Social Security recipients - a question for y'all.

[Hawkeye-X]

Since the establishing of Social Security, this is the first year that we have had no COLA increase, and we are not expected to get another for next year - I think it's time to write to our congresscritters and ask them they readjust the COLA formula (and I'm sure it's connected to the inflation index) and recalculate it to today's dollars, as well as removing the cap to ensure the surviviability of our safety nets.

Do you agree? If not, why not? Other ideas can be inputted here.

I'm a SS recipient since 2001, and I'm only 34 - but I do have a documented and legitimate disability (shouldn't be hard to figure out what it is)

Hawkeye-X

[yodoobo]

1. One of the things the media ignored is that Obama arrested inflation

Its a virtually unheard of feat, yet the media has completely ignored it.

Obama's control of inflation has made food, fuel, housing and life essentials available to more people. This is ALL a good thing.

The only downside affect is that folks who get inflation adjusted payments don't see an increase in monetary income, however overall their standard of living remains the same since the cost of living remained static for one of the very few times in our history.

I would support giving everyone a base increase, but I couldn't support tinkering with the cola formula to show inflation where it doesn't exist. This is an Obama success and we shouldn't take try to take that away from him just to score a few extra dollars.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[yodoobo]

9. then explain

I'll try to ignore your attack.

[notesdev]

11. Inflation vs. Deflation

Here's the simple explanation:

We have already had a massive period of inflation due to an unprecedented expansion of easy credit. More money in the system, prices go up - and this was evidenced in the housing bubble (itself unprecedented in proportion). In the midst of such a bubble, affordability plummets, and ALL government actions to date have been for the purpose of keeping prices high (and out of reach for many). They do this because it allows them to generate more taxes, and also because they are bought out by the big banks which would collapse if they were forced to do their accounting as was the law until just last year. Along with the housing bubble, prices for just about everything rose during this period of time (2000-2010).

Now, we are in deflation, due to collapsing asset prices (popping of the bubble and all assets tied to real estate, such as securities). Not only is there no longer easy credit, there isn't even a normal credit environment anymore. What money is in the system is largely pledged to pay off existing debts from the credit binge of the past decade. This is the natural, inevitable result of a credit bubble and this started playing out well before Obama was elected - since late 2007.

However, what is deflating are the credit-driven items - houses, yes, and also all the toys (cars and electronics and vacations and other luxuries) that people bought with their easy credit during the apparent-boom years.

What is NOT deflating are items like food and fuel and other necessities of life, nor are things like health care and education. On the items that make up our basic standard of living, prices for all these things have gone up while wages have been stagnant and credit has gone into reverse. How do I know this? For one, I pay close attention to economics fundamentals. Two, I have to go buy things to survive and I can compare the prices of things month/month or year/year.

So I know from direct firsthand observation that, say, gas @$2.20 last year is now @$2.80 and rising. That the food I buy at the supermarket is more expensive and has continued to become more expensive over time. I know from the doctors who are customers of mine that their costs are rising; and I know the same about education from the students I talk to.

While deflation is happening at the macro level as a result of financial carnage, for basic survival needs prices are inflating and continue to do so. Anyone who buys gasoline and groceries as part of their normal routine can confirm this.

[truedelphi]

25. Thank you for making a common sense argument about

Inflation and deflation.

While working on the 1040 today, I was a bit shocked (not a lot but a bit) to realize that most of the "middle America" tax cuts that I heard we would be offered this year went to families who were paying local real estate taxes, and/or buying a new car.

I mean, I am happy for everyone who is paying a mortgage and now gets to deduct their local state taxes. And I am happy for those who managed to buy a new car last year.

But if I had anything to do with revising the tax code, it would be quite different.

[gleaner]

4. No it is not ...

Inflation is not arrested, in fact it is up another point. I just read an article where an economist said that there is no indication it will stop. A 1.5 lb package of chicken now costs about $10.00. Last year it cost around $6.00. If you haven't noticed how steep prices are and how they continue to climb, then you must have quite a bit of money to fool around with.

Don't tell those of us on fixed incomes who are being gouged from all sides while Obama refuses to tax the rich and aims for deficit reduction on our backs which have already been picked clean that we do not need a COLA or that we are not spending as much money for things as we have to spend.

The formula for COLAs does need adjusting. We have been routinely given COLAs lower than the actual rate of inflation for years and one $250 stimulus payment doesn't pay the mortgage or buy food or prescriptions. Obama's inflation plan is working about like his health care bill. Not very well. Just ask the children who were supposed to be covered immediately for preexisting conditions whom the insurance companies are refusing to cover because they say that the bill does not require them to. How many dead children and years of useless litigation will it take to fix it when a simple straight forward bill aimed at the people who needed it and not the insurance companies who profit from what was passed ever happen? Not now apparently. You can say that something is better than nothing, but it isn't if you are hungry, homeless, sick, freezing, and unable to get medical care or unemployed and unable to get work. The economy is tanked and Obama hasn't done very much to pull it out. The media has said plenty. Even progressive commentators on MSNBC. I don't think there is any wonderful secret that they are conspiring to keep.

