.Social Security Is Not Expected to Rise

[FreeStateDemocrat]

Source: NYTimes

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: May 2, 2009
WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients will not get any increase in their benefits next year, federal forecasts show.

The absence of a cost-of-living adjustment, calculated under a formula set by law, will be a shock to older Americans already hit by plummeting home values, investment losses and rising health costs. More than 50 million people receive Social Security.

“Most seniors have never been through a year in which there was no Social Security COLA,” said David M. Certner, legislative counsel at AARP, the lobby for older Americans. Beneficiaries have received automatic cost-of-living adjustments every year since 1975. The increase this year was 5.8 percent

-skip-

If there is no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, about three-fourths of beneficiaries will not see any change in their basic Part B premiums, federal officials said. But some beneficiaries do not have this protection and could face substantial increases in their Part B premiums. In addition, millions of beneficiaries could see higher premiums for drug coverage, provided under Part D of Medicare.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us/politics/03benefits.html?_r=1&hp

[Why Syzygy]

1. That absolutely sucks!

Thanks, Obama :hi:

[JustinL]

6. how is this Obama's fault?

The formula for calculating the COLA is specified by the Social Security Act and is based on changes in the Consumer Price Index. It's been that way since 1973.

link

[Why Syzygy]

7. Someone hired the Enron bookkeepers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans enjoying their small windfall from President Barack Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit are in for an unpleasant surprise next spring.

The government is going to want some of that money back.

The tax credit is supposed to provide up to $400 to individuals and $800 to married couples as part of the massive economic recovery package enacted in February. Most workers started receiving the credit through small increases in their paychecks in the past month.

But new tax withholding tables issued by the IRS could cause millions of taxpayers to get hundreds of dollars more than they are entitled to under the credit, money that will have to be repaid at tax time.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkep0UU55rYxFXyIKMRy9Zv0Oo-wD97T2ON02

FUBAR!

[Alexander]

11. And what does that have to do with Social Security?

Sounds like you are just looking for reasons to blame Obama for everything.

[Why Syzygy]

12. FUBAR. nt

[Alexander]

13. An accurate description of your argument.

[rucognizant]

16. Yes AND THE CPI...........

Is based on the price of toasters, and other EXTRAS consumer goods! Food, fuel, insurances, car registration & repairs. utilities are LEFT OUT OF THE EQUATION>>>>>>>>>They have gone up scandalously! My snow plow guy jumped from %10.00 to 20.00 when the price of fuel was high............he has NOT brought it down with the drop in the price of fuel.
Instant mashed potatoes ( hardly a gourmet item) price has risen by 90%, %1.39 - $1.99, ( And I think it is over 2.00 now I stopped buying them! Compare that to a lousy 5.8 % increase. It doesn't work! The things you need to survive, aren't pegged to the SS increase! I DON"T SHOP. CAN"T AFFORD TO. Ot took me 3 years to get together enough money to buy a desperately needed pair of keds ( %39.95!)
Social Security Act 1973 ................wasn't nixon the Pres then???? grover norquist getting a foot in the door?
cheney,................
enron DID WRITE THE S S ACT! Google the SS ACT, ITS PATHETIC!

[defendandprotect]

20. The GOP has been "fixing" the inflation figures/estimates for decades now . . .

they corrupt everything they can get their hands on !!

And this has been a horrendous year for prices going up -- food, clothing, fuel still rising.

In fact, look at it this way . . . since W Bush took office, your dollar is worth about

HALF as much as it was the day he was made president by the Supreme Court!!!

[Cha]

44. What a knee jerk

reaction..hello, calm down.

[customerserviceguy]

2. The increase for the beginning of 2009

was calculated about halfway into 2008, right after fuel prices peaked, and had sent inflationary shock waves throughout the country. The economy had not yet begun to contract, either.

Now, with softened prices for many goods and services, I fully expected to see very, very little or no COLA increase for 2010's Social Security recipients. I do remember back in the 1980's when the annual increase was very low, Congress voted to give a 3% increase, anyway, I wonder if they will do that this time.

