Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA

[CountAllVotes]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.

The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

About 45 million people — one in seven in the country — receive both Medicare and Social Security. By law, beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, deducted from their Social Security payments each month.

When Medicare premiums rise more than Social Security payments, millions of people living on fixed incomes don't get raises. On the other hand, most don't get pay cuts, either, because a hold-harmless provision prevents higher Part B premiums from reducing Social Security payments for most people.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110327/ap_on_go_ot/us_social_security_cola

---

Why am I not surprised? :grr:

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "Who the %&$# else ya gonna vote for, chumps?"

18 years of triangulation, and here we are. FDR is spinning in his grave with sufficient force to power the entire East Coast.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

22. I wish the ghost of FDR would stop spinning in his grave and start smacking some Dems around ...

... nights and weekends. WTF happened to the part of FDR and LBJ?

[MilesColtrane]

24. You can blame Democrats, but remember that most of the ones who...

set up the way COLA is determined for Social Security are long dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/92nd_United_States_Congress

[former9thward]

36. They may be dead but the COLA adjustment can be changed at any time.

It was set up by a past Congress and could be changed by any Congress following that. It is not written in stone.

[MilesColtrane]

38. Democrats did their best last summer to make up for the lack of a COLA.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5987/actions_votes

How would you suggest they change the way cost of living adjustments are made for SS payments?

[former9thward]

41. My suggestion would be to use a real COLA

Currently food and energy are excluded from inflation measurements. Both are doing nothing but going up and should be included. But then they would have to admit there is a real inflation problem and they don't want to do that.

[MilesColtrane]

42. Social Security COLA is pegged to CPI-W which includes...

energy and food prices.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics

http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiqa.htm

Has the BLS removed food or energy prices in its official measure of inflation?

No. The BLS publishes thousands of CPI indexes each month, including the headline All Items CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the CPI-U for All Items Less Food and Energy. The latter series, widely referred to as the "core" CPI, is closely watched by many economic analysts and policymakers under the belief that food and energy prices are volatile and are subject to price shocks that cannot be damped through monetary policy. However, all consumer goods and services, including food and energy, are represented in the headline CPI.

Most importantly, none of the prominent legislated uses of the CPI excludes food and energy. Social security and federal retirement benefits are updated each year for inflation by the All Items CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Individual income tax parameters and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) returns are based on the All Items CPI-U.

Now, the CPI figures that the Federal Reserve works with to determine monetary policy don't include food and energy, because (they say) that it is better to look at longer term trends with less volatility when making long term decisions.

Actually, the fact that gas prices are included in SS COLAs has contributed in a big way as to why there was no upward adjustment last year and may not be one this year. Gasoline peaked at a national average of over $4.11 in early July 2008 and is only just now beginning to approach that price again.

This explains it more succinctly than I can:

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/social-security-cola/

Here are the actual CPI-W tables:

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/social-security-cola/

Note how the number peaked in July of 2008 the same time oil was at $137 a barrel.

[alfredo]

39. SS recipients were to receive a $250 lump sum this year, but

Republicans killed that. Probably the only way we could get that is if we gave another tax break for the rich.

[Joe Bacon]

2. It's appeasement time again!

Obama already signaled his intention to weaken Social Security with his Catfood Commission. As usual, he's in appeasement mode, giving away the store to the Republicans.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. His commission recommended more than $50k in benefit cuts per recipient

More than 22%.

[CountAllVotes]

12. who the hell is getting $50K in SS benefits?

I cannot think of one person that gets THAT much! It is more like $800.00 a month/$10,000.00 a YEAR! :wtf: !!

:dem:

[strategery blunder]

13. Think he was referring to avg benefit paid out over a lifetime

Doesn't make much sense otherwise.

[CountAllVotes]

15. how do they figure that one out?

Some people live to be old and might be collecting Social Security for years (like as many as 30+). I can think of few in this boat.

Most are collecting less that $1,000.00 a month. Does this mean they should be dead within 5 years of beginning to collect benefits?

I cry B.S. on this "figure" of $50,000K ... :wtf: again!!

:dem:

[MannyGoldstein]

23. From the Chief Actuary of Social Security

See for reference: http://fdrdemocrats.org/2011/03/14/the-common-sense-guide-to-social-security/

Based on lifetime benefits cut by 22%.

[Monique1]

31. I ask the same question

my SS is at the low point

[MannyGoldstein]

34. Based on lifetime benefits

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4789119&mesg_id=4789217

[freshwest]

28. 22% cut in the basic pension amount?