[elocs]

7. Wow! $10 for 1.5 pounds of chicken? I can get 10 pounds of legs & thighs for $7.

Yes, that is up a buck from last year but if I ate it everyday it would last me for more than a week. I do appreciate that food prices are low where I live.

[gleaner]

15. I live in LA ....

As they are in a lot of places in this country things are more expensive here and the prices continue to rise. I am cooking for my husband. He had MRSA in 2008. It destroyed one of his heart valves, scarred his heart near the apex where it is too low to bypass and caused endocarditis. He had open heart surgery to replace the valve, but they could not do a bypass or keep his heart in rhythm so they had to put in an ICD. That is a device like a pacemaker only it fibrillates his heart if the beat becomes irregular or he starts to have tachycardia. His lungs were damaged, his bone marrow, his liver and he can't walk anymore. He has a very limited diet. No salt and no fat. I cook it.

I do stretch the chicken if that is what you are asking. My 1.5 lbs of chicken made 14 days of vegetable packed minestrone which he eats and likes. I learned from my mother when I was growing up shortly after WWII when things were scarce how to stretch food. So I do. But what I start with is still expensive as is the constellation of different medications he has to take to keep alive and I have to take to maintain my Diabetes and Hypertension. I have MS too, by my insurance company won't pay for the protocols to help control it. They say the protocols have not been "proven effective" even though the FDA has labeled them as effective. MS fatigue or no MS fatigue I am my husband's only caregiver and he is partially bedridden. I can't afford help. I don't mind caring for him. He is a wonderful man whom I love very much. I would simply like to be able to afford to feed him more of a variety of foods which always seem to be priced beyond my reach.

I'm glad your food is less expensive. Maybe other things are too where you live, but I'm not there and I can't base my life on your prices. I think your intent is kind, but it is not the reality of my experience or the experience of others who live here.

[PhoenixAbove]

8. Well said Gleaner!

I'm on disability and live on a fixed income. I'd just like to add that inflation, for me, is this...

Doctor: Well medical condition #1 has lead to medical condition #2 so now we have to put you on drug #4.

So I go to the pharmacy and get the new genetic drug only to find out the freaking thing costs $200.00 and has a $60.00 co-pay. Let me tell you this, nobody on a fixed income has $60.00 bucks just lying around. I had to pay for the drug with a credit card which is only going to bite me in the ass later. That's inflation.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky. I have a friend that has multiple sclerosis and all her meds cost thousands.

[gleaner]

17. Thank you very much for your post ....

I think the difference in responses is that you actually live the life that other people can only theorize about. You are spot on. And you don't need to consider yourself lucky. Consider yourself as someone who deserves better and who should have it.

I sympathize with both you and your friend. I have MS too. It is not an easy illness. I cannot treat mine because my health insurance company will not pay for the protocol.

My husband had a severe illness which still impacts his life on a daily basis. I once called the insurance company about Procrit, a medication which helps restore the blood count to normal. They had refused to pay for it. I was routed through to their "Special Section" as they called it. One line was for people with cancer, one for people with HIV, one for people with MS. All these separate lines and the employees who staffed them set up to keep sick people from getting the medicines they needed. My husband's doctor was able to get his medicine for him. He told them he would stick my husband back in the acute hospital to give it to him. They caved fast. After all their bottom line is what it is all about. For them, the sooner we take our endless demands for help and die the better.

[yodoobo]

10. Well you lumped in quite a few attacks on Obama in there

I'll ignore most and focus on the subject.

Just because that COLA is static doesn't mean that prices don't change. That't not what the index is for.

Prices will ALWAYS change. COLA is an overall index. In years where it doesn't change it's because for every item that went up in prices, there was enough corresponding items that went down in price.

In years where overall prices goes up, then COLA goes up as well.

I won't dispute your chicken story, but you have neglected to notice the items that have gone DOWN in price. That's just human nature.

But human nature is what an index is designed to factor out.

[gleaner]

16. Why thank you!

I would never have known what an index was if you had not explained it.:sarcasm: Not in all my years of Federal employment where my COLAs were based on inflation and how it was indexed did I ever really notice its existence. Not now when I am living on a federal pension and Social Security. Golly. What I have been missing.

And your colorful way of referring to my food prices. "Story," as if it were somehow made up. But no, you wouldn't do that would you? A kind and caring person like yourself who took so much time to explain to a dummy like me what an index was. Gosh. I'm weak in the knees. What a discovery!