There's gotta be a lot less money coming into the System now than there was a year ago, that's going to put a severe squeeze on the viability of the System if they decide to do that.

[monmouth]

3. You're right. If people are not working, nobody is feeding FICA. ..n/t

[rucognizant]

28. Hold the Press!!!!

I JUST woke up with this thought!
"If people are not working, nobody is feeding FICA." . YOU ARE DEAD WRONG YOU HAVE DRUNK THE GOP KOOLAID!
I am ALLEGEDLY living OFF money My husband earned in the early 80's, and paid into FICA. It SHOULD HAVE INCREASED over almost 3 decades. It should have been drawing interest and INCREASING!
I shouldn't be dependant on what last year's Walmart grunt paid into FICA! Or penalized because this year's grunt lost their job.
THAT MONEY SHOULD BE THERE IN THE ACCOUNT! LIKE PARIS HILTON"S TRUST FUND.
If it isn't there, collecting interest; SOMEONE HAS STOLEN IT!
THEY GOTCHA!

[Yupster]

47. yes - someone has stolen it

Congress spends it every year.

Surely that's not a surprise to anyone.

[rucognizant]

17. WHAT.......

softened prices for many goods and services, I don't see it! They've never been higher in my 70 years!

[customerserviceguy]

24. Do you buy gasoline?

About the last 4th of July, it was over $4 a gallon most everywhere, now it's about half of what it was. The same thing has happened to diesel fuel, and pretty much everything you or I have was brought by a truck. Softening fuel prices have led to a backing off of the inflation that was a key component of the 2009 Social Security increase.

Clothing is cheaper, there was a lot of it unsold last Christmas. And if you look around a bit, you can find deals on many things. Sometimes cash talks where credit cards don't.

I'm certainly not saying that prices have dropped to whatever you consider to be the good old days, but there was an incredibly high inflationary pressure last summer that gave the Social Security recipients 5.8 percent for 2009, while the overall inflation rate for all of 2008 was 3.8 percent. It was plain to see that it was going to work itself out in the next benefit year of 2010.

[rucognizant]

29. customerservice guy.........

I REPEAT. I CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY CLOTHES...........I WEAR WHAT I HAVE! Clothes I bought in the 70's even! They were better constructed back then!
DRIFTING OFF TO SLEEP LAST NIGHT I REFLECTED that the sheets on my bed were 26 years old!
My lawn mower is DEAD! motor burned out after only 8 years (1999-2008! I saved $50. by driving up to Canada to buy it when the exchange rate was .60c (can) on the US dollar! The last one lasted from 1982-1999; both Blk & Decker electric.
A NIGHTMARE! The grass grows VERY FAST in Maine in May/June. The black flies BREED IN IT. I am allergic to blackfly bites. I will be cutting the grass with a weed whacker this year ( oh my aching back!) ( not to mention the time wasted in doing this.) I plan to
dig up more of it & plant corn and beans! Or just pretty rows of annuals. LOTTA WORK, when I have been given a grant to DO PAINTINGS NOT YARD WORK!
I am still trying to get the $200. together to pay for the cord of wood I got back in Nov. Every month I exceed my budget by about $200. dollars; ( "WITHOUT BUYING CONSUMER GOODS") He will be stopping by to collect as he has a summer house down the road! AND I will need another cord of wood for the coming winter! Although my new neighbor has cut down an apple tree, so I will be across the street in August cutting my own firewood! ( at age 70)
10 years ago..I was working for a caterer in Portland Maine,for the annual flower show, housed in an OLD warehouse on the waterfront. The food booths were located up a nasty flight of wooden stairs, narrow treads, scooped lower in the center by years of use. We had to carry huge boxes containing the food, up from our van. I noticed a PATTERN! Most of the exhibiters were over 55, hard at work pulling the heavy trees, potted plants etc. out of their vans & trucks, carting them into the building, setting them up.
The parking lot monitors were all BOYS under 35, directing traffic in the parking lot, the heaviest thing any of them lifted was a cell phone or a flash light!!!!!
WHat goes around comes around kids, you better get out there in front of the White House and protest SS! ( My 26 year old a car won't make it that far, and who is going to give a 70 year old a loan to buy a hybrid?!)
BUT I am not in foreclosure, and I am not starving, becauase I was smart enough to be provident.........but even my thrift is being eroded and certainly NOT REWARDED!

