Regrettably, Social Security Administration bigwigs decided not to give Social Security recipients a COLA – Cost of Living Adjustment – for 2016, which had senior citizens, veterans and others, who desperately count on Social Security benefits, panicking as to how they would meet the mounting increases in costs for food, Medicare health insurance premiums, plus a ‘boat load’ of other rising costs, e.g., the coming winter heating season, utilities, prescription drugs, etc.
How in the world anyone could postulate that a COLA was not warranted for 2016 defies logic, when daily and with every purchase one experiences sizable cost increases. U.S. beef and veal prices were forecasted to increase 5% to 6% in 2015; fresh fruit prices, 2.5% to 3.5%; fresh vegetable prices, 2% to 3% per the USDA! Egg prices increased 8.4% in 2014 and are expected to increase another 2.5 to 3.5 % in 2015. [1]
Yes, gasoline finally had a long-needed adjustment, but that’s not the only commodity propelling commerce, industry and life. The current “energy glut” in the marketplace ought to keep energy prices lower than previous years for quite a long time, unless there’s some manufactured ‘crisis’.
Those who paid into Social Security must receive the benefits for which they paid, regardless of political issues! If not, then the U.S. government may have operated the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of social engineering, I’d offer.
Is there a way out of the Social Security debacle?
The best way to capitalize, “float” or re-establish a liquid Social Security Trust Fund—and that’s what it really is—is to have the U.S. federal government replace all its I.O.U.s [2] with real hard cash and not just paper promissory notes that actually are worthless, especially since the United States is in an apparent unredeemable debt crisis, which grows daily and with every new military encounter.
Another way to save Social Security, instead of compromising those who paid into the trust fund with their wage taxes, is to monitor and prosecute all the fraud [3,4,5] that takes place regarding Social Security benefits, plus refuse those who never paid into it and/or recently came from a foreign country. Talk about political correctness! Where is PC for tax-paying U.S. citizens? That’s a sentiment most fair-minded people would second.
A third way recently [November 5, 2015] was offered by two U.S. Senators: Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the form of legislation introduced to “SAVE Benefits”. The bill titled “Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act” would offer a 3.9% increase to those mentioned in the bill’s language.
Senator Warren thinks the “economic playing field” ought to be leveled, since top CEOs apparently make out like bandits [6] when it comes to pay increases. Warren contends top CEOs’ salaries at 350 of the largest companies received a 3.9% increase! [7] Therefore, the SAVE bill is calling for a one-time 3.9% (about $581) increase for Social Security recipients in 2016. She’s on record as saying, “If we do nothing, on January 1st, more than 70 million seniors, veterans, and other Americans won’t get an extra dime in much-needed Social Security and other benefits.”
Senator Sanders said, “It is unacceptable that millions of senior citizens and disabled veterans did not receive a cost-of-living adjustment this year to keep up with their rising living expenses.” Apparently, other members of Congress agree and have co-sponsored the SAVE act.
Here are the members of the U.S. Senate who cosponsor the SAVE act:
United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Al Franken (D- Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) [8]
Not a one Republican Senator! What does that tell you? Should we not expect a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives? which is controlled by Republicans. If that’s the case, you can be certain of a Democratic landslide in the 2016 election cycle, as old folks sure know how to vote!
References:
[1] http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/2015_Speeches/AKuhns.pdf
[2] http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/05/23/government-owes-2-7-trillion-to-social-security/
[3] http://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/testimony/SSA’s%20Ability%20to%20Prevent%20and%20Detect%20Disability%20Fraud_0.pdf
[4] http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/10/07/New-Evidence-Disability-Fraud-Costs-Billions
[5] http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/08/17/Unemployed-and-Retired-You-too-Can-Double-Dip
[6] http://www.epi.org/publication/top-ceos-make-300-times-more-than-workers-pay-growth-surpasses-market-gains-and-the-rest-of-the-0-1-percent/
[7] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/elizabeth-warren-wants-give-seniors-raise
[8] http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=997
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)
I would bet Congress gets a cost of living wage. They have every year except for one.
I’m eating less already. I’m down to 100 pounds and earlier this year I was down to 92 pounds because I can’t afford to eat more than once a day. I guess Israel needs it more than I do right?
At 64 I have the same issue. So it’s Israel that’s getting our C.O.L.A. money to kill Arabs Men, women and children?
While I agree that those who have not paid in should in general not collect; please remember there are still those who stayed home to raise children & grandchildren & then their husband dies. They have contributed by their service to the family & society [supervised children are usually productive adults] and therefore SHOULD be able to collect against their husband’s SS. This was one of the original reasons for SS.
ummm meat products went up 25% in our area so saying it was speculated at 5-6% is a luagh
The best and only solution is for the social security recipients to sue the federal government for the money taken from the fund, plus interest, during the Johnson administration.
Why not stop leting all those wetbacks into the country and stop giving them SS, too!
Tax Wall St. Tax the rich. End all foreign aid. Reduce military spending – problem solved.
This time the LAME EXCUSE is – – we needed that money to pay for the ILLEGAL ** WET BACK AND MSUIM ** immigrants **** WELFARE ***** – – i SAY – TO BAD FOR THE wiET BACKS AND MUSLIM – immigrants – – let them work for wht they get – — — I had to work for this let them . /////////////////////////
SEMPER PARATUS