[MannyGoldstein]

30. Total lifetime benefits

From reducing the COLA allowance and raising the retirement age.

[freshwest]

32. Thanks. No more COLAs, higher age so they'll die and never collect, not unexpected.

[JTFrog]

11. OMFG

First time I ever wished Chris Matthews would visit DU.




:eyes:

[russspeakeasy]

20. Pre-emptive apeasement...Again.

[xchrom]

3. Sigh. Nt

[sarcasmo]

4. No taxes for BOA, GE and many other mega corporations as the poor, working class

and middle class get the screw job.

[Faygo Kid]

7. +1

[JackDragna]

5. No COLA adjustment is a cut, dear writer.

If you make the same amount in total dollars but things cost more, you have less. Sigh. My god, what have we become?

[Recursion]

16. There is a COLA adjustment. The writer even says so.

And then says that rising costs will eat it up. Which doesn't particularly bother me since that's what a COLA is for.

[CountAllVotes]

18. yeah like .09% is a COLA

You've got $4.00+ a gallon gasoline, $4.00+ organic milk, you've got food prices going out the window, you've got drug prices being doubled and triped.

Believe these lies!

Why don't they tax the rich and stop playing around with people lives?

Could YOU live on $10,000.00 a year?

:dem: :kick:

[plumbob]

33. Actually says Medicare alone will more than eat it up, leaving less, not

even the same, for food, electricity, gasoline, etc.

That's NOT what a COLA is for - it's supposed to keep the standard of living level. This is a cut.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. this sucks ...3 years and counting...rent goes up, gas ,go up, food goes up senors go down the drain

[ElsewheresDaughter]

9. I don't like the taste of cat food

[Bryn]

40. Even cat food is expensive now!

Pet food has gone up by 22%.

[No Elephants]

10. Who's worried about death panels?

[ananda]

14. Ask: why is the tea party running government agendas?

Answer: media saturation and funding by corporatists, linked in with
abuse or stockholm syndrome on the part of most Dems including
Obama.

[bobbolink]

17. And of course, we will see huge protests about this on the streets of Madison and other cities,.

Yeah, right.

[Akoto]

19. Gee, great.

Wouldn't mind a little more with my SSI check, admittedly, but I've made it stretch the past two years. :\

[aquart]

21. They harm us but we never harm them.

[onethatcares]

25. oh well, aside from rises in food prices and the cost of energy

prices have remained relativly flat. Who needs anymore than they already have when you have that to reflect on?:wtf:

[Metta]

26. Billionaires, yes. The rest of us, no. Go, corporate state.

The suffering they cause becomes their karma.

[freshwest]

29. We are many and they are few. Is this our karma, too?

[Metta]

44. Karma is based on wilfull action.

So, they reap the suffering they cause. As for us, who can say in this regard.

[freshwest]

45. Some people play willfully ignorant, then blame others. Not all, though.

[Uncle Joe]

27. No, tax cuts for the wealthy during a time of war means no social security COLA.

Thanks for the thread, CountAllVotes.

[Psephos]

35. The answer is not to bitch on a forum but to press for changes to the law.

The formulas are set in law. Everyone knows the books are cooked when it comes to official calculations of inflation vs. real-world conditions. So the answer is to change the law so that an accurate assessment of inflation is reflected in the formulas by which the adjustments are set.

Start by dialing/faxing/emailing/smoke-signalling/pony-expressing your reps if you want this to change. More demonstrative means may be necessary as well.

[Bryn]

37. We shouldn't just sit here and whine

We should be fighting for our rights by writing, calling, faxing, taken to streets, etc. Our government isn't working for us... not anymore. They're now the corporations' servants. If they can't do their job right then we the people should take it back and put it back in right place.

[xxqqqzme]

43. "...most don't get pay cuts, either, .."

bullshit. My disability is $33 less this year than last.

[Sonicwall]

46. Congress has to remove the CPI-W from the formula, and calculate using CPI-E

and backdate the whole fucking thing 30 years, adjusted at a minimum of 30% increase.

And tax the fucking billionaires for fuck's sake.

[pinqy]

47. That would actually make things worse under current conditions

From http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid1003.pdf">BLS, relative weights for food...CPI-W = 16.43, CPI-E = 12.35. Transportation (including motor fuel), CPI-W = 16.69, CPI-E = 14.22. The CPI-E has higher weight for Housing, but housing is going down or staying flat. So by switching to CPI-E with food and fuel rising, you'd be showing lower inflation than the current CPI-W.