[customerserviceguy]

43. Well, when you finally do have to buy sheets

you're likely to be shocked by what's happened to the prices in twenty-six years. Maybe you can find some at an estate sale or some other means of getting used ones that aren't as old as yours.

I see from your avatar, you live in Maine. I would imagine that there would be people trying to make ends meet by selling cord wood for cash, using their own pickup trucks. I lived out on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, and we paid a lot less for our firewood than folks did in Seattle or Tacoma, but even those people might have been able to find someone out in the country who wanted to make a few bucks on the side.

Sorry to hear about the motors on the mowers, my lady knows that I'm trying to find a cheap rechargable battery for an electric drill I picked up at the local Goodwill store for about $15, but the battery it came with won't hold a charge. She was looking at Home Depot for a storm door for her rental condo, and came across a Black and Decker drill for about $40. I told her to forget about it, B & D has made some really unreliable products over the last several years. Your story backs that up.

[No Elephants]

32. No, I don't buy gasoline. I don't buy clothes often either. I do buy food and pay an electric

bill, and neither of those things are counted when COLA's for OASDI are calculated.

[customerserviceguy]

41. Utilities are up, no question about it

because people are cutting back on their uses of them, and utility regulators have approved rate increases to spread the infrastructure costs across a shrinking number of kilowatts of electricity, gallons of water, and cubic feet of natural gas. The steps we will need to take to deal with global warming will increase those infrastructure costs, so we had better get used to this trend.

Food, on the other hand, does see some price fluctuations, especially the closer you get to fresh. And since all food is transported by truck, there is no longer the price pressure from rising diesel costs being added to your food like it was last summer. Shippers, suppliers and grocers all took a bit of a hit during that time, but it seems clear they are trying to recoup their losses from then.

I would also imagine that more people are cooking at home than are eating out, that might put some pressure on grocery prices. I've dealt with this by figuring out the best ways to buy food in my area (just moved here two years ago), and I've figured out a market about five miles east where well-off shoppers don't want to be seen with a $1 or $2 off sticker on near-pull-date meats, I found where a produce market was close to a supermarket, and both stores have decent quantities of vegetables that are pull-date marked, and I went to the store bakery to grab a five-gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid that I can store rice and pasta in.

I'll admit, if you live away from sources that have to compete with each other, you have fewer choices. But perhaps you can garden, I have practically no sun on the back deck of my condo, and don't really have the option of growing much more than a few herbs.

[defendandprotect]

21. But we could afford $12 TRILLION in bailouts of corrupt capitalism . . .???????

Something's wrong with the reasoning here -- !!!

And Obama is telling us that we can't afford national health care????

[customerserviceguy]

25. We couldn't afford the bailouts, either

but at least the corporate hogs had to pony up fresh campaign cash for the 2008 election, they didn't have an automatic formula calculating just how much free money they'd get.

Like I said, perhaps Congress will authorize a COLA that has nothing to do with the measured rate of inflation, like they did a couple of decades ago. There are a lot of folks out there working who have not received any wage increases at all in the last year, and there are people like me who are considering themselves lucky to have a part time job that is working me thirty hours a week instead of the twenty hours a week I was doing during the winter. Six months ago, I had a forty hour a week job, so either way you look at it, it's been a pay cut for me.

And there are those who have no jobs at all, and are trying to get by on unemployment checks, if they're lucky enough to still have them. They're not getting any raises, and chances are, they were making more a year ago, too.

Unless you're a fat cat banker, it's tough all around.