Let me just end though, by saying that despite what you think my purpose was it was not to "attack" Obama. He is the president. He is responsible for steering our damaged economy off the Bush shoals and into a more livable mainstream. Who else am I supposed to hold responsible? What other federal official is more responsible for running the country? Sure, I'll criticize and disagree with Obama whenever I see a relationship between his actions and increased hardship on the people of this country. That is the way it is supposed to be. I'll tell you what. You worry about Obama's reputation and I'll worry about hardship and the effect it has on most people as they try to walk through life day to day. To quote Harry Truman once again, "The buck stops here." Meaning the President takes responsibility for his actions. All of them. That has a refreshing sound to it. The only other federal official in modern times who even came close was Janet Reno when she said of the Waco stand off, "This is my responsibility." They sure don't make politicians like they used to, do they? Or maybe responsibility could be indexed too.

Edited to correct grammar.

[yodoobo]

26. glad to be of help.

[ChicagoSuz219]

2. The $250 was supposed to offset that a bit. n/t

[eShirl]

6. When/ where/ how do people on Social Security get this $250?

[ChicagoSuz219]

12. If you get direct deposit...

...it was deposited directly into your account. If not, you would've received a separate check. It was several months back. They tried to do a second one, but the repubs voted it down.

If you didn't get it, call the Social Security office & find out what happened to it.

[wishlist]

21. The $250 went out last year to everyone on SS, VA, RR pensions, not this year

There was mention by Obama and others a few months ago about another payment this year to make up for lack of COLA raise, but I haven't heard anything more lately. That would be a good solution for this year so that those getting smaller SS checks would benefit as much as those who get larger payments. (Those getting Federal pensions who do not get SS or VA did not get the $250 last year but can receive a $250 tax credit this year for 2009)

[wishlist]

22. Obama put $250 payments into his 2010 budget but Senate it voted down

I just read that Senate voted 50 to 47 against a recent bill that would have given SS recipients another $250 this year although Obama has called for the payment and made it part of his budget. The measure could come up again in another jobs bill, but seems to be up in the air at this time.

[Mojeoux]

5. I'm With You Hawkeye n/t

[Silver Swan]

13. This is not the first year with no increase.

Before 1975, cost-of-living increases did not exist. That is the year the nearly automatic increases began, that were based on the COL.

Before that increases were hit or miss, at the whim of congress.

There were no general increases between 1940 and 1950, 1954-1959, and 1961-1965.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300601120!opendocument

[Union Yes]

14. Agree K&R. Already been pestering my elected's on saving SS/MC.

And will continue to do so!

:fistbump:

[Obamanaut]

18. In today's economy, a 'fixed' income seems preferable to an income

that might disappear because of that economy.

[Cleita]

19. I think so.

For example, I went to buy a $5 car wash yesterday and it's been raised to $7. The clerk told me that the price of the soaps and other operational costs had gone up so much that they couldn't absorb the cost anymore. So it seems the cost of living has gone up and this is only one example of many, not to mention gas that is seldom under $3 a gallon anymore. Medicines, utilities and rents have been going up too in the last year.

[quiller4]

20. I don't agree. With the exception of health insurance and gasoline

mosdt of our living expenses have declined or remained the same. I don't dispute the lack of COLA. (It is computed in today's dollars already)

[Moosepoop]

23. Actually, it was the oil prices going DOWN that did it.

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

The reason is simple: The official measure of the cost of living has gone down, not up.

And the major reason for that is that oil prices plunged from the peaks of the previous year.

It’s a reversal of what happened last year, when soaring fuel prices pushed the cost of living measure sharply upward, producing the 5.8 percent COLA increase that went into effect last January. That was the largest increase since 1982.

That came about because, by law, the COLA is determined by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which is tabulated by the career professionals at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008 (the period determined by law) the CPI-W went up 5.8 percent.

But now things are different. The CPI-W peaked a year ago, just before the 5.8 percent increase was calculated, and took a nose dive in the months that followed. Quarterly figures won’t be available until October, but based on monthly figures, the CPI-W now stands 1.9 percent below where it was 12 months before.

[madamesilverspurs]

24. Been on SS since '92.

Efforts to supplement my check have not panned out. Gasoline has gone up. My Medicare D premium has increased, so have the prices of my meds. Housing authority just raised my rent. Medicaid does NOT pay the 20% not paid by Medicare, so I have to work a deal with clinics and other providers to pay them $5 or $10 each month. The car hasn't been washed in two years, and the price of the tags more than doubled in order to provide funds for road repairs in the state. My luxuries are basic cable for my second-hand television and $9.95/mo for dialup internet. The last new movie I saw was "The Gods Must Be Crazy." Fishing licenses have gone up, but I'll still get one as it provides healthy outdoors activity and healthy meals; with luck the line on my reels will last a third year. Each November I buy my only new pair of shoes for the year. When I broke my ankle last year I had to beg the ER crew to not cut my jeans off since I couldn't afford to replace them.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to get by on $752 a month. So, yes, I do talk to my congresscritters about it and will continue to do so.


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