2013
The following quote is from a comment to a blog post regarding the likely low 2014 Social Security COLA because of minimal changes in the CPI (CPI-W). This point of view is shared by many seniors … I worked, I paid taxes, I’m entitled to be taken care of.
We’re already in poverty as seniors and the government continues to screw us with no increase!
Every time I go to the grocery, pharmacy and gas stations there are substantial increases. Also my rent keeps going up and average of 5% yearly. Yet we get no reprieve from COLA! Why is this? We seniors fought wars and built this country and now we are being penalized. The system must change so we that have worked hard for many years and paid substantial taxes are somehow helped in our golden years! How about all those deadbeats who are on disability and do not deserve it. Why not have each one on disability be reviewed each year? Get these bums off SS!!!!!
But is such a point of view fair or accurate? The COLA is fixed by law and varies each year by actual inflation. Aren’t seniors already being helped in many ways at both the federal and state levels? What portion of available resources are seniors entitled to as opposed to the rest of America’s citizens? Can younger Americans afford to provide the benefits some seniors see as their right?
I have my own point of view, but I would like to hear what you think? Please comment.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Who is screwing Americans (seniors)?…….. Read above…… Obama and like minded people who have forgotten who built this country and at what cost….. now they are castaways…. not even worthy of proper medical in their old age……Not worthy of proper diets that would deter illness…. who is screwing American seniors……. look around you…… that is who!!!!!!
In some ways I wish the bottom would fall out and these do gooders would lose everything……. see how fast they would start screaming!!!! 🙂 It could happen……
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They do not care that seniors are starving.. It is in their plan to keep us humble a submissive…..that is how they intend to control us…. if you think times are tough now, hang around another year or so……they will have us on our knees begging! An old saying was America…… Love it or leave it……. it meant something else in the day…… it has a new meaning today……it is to expensive to leave it now……and where are the fighters?…. All fought out? I am seventy years old and ready to fight for our Constitution……for our Rights !! Trust me, I did not vote for those in office today….We need to change Washington before they ruin us completely……….
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“… We’re already in poverty as seniors and the government continues to screw us with no increase! …” No problem, but before the idiots increase the burden on working Americans who have little if any chance of recovering their “investment “ (when considering funding via FICA, FICA Med, Medicare Part B and D and Medicaid (general revenue taxes)), limit all those seniors who “paid substantial taxes” to a total benefit payment from SS and Medicare Part A to a sum equaling their FICA and FICA-Med contributions, the associated employer FICA and FICA-Med contributions, and a reasonable imputed rate of return (5%). Then, to the extent they receive benefits that, adjusted for “earnings/inflation” would have exceeded their contributions, increase taxes on that individual (both income and wealth) as necessary to fund their benefits up until such time as they qualify for Medicaid (essentially accomplishing “spend down” including home equity) – what we might otherwise think is “senior poverty”.
As to the folks on disability, there is a lot to be said for tightening up the definition of SS disability. Here is the data in terms of the abuse people are likely complaining about:
• Administrative Law Judge David M. Daughetry (OH, WVa) decided 1,284 SS disability cases in the federal fiscal year 10/1/09 – 9/30/10, and another 729 in the 1st six months of the federal year 10/1/10 – 9/30/11, awarding benefits in all but 4 cases.
• Since January 2009 through September 2012, 5.9MM people have been added to the SSDI – versus 2.5MM jobs created during the same period. SSDI is being paid to ~11MM Americans – 1 in 14 workers. ~650k left the dole in 2011, but 36% left only because they died, and 52% left because they reached retirement age – only 6% returned to work, 4% improved health.
• The DI portion of the SS trust fund will be exhausted by 2015 – 2016.
The dramatic increase comes from a liberalization of the definition of disability, particularly mental impairments which now represent fully 1/3 of approved disabilities. The Senate conducted their own investigation which concluded that fully one quarter of all disability insurance claims decisions were flawed.
Who do they expect will fund such an expansion … the French?
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If you are a senior and in poverty, you either made a lot of bad choices in your life, didn’t plan or had some incredibly bad luck. In any case, the only thing you are entitled to is life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. The original social security law did not envision automatic COLAs which didn’t appear until 1975. Before that seniors, were at the mercy of congress to pass resolutions to increase monthly allotments. Current workers are paying a greater percentage of their earnings to social security tax than current recipients ever paid. The money you paid into social security was a TAX, not a contribution to an annuity. The social security trust fund is an accounting fiction, it is filled with treasury bonds (government I.O.U.s), it’s all borrowed money. In its present state, social security is actuarially unsound.
If you still feel entitled, remember the people who were invested with Bernie Madoff. They felt entitled right up until the point that his scam blew up.
If you want to point a finger at who is screwing seniors, at least those seniors who saved for retirement, that would be the Federal Reserve for keeping interest rates artificially low.
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Well said Jack.
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The other point is that the chances are if you are in poverty as a senior, you were likely in poverty or close to it when you were younger. The expectation that Social Security would make things better is too common.
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Excuse me?… look who is on disability…. former drup addicts, recipiants who got it for mental issues..It is not the seniors fault that the prices have gone crazy and that SS is for the necessary utilities, basic food and medications…. while the government is issueing free cell phones… cash cards and food stamps…this situation has many fascets not just poor seniors who are depending on promises made….. and what about the multitude of people who paid in but did not live to collect one cent? Hmmmm something is not in balance here… do not blame it on the seniors who respectfully waited on your table, picked up your trash, cleaned your offices, jobs someone had to do, now they are starving while we ship $$$$$$ and military equipment etc over seas,……..illegal immigrants free everything….. makes sense to me…….NOT!