[No Elephants]

33. But we paid them anyway.

[customerserviceguy]

42. That's something to hold Congress responsible for

if possible. I've noticed that some of the Republicans who voted against the bailouts have been turned out of office, and most all of the Democratic representatives who voted for them got re-elected. I suppose that was the voting public saying they approved of the bailouts at the time they were voted for.

I guess the question is, how much longer will bailouts be voted for, and to who besides the bankers are they going to go?

[Deja Q]

39. I hope Congress doesn't do what repubs do and give themselves a big raise.

Of course, they did that in 2007 too, and Congress had a Dem majority. Still, Bush didn't veto it... odd, that...

They need to do their part and put in wage freezes for themselves... or add to the pay of working, moral families that pay their taxes to support them.

We're all in this together.

[JVS]

45. Prices are sticky, they don't come back down as quickly as they go up.

[customerserviceguy]

53. It depends

Certainly, when the price of your product is posted on a giant sign near the street adjoining your business, such as with a gasoline station, prices fluctuate often.

I'd say that with tight economic times, people are becoming more price-aware than ever. I would imagine that most producers and retailers are quite aware of that.

[lib2DaBone]

4. Billions for Banksters....Nothing for the Worker Bees....

Meet the New Boss.. same as the old boss...There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

[Name removed]

5. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[defendandprotect]

22. That's not billions . . . it's $8.3 TRILLION + $3.5 TRILLION . . . = $12 TRILLION . . .

of taxpayer money . . . into the far, far future!!!

And then Obama follow up by telling America we can't afford natioal health care????

HEADLINE: "THIRD WORLD AMERICANS BAIL OUT WALL STREET" . . . ????

[Iowa]

8. The COLA formula is rigged and subject to manipulation...

Too bad we don't have an organization looking out for the interests of retired people. AARP used to do that, but that worthless organization sold out long ago (their current CEO is little more than a Bush lackey).

AARP's relationship to retired people = the Democratic party's relationship to working people... they both pretend to represent their constituents while selling them out at every opportunity.

[defendandprotect]

23. RIGHT ... the GOP has been fudging the estimates and destroying the formula

for decades now -- !!!

While increasing their own salaries!!!

[Iowa]

50. Yes...

I'd like to see some respected independent organization take on the task of keeping the consumer price index honest. I would envision such an organization announcing (with great fanfare) what the CPI SHOULD be, right around the time the DOL comes out with their bogus figures. This would at least inform the public how bad they are being screwed.

Our standard of living is being ground down with more going to the top, and less to everyone else. I would argue that a bogus CPI is the weapon of choice to accomplish this because it's complicated, very few people understand it, it's very incremental... in other words, it's a perfect way to pull off a scam on a huge scale over a long period of time. And it is truly huge because it affects not only SS retirees, but wage earners, and even TIPS holders.

There is a huge conflict of interest here, and as far as I know, nobody is verifying these numbers. The plutocrats who own our politicians have much to gain via a bogus CPI.

[rucognizant]

30. That's right!

It's been tainted by 10 years of Boomers belonging to AARP! With their lofty regal notions of how life should be!

[Iowa]

49. Huh?

If by "lofty regal notions of how life should be" you mean "not living in poverty in old age" (like generations did before the New Deal) then yeah, that's probably what most people would want.

Beyond that I wouldn't claim to know how even a single person defines something as broad as "how life should be", let alone a huge swath of the population encompassing everyone between the ages of 45 & 64. I wouldn't claim to know that because 1) it's impossible to know such a thing, and 2) demonizing large groups of a population based on race, or nationality, or ______, or age, would make me look prejudiced and ignorant.

Furthermore, it would involve buying into the brain-dead, generational warfare bullshit republicans like to push so that someday, when the sheeple are sufficiently softened up to the idea, they will be able to renege on the treasury bonds in the SS trust fund and destroy Social Security, like they have been trying to do since the day it was instituted.

