Wave a magic wand and give us more…
From an e-mail I received from The Senior Citizens League.
Right now, the Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) for 2027 is projected to be just 3.5%. Even though this is larger than the 2026 COLA it still won’t come close to offsetting the years of higher inflation seniors have faced. In fact, TSCL’s last survey found that roughly three-fifths of seniors were dissatisfied with the amount of their monthly Social Security checks. With this new survey, we’ll collect even stronger data to present to Congress as we continue pushing for fairer benefits.
No doubt many seniors need additional income. And many are in that state through no action of their own, but many more are in that state because of unfortunate decisions they made or didn’t make throughout their lives.
And still many more have adequate income, but could always use more.
Surveys such as this are useless. Of course everyone wants more, everyone could use more. Even the e-mail from TSCL suggests they expect “stronger data” to press their claim for more.
I wonder if TSCL has any concern how and who might pay for their “fairer” benefits, especially given the financial status of Social Security.
Give them a break. They have been taught by Congress, in all of its vote buying schemes, starting with the original amendment to Social Security in 1939, that SS and Medicare and Medicaid benefit improvements have no cost so large that it cannot be born by future generations of individuals too young to vote and generations unborn.
We know how willing retirees are if they are asked to shoulder the cost of benefit improvements – a la the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, signed into law by President Reagan on July 1, 1988. Those improvements, to be paid by the seniors themselves in the form of higher premiums and a surtax, were reversed late in 1989 before most provisions took effect, by the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Repeal Act of 1989.
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