was showing black untill they came in and borrowed from it. Pay it back now. If Obama can bail out and buy out he should think enough about something the governmant already owns to keep it running like in previous years.That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

Lori — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:27:57 GMT

The solution to seniors health care is the same solution for EVERYONES health care.... a universal single payer health care system. We need to end this notion of taking care of this group or that group and piece mealing a compasionate country just for some demographics whilst other are ignored and take care of everyone equally.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

JA Photo — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:19:42 GMT

Life is tough, money is in short supply so quit belly aching and deal with it. I am 68, on S.S. without any other income other than a modest pay from my occasional sold article and digital image/s (I am a published writer & photographer). I am renting a room but ride my bike to the beach almost daily and that is my life, besides my computer that is. People got to learn to deal with reality since it is not getiing any better, so deal with it. The better you do the better off you will be and the happier a life you will have.

Thinking that many other people are worse off than I am does NOT make me feel any better but it makes me realise that my life is not too bad and I do what I do have and that is what IS important. What is the alternative? Being miserable, that is no way to be, so wake up and life life to the fullest each day.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

LocoLady — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:36:37 GMT

Social security is called an entitlement , it is not, it is a trust fund set up by Franklin D Roosevelt for seniors so they would never wind up in the street as they did during the depression. It is a lifeline for some seniors who get nothing else but that to live on, not everyone back in the day got pensions. When the war in Afghanistan started Bush got on TV and proclaimed he was going to have to use the Social security fund to fund this retaliation war against Afghanistan for 9-11, the fact that the perpetrators were from Arabia and Morocco and only one was from Afghanistan was incidental. We said nothing because of 9-11, we didn't want that to happen again.

This fund has been loaded with IOU's for years, Congress changed the laws to enable themselves to loot the funds, instead of putting it in a bank and gaining interest on it, that would have been against the law too but if you can change one law you can change another. Seniors can not afford to pay more for medicines, they have some good programs for medications but not in every state, my Mother paid 80.00 every 3 months to Eagle prescription plan and she only paid 10 % of what her drugs cost, you can also call the drug companies and get the drugs for free if you are at or below the poverty level, My girlfriend did that for her Mom who was below the poverty level. There used to be free clinics where people could go to get check ups and vacinations and help with drugs, NY still has a few of them, that is where my Mother lived.

The immigrants who are here illegally will be given amnesty and put to work , they will pay into the Social security fund but they only have to work here for 3 years and they can go back to Mexico and collect social security, thats the deal we made with them, other countries have made the same deal with foreign countries. My daughters GrandMother in law came here from Germany in the fifties and she got a German social security check here until the day she died at age 93 so we better take a better look at what else we can cut instead of social security. Its not going to be hard to cull the herd and regulate the population , all you have to do is take away social security, or kill them in the nursing homes like they did to my Mother. It won't be hard to do.

I cringe to think of what Obama has planned for us, this should finish us off :

"President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations".

Doesn't that make you feel good about the future? Climate change is going to be very expensive, you won't be able to afford to light your homes let alone drive an electric car , where would you charge that overnight? and new financial regulations, what the hell is that? thats good and scary, I can only imagine what that means. Between the horrors that are waiting for us down the road people better get used to being a slave to this Government and living in constant upset, these are things we were all warned about by those people wearing the tin hats but here it is. Make sure you vote for this jerk again. He's worried about his legacy already, there is no legacy, just misery for all concerned, can you imagine this in America? We will be worse off than the communist slaves in old Russia, at least they knew they were in a communist country, we can't seem to get it through our heads. To me the opnly way out is impoeachment and as long as the Senate and Congress is full of CFR members, thats not going ot happen.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

bluebird — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:51:28 GMT

Obama and his friends have no problems dumping billions in back doors of banks who have screwed the whole world in outrageous interest rates to use their so called credit cards... sent billions to slaughter women and childen in Iraq and Afganastan and others places but i'll assure you 1,145 dollars doesn't feed two people and pay rent and utilities... they haven't found bin Laden so why not give up enough of our young killed and mained...

Obama needs to remember even the high and mightly can be brought low...

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

IamQweenBee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:39:04 GMT

Where are these fabrications coming from? I mean, someone has been very busy and highly creative. The last I heard from the President's mouth...he won't touch Social Security. Neither will he mess with that socialized healthcare that is highly SUCCESSFUL and ran by government, which is MEDICARE.

Our Seniors are safe with Obama. We have to worry more about ourselves because finding adequate healthcare is a challenge. He needs our help in making this happen. He doesn't need us sitting on the side line scaring the rest into another way of thinking through lies. We all deserve to hear the truth. What better place to get the truth than from the horse's mouth.

I don't know about you all...but I think I need a better healthcare system and I will not lay my life down by the riverside because I don't like who is trying to deliver it to me. That's suicide and suicide is SICK.

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

IamQweenBee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:44:21 GMT

BY the way...Social Security is not broke YET! It will be in a few more years if we don't fix healthcare. So, this thread is totally not true. All you have to do is your research on the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT website. Beck, Hannity, etc won't give you any information, but, the information they want you to believe.

Its up to you to get more informed. Don't depend solely on the news or others who are being biased. Because if they are biased, they will give you a story to suit their venues to make you biased, too.

I'm sorry, but, some things are self-explained if you care to look at it and recieve it. It you do not then, that's just being blind. Sorry, but, I can see and like to live my life like I can see. Don't want to be blind to anything that effects my life

RE: Hows The Seniors Who Supported Barack Obama , Feel About There Will Be No Raise In Social Security?

Hess — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:07:29 GMT

Reading this question (Rant) and the responses looks as if some folks did some time in Google. Bitch about stuff you can affect folks and plan your vote carefully for 2012. Hess - Just turned 75 and a decorated combat veteran of Vietnam. P.S. I voted for McCain/Palin.