Fortunately, they have yet to encounter a generation that is dumb enough to buy into their bullshit. And I'm sure that you, being a smart, educated, liberal sort of guy who frequents a liberal site such as DU, can see right through their bullshit too.

[shadowknows69]

9. I can't get my benefits thanks to a corrupt overstuffed system

So I guess I get no increase either. Great idea though, let's make sure the most destitute among us stay that way.

[Subdivisions]

10. NO MONEY FOR YOU!!!

All our tax dollars belong to the banksters!!!

Damn, GET OVER IT!!!

[Historic NY]

14. My 94 yr old cousin wrote Obama telling him to take $25 one month

from every SS check each year. He seems to think with all the recipients it would help build up the SS surplus. I know most people can't afford it but then there are people getting SS that don't need it.

[rucognizant]

18. They just have to raise the $90.000 ceiling and remove SS from those people too.

[st8grad93]

40. The ceiling for 2009 is $106,800

Who are "those people" of which you speak ? And what do you mean by "remove SS" ?

[Skittles]

56. take Social Security $ from ALL WAGES

got it or does it need to be spelled out for you even more?

[defendandprotect]

19. Presume this is based on a "FREEZE" . . .whereas, basically,

from what I hear, had the original formula of inflation* prevailed, Social Security

checks would have been double what they are now!

Also, I think this would be a major mistake with all of the poverty we already have --

and very bad for the administration!!! Major bad!!!

We've just spent $8.3 TRILLION + at least another $3.5 TRILLION called for, etc.

on BAILING OUT corrupt capitalism . . . and Obama is telling America that we can't afford

National Health Care??? And, now he wants to tell Social Security recepients that they don't

matter, either?????

Meanwhile . . .

Officials have already said the condition of Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund is deteriorating because of the recession, which has reduced payroll tax revenues, the main source of money for the fund. Spending on Social Security and Medicare totaled more than $1 trillion last year, accounting for more than one-third of the federal budget.

Most people don't understand that Social Security was never intended to run a surplus --

which has been going on now for decades. In fact, Poppy Bush/Greenspan increased FICA in

order to raise the SURPLUS even further because Poppy needed more ready cash!

In other words, everyone who pays into Social Security -- and with the cap on earniings that

leaves mainly the poor and the middle class paying -- has been paying at a GREATER RATE in

order to create a SURPLUS which is spent by government -- on wars and tax cuts for the rich!

BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHEN SOCIAL SECURITY RUNS A SURPLUS, IT HELPS HIDE THE HORRENDOUS

MILITARY BUDGET. IN OTHER WORDS, SOCIAL SECURITY IS SUPPOSED TO BE STRICTLY 'PAY AS YOU GO' . .

AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOVERNMENT . . .

except the government administrates the fund -- for about 3% a year.

Again -- Social Security shouldn't be in the Federal Budget at all -- it's there to HIDE THE

MILITARY BUDGET!!!



* The GOP over the past decades has hoaxed most of our statistics --
imagine what the real rate of poverty is!!!

[OwnedByFerrets]

26. Fuck the serfs....Save the Rich.

do I really need it? Nah, didnt think so.

[razors edge]

27. The CEOs of America thank you

and appreciates your sacrifice and understanding, now, get back to work.

[rucognizant]

31. And the Bas***ds,

Don't even buy artwork like the Greatest Gen, wealthy used to do!
It's drugs and prostitutes these days!

[razors edge]

51. Well, there is no denying

the drugs are way better and the prostitutes are way cuter than they were in the 1930s.

[No Elephants]

34. The money they took out of my paychecks all my life should have been in a trust fund.

[Mari333]

46. It was supposed to be in a trust fund

Gore Vidal said its full of IOUs

[Psephos]

55. Would that it were so...

instead it's all been tossed into the general fund for the last 40 years to hide the true size of budget deficits. There is no trust fund, just a bunch of IOUs the government wrote to itself.

Which means the money will have to come out of general revenues when it comes due, starting in as little as eight to ten years. Which means the government will be over a barrel.