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You miss the point….. those who were scammed by Bernie Madoff were looking for quick get rich buck……. it was their choice….. seniors are not looking for anything more than to survive in a world where the prices have skyrocketed out of control…..In that they ARE “entitled”…. in a land of plenty, you have people starving…… ???
This year my medications went from co-pays of $2.50 to $6.50 to in some cases insulin $250. ! And that is fair?
By the way do your homework….. the Federal Reserve prints money and sells it back to the United States…… That is another issue among many……
If it was your granny you would be up in arms too…..or NOT !!?
Why are you not addressing the drug addicts and the mentals on SSI, the illegals given a free ride, at least I worked for and earn my passage which is another thing…….. my family tree dates back to before the Mayflower! They pioneered this country, fought it wars… gave their lives…… and many did not collect a dime of SS……. what happened to their funds?
Useless fight……between them that have and them that have not…..it will never change….. 😦
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A co-pay from $2.50 to $6.50? Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how lucky you are? My co-pay is 20% of the cost and more if I don’t use genetic or a formulary drug. Who do you think is paying the cost above the $6.50? What about people not on Medicare who pay 100% of the cost of a drug?
As far as inflation goes, it’s very low and has been for several years, that’s the only reason the SS COLA has been low.
Dick
Richard D Quinn Editor Quinnscommentary.com
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Reread my post…… even with Medicare D, I no longer pay those low co-pays… I no longer care about those under the age of 65 who are paying higher rates….. they have avenues of getting help or they can afford it…. I am 70 years old with an income of $1,000, I get no help, I have no family or rich friends to help me……. Take $600 from $1,000 tell me I am living a life of luxury! Come on down I will show inflation at it roots, I will show the people that are being hurt the most….. Do not come at me with the imaginary numbers being shoved down American’s throats……I live it each and every day!!! I actually know people under the age of 55 that get their SSI checks of $600 and up, then with all of added help of free stuff , as in food stamps, free insurance cards with free prescription cards, free food from the food banks… free, free, free that adds up to far more than I get……. oh no sir or madam, you do not have a clue of what you are saying to me! Hmmmm I admit I do not know how to play the game, shame on me! Shame on you for erring on the side of false and fake numbers and not seeing what your “poorer” neighbors are going thru! The elderly who built this land are dispensable….works for Obama and like minded people!………….Only in America!!!!!
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Another thing you forgot to factor in….. genarics are wonderful for those who can take them….. personally, I have had many, many disabling side effects…. I have to be extremely careful…
Who is paying the cost above the $6.50? What is Medicare D for? My Medicare D says that I have to pay the $250 above the $6.50 and Social Security imposed that upon me!!!!!!! This argument is unending, but until you can open your eyes for what it is all about, there are no resolves….There can never be resolves…….. Remember who built this country for your uses and purposes…… who kept it free……
Another thing that should be considered, that would help especially seniors… but everyone…… STOP TAXING FOOD!!!!!……… Some states do not tax food….. when you are poor that 10% is enough to buy another loaf or two of bread…….!!! That by the way has gone from $1 to $3 yet you say we are not experiencing inflation……..what the heck do you call it then?
By the way, I am the wife of a deceased Oklahoma Attorney…… I had plenty and invested we thought wisely………where was our government when two insurance companies (investment policies) went belly up leaving us with nothing but paper to paper the bathroom with? Hmmm a bail out would have been verrrry nice……:) Do not talk to me about those who did not work and do not deserve….. I was not one of them, yet look where I am today….
In saying that…….. Like Madoff….. we made the choice to invest in what we thought was safe investments…………We keep letting more and more people in with less and less to go around………..All I want is to survive…nothing more nothing less….
You got it all wrong….:(…..I think the mushroom syndrome is hard at work here…..
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Generics are the same chemical equivalent as brand drugs. In fact, in some cases they are the brand drug simply with the name removed. Only in rare cases can a person not take a given generic. Sometimes a person may have a problem with the filler material or color dye, but that can be true for brands as well. A blanket statement that a person cannot take generics is not credible.
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You are incredible!!!!!! You would fight and argue with a tornado! We will take Zocor for instance……… the Zocor look alike or generic…… put me on the bathroom floor for five days…… too weak and heart pain to make it from the bedroom to bathroom so I had to camp where it was most necessary, and that was the necessary room!!!! When compared by my doctor she could not find a difference between the name brand and the generic…… this is not my only brush with generics……. I Dear Sir know what I am talking about…… No one at any time made a blanket statement, however in saying that I know many people that have some of the same problems as I….. Just not to the extreme…. It does not excuse the sudden rise in my prescription cost…. May I also add…… I do not receive anything free!!!!!! Nor do I want free…… I only want the country I was born and raised in to recognize me as a person…… not some made up number in a barrel…. Hmmmmmm I guess that I am rare….alright have it your way…. 🙂 Argue on…. I challenge you to come to our level….a level I have never seen in my lifetime, until now, see what the poor people have to do to make it in our present day society……. day by day just to put “healthy” food on the table, minimal gas in their autos…. I use two tanks per year..how about you?….. I try to live on less than $100 per month…… you probably spend that for two meals if lucky…. Your arguments are vague and without merit at best….
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