Bush Plan Would Trim Survivor Benefits

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - President Bush's budget calls for elimination of a $255 lump-sum death payment that has been part of Social Security for more than 50 years and urges Congress to cut off monthly survivor benefits to 16- and 17-year-old high school dropouts.

If approved, the two proposals would save a combined $3.4 billion over the next decade, according to administration estimates.

Any attempt to reduce Social Security benefits — no matter how small — could face intense opposition in Congress in an election year.

"There they go again," Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who chairs his party's campaign committee, said Tuesday of the administration. "They can't resist trying to cut Social Security and to cut a survivor's, a widow or widower's benefits; it just shows how warped the priorities are in this budget."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_social_security

[formercia]

1. Congress should increase the lump-sum benefit.

It's way too low for even the simplest of funerals. Send that assh0le a message.

[SoCalDem]

2. Frankly, the $255 death settlement is a slap inthe face

It should be 2,555.00....and kids who drop out should continue to receive money unless they leave the family home..checks are made out to the parent anyway..It's bad enough that they dropped out..cutting out what little they get will only make things worse for the family.

[formercia]

3. The burden would fall on the States to enforce the dropout clause.

No telling how much that would cost, or is Homeland Security going to hire caseworkers with M-16's to police the recipients.

[MiniMe]

11. Thats the only way Bushco knows how to create jobs nt

[Matariki]

14. hey gotta get those drop outs in the army some how

[HuffleClaw]

4. of course, just business as usual for bushco.

but i doubt it'll be actually implemented. as the story notes, its an election year.

[bleedingheart]

5. Thank Reagan for starting to pick on the widows and children

and now Bush will try and carry on that legacy.

[rodeodance]

9. well, Reagan IS jr's hero.

[Straight Shooter]

6. Let's just keep that vicious cycle of poverty going, folks.

Not to worry about those dropouts. In a couple years, they can join the Army and be all that they can be in Iran. :eyes:

[rodeodance]

7. oh, my gawd!!

[rodeodance]

8. $3.4 billion over the next decade,--this is loose change in Congress and

yet the Wh has no shame.

[wtmusic]

19. The invasion of Iraq costs more than that every month nt

[dflprincess]

10. I was 11 when my dad died

and at that time you could receive Survivors Benefits until you were 22 as long as you stayed in school. I wouldn't have gotton through college without it.

Bastards.

[bleedingheart]

12. I was 10 when my father died

but while I was a child Reagan changed the law and...no more benefits during college and also...my mother's stipend was cut when the youngest child (my brother) turned 16.

My mother was working 4 jobs while I was in college...not only to help me, but to provide income for herself and my brother...

[sandnsea]

18. To prepare for the boomer retirement

If all the working people today understood they have been sacrificing since the 80's to pay for the boomer retirement, and those sacrifices and our increased FICA taxes are what's been given away in those tax cuts, maybe people would rise up and reject this shit.

[raccoon]

27. Same here, I was a kid when my father died.

I wouldn't have gotten through college without it either.

Ray-gun put a stop to that.

[Rex]

13. Snip snip, trim cut.

Killing us slowly with his greed.

[LizW]

15. They must have teams who seek out the weakest and most needy

"Hey, Joe, what were we thinking? While we've been concentrating on the kids and the old and the sick, there were the widows and orphans right under our noses!"

[cantstandbush]

16. The very fact that Bush would submit a budget like this should cost all

Republicans their Congressional seats in 2006 if they are up for election. OR, this is a political strategy to throw something out there for the Rethugs to vote AGAINST to make them look caring and compassionate to their constituencies.

[quaoar]

17. This is just obscene

[Moderator]

20. Kick

[Ernesto]

21. Bush plan would cut survivor benefits (social security again)

WASHINGTON (AP) - If President Bush gets his way, the venerable $255 Social Security death benefit will fade into history.
"There they go again," said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads the party's Senate campaign effort. "They can't resist trying to cut Social Security, and to cut a survivor, a widow or widower's benefits, it just shows how warped the priorities are in this budget."
http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/front/story/3146053p-11853574c.html

[elehhhhna]

22. They also want to kill payments for children ages 16 & 17 who

are not enrolled in school...although I'll bet my butt there'll be a clause excepting "homeschoolers".

[fasttense]

23. Cut those paltry widow benefits and sell all our

national and state land to corporate lobbyists for nothing. That should help turn this sinking economy around. :sarcasm:

[Art_from_Ark]

26. And shovel off hundreds of billions to"Iraq"

where the accounting is "iffy" at best :banghead:

[Trevelyan]

24. K & R -- I have no words but FireDogLake does - on the massive cuts for

poor, children and elderly and bush still wasn't satisfied and sent the budget back to cut even more benefits for those living on the edge and barely making it. The survivors' benefit must have been ONE of the things the Congress came up with to screw the poor even more...are the Dems standing as ONE against the majority repukes? We really need to get rid of these DINOs and support the Band of Brother...the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are running as Democrats... they won't be afraid of bush's threats.

"....Support the Troops, Send them to Congress!

Warm Regards,

General Wesley Clark (Ret.), Board of Advisors
Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Executive Director
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC

~770 Broadway, 2nd Fl. NY, NY 10003 | Tel:[phone] | Email:[e-mail] | Media:[e-mail].

[superconnected]

25. But bush wants 400 billion for iraq and to give more tax cuts to the rich

and make the previous ones permanent. How can he cut these little social programs... :sarcasm:

I think mr "I won't touch medicare and medicad", who cut them both the most, and now wants to get rid of windows benefits and survior checks for kids has just proven he didn't sell his soul to corporations after all. He sold it to lucifer.