I sincerely hope you get your money back. I'm not counting on mine. How ironic that the money that was taken from each of paycheck was supposedly put into something called a "trust" fund.

[Mari333]

35. great. I start recieving widows benefits in 2 yrs.

and have seen my meager savings shrink substantially thanks to the last 8 yrs.
it will not behoove the dems in power to ignore the SS folks. That would be a very bad mistake. very bad. Boomers are the largest demographic group in the united states. Not a wise move if the dems are looking towards 2010 or 2012.

here:
write to the WH and give them hell

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

[No Elephants]

57. You may well get your benefits. My son, I fear, may well not get his, when his time comes. That is

a big factor in creating generational resentment (beyond the usual generational resentment, that is). We put the money in and we'll probably get it back. His generation is putting the money in and may never see it again. They tend to see that as the greed of our generation and, in a sense, that is right. Our government has stolen from the next generations in many ways to avoid raising taxes and/or cutting spending. This is only one of them.

[Bluenorthwest]

36. Trillions for Wall Street

Nuts for the rest of us. Let's not forget that Obama also promised on the campaign trail to end federal income tax for Social Security beneficiaries making less than $50,000 a year, and not a word has been spoken about that since he got elected. Tim Geithner needs that money to stuff into goodie bags for bankers.

[Deja Q]

38. He can't do everything at once.

I think we'll know in another 2 years, 1.3 months...

As with Bush's bailouts, I supported Obamas - solely for the immediate concern. The only SOLUTION is to have good paying jobs. President Obama has acknowledged that as well.

And, it is true, change can't happen overnight. There is resistance. Like exercising to get fit, it takes time to get rid of the blubber. It's Obama's turn to start dealing with the blubber on Wall Street and put back ethics, morals, and fairness. And I have far more faith in him... wait, faith - isn't that like a bad thing or something? Faith based policies and all that? So is abstinence, but I then haven't caught any cooties yet either and I'm saving it for someone special... obviously I'll be waiting a very long time... how the hell did I digress to this topic? Oh well...

[No Elephants]

58. You seem to be assuming that the only way to create or preserve jobs is to throw

money at the banks and Wall Street. I don't think that is necessarily correct. It is not necessarily either (a) reward those who got us here or (b) no jobs.

[Deja Q]

37. Give Bob Dole a viagra and Bob Dole will rise...

:yoiks:

Okay, this is sad news to have read... especially when elders should be listened to because they've been there, done that, lived it, and have something real to say. Unlike that Miley Heiney Montana person who's put out a bio at age 16. :eyes:

Okay, that rule is dead now since old people are like mean and nasty and are more deserving of being mugged than listened to in our pathetic kiddie-oriented "culture"...

[Honeycombe8]

48. This is just the beginning of a revamping of Soc. Sec. We've all known SS is in trouble.

Serious trouble.

It is coming. Either benefits will be cut, the age of receiving benefits will go up (again), or who will qualify will be narrowed, or FICA taxes will increase. Or all of the above.

What MIGHT be helpful, this one time, is that the cost of living for ordinary things has not gone up much this past year, except for medications. Doesn't help a lot, I know. But it's something. And better than Soc. Sec. benefits being cut.

[lbrtbell]

52. The cost of living isn't rising?

Every time I go grocery shopping, prices keep going up, and package sizes keep getting smaller. Older folks are getting seriously screwed over, after working hard to contribute to Social Security. :(

[workinclasszero]

54. Trillions for the felons of Wall Street

but not a dime for your hard working, honest, grandparents!:argh:

Republicans can go to hell! The reich wing is right, a revolution is on the way.

But not the one they expect! :mad:

[Overseas]

59. Seems so cruel. And further reduces buying power of the public.

Seems so contrary to what we need now-- more money in the hands of people who will spend it right away.

We need to stimulate the demand side in our economy, not cut it back!

Sorry to hear that the way the COLA law has been written, it doesn't make any accommodations for situations like we've just encountered in which millions of people's 401k savings were recklessly looted by the finance professionals they relied upon.