Comments on: No Cost-of-Living Increase for Social Security Recipients This Year, Or Next

By: Personal Finance> Baby Boomer’s Summary of Social Security Insights | Personal Finance Credit | Online Personal Finance

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:44:45 +0000

[...] No Cost-of-Living Increase for Social Security Recipients This Year, Or Next (themoderatevoice.com) [...]

By: shirleydykhuis

shirleydykhuis — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:19:10 +0000

who pays for the illegal immigrants medical & hospital care,and what is this system the pay into,and how are they paying into it when they come over here illegally,what I have been lead to understand the funds for them to live here and Medical & Hospital for them come out of S.S.funds and thats what is upsetting besides,what our President wants to do to us by freezing it for two years,I have nothing against people coming here to live but do it the right way and become a citizen and pay taxes like everybody else has to.The ones that are here illegally are living off people like you and I and its not right.And Congress and all of them,Senators,house of rep.why don't they take a cut and freeze their pay,they can better aford it.This country needs to get back to the Basics and the realistic things in life,tighten the belt and stop spending.I know you know the Government uses Social Security funds for everything they want to,and they should not be allowed,they want to dip into funds,dip into their own and leave S.S.I alone.

By: Polimom

Polimom — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:07:16 +0000

shirley — I, too, am appalled at the way some of the spending is / has occurred. And I'm very sorry that you're so worried. What I was really reacting to, though, was your statement about illegal immigrants. Why do you think they get social security?

It actually works the other direction with them: when they draw income as non-citizens, they pay into a system they cannot collect from.

By: shirleydykhuis

shirleydykhuis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:35:09 +0000

What I”m saying is,why should the Seniors of this country always get hit because of the economy and inflation.I don't know about you but I get way below poverty level,and this is my first year of receiving Social Security,and I've received one raise which still has me way below poverty level and I'm not alone in this,Congress and all should not be able to vote themselves a raise and then freeze ours,does that sound fair to you??Plus give free medical/hospital etc.and S.S.I.to illegal migrants that come into this country,Giving away tax dollars for cash for clunkers and now cash for appliances,whats next.you know some of those people that cashed in on cash for clunkers probably would have bought a used car and been in something they could aford,some will be alright,as they probably would have bought a car anyways,but your going to find alot having it repo'd,because they really couldn't aford it.sorry I really didn't want to get into that aagin.

By: Polimom

Polimom — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:43:40 +0000

“Quit giving Social Security to all the illegal and etc.Social Security wasn't meant for that,it was meant for us retiree's”

Ummm….. what are you talking about?

By: shirleydykhuis

shirleydykhuis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:26:56 +0000

It is not fair the Seniors get hit with no cost of living raise,when everything else goes up,did our Congressmen and etc.take a freeze on their pay??They certainly should seeing as how they vote their own raise in,which shouldn't be either,it should be us the American people that say if they get a raise or not.You know as the old saying goes the cat wouldn't be obese,if he wasn't over fed,so congress take a cut and freeze your pay for the next two years,see if you like it!!we retired Seniors have worked all our lives for our Social Security,and we deserve it and our once a year cost of living raise.Quit giving Social Security to all the illegal and etc.Social Security wasn't meant for that,it was meant for us retiree's.And congress quit dipping into it for your own use.

By: DLS

DLS — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:32:32 +0000

"Maybe we should figure out a different way to measure inflation"

Or as I said, cost of living (index), or perhaps a nation-wide "basic lifestyle budget" for the elderly.

(Would the payments increase the older the beneficiaries get, then?)

I say the "budget" stuff ought to be subsumed into overdue poverty research and redefinitions of, among other things, official "poverty" and the federal poverty level (uniform, single when nation-wide and federal government involvement is at issue) on which minimum wage levels as well as "welfare" and retirement "old age insurance" and disability insurance payments are based.

(As with starting a manned moon effort from scratch, we couldn't even trust modern government to do poverty research and apply it soundly.)

By: roro80

roro80 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:34:57 +0000

“Love that dry sense of humor, roro. ”

I like my humor like I like my gin.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:30:14 +0000

I feel for seniors that aren't seeing a rise in social security payments, but if it's tied to inflation, then what can you do?

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:55:09 +0000

Actually, about the only point that really counts (other than the need to awaken from slumber or delusion when it comes to entitlements) is that there's no perfect cost of living figure or index measure. (It's still the case that overall we're flirting still with deflation, at least until Washington can no longer resist the desire to inflate the currency and benefit, at least initially, thereby.)

Beneficiaries should be thankful that Social Security is not consistent (and truly honest) and won't (at least currently) reduce benefit payments during deflation. (I suspect this will always be the case with inflation-indexed bonds or whatever we're doing to benefit our creditor, China, more than ever this year.)

By: kathykattenburg

kathykattenburg — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:54:25 +0000

Love that dry sense of humor, roro.

By: roro80

roro80 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:18:11 +0000

Such an interesting comment thread. Maybe the final bit of the post should have been left out, but the point is that seniors who count on their SS checks are going to be getting an equal amount this year while their costs rise.

By: No Cost-of-Living Increase for Social Security Recipients This … « Security

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:35:23 +0000

[...] Read the original here: No Cost-of-Living Incr… [...]

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:54:12 +0000

Far be it from the Dems (the current Single Provider of legislation in Washington!) to advocate making all health care expenses (assuming we are reasonable about the definition of “health care”) 100% deductable from income for tax purposes, as at least a temporary measure while sanity is regained about the role of government and the nature of health care, public and private, that we want in this country.

By: Leonidas

Leonidas — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:11:12 +0000

This is just another example of a weakness in a government run single-payer system.

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:59:59 +0000

“goes after a private think tank as if they are to blame”

A non-liberal think tank — Bush is out of office and Reagan is dead.

By: shannonlee

shannonlee — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:42:10 +0000

This post doesn't make much sense…the author attacks the freezing of ss benefits by the government and then goes after a private think tank as if they are to blame?

By: PWT

PWT — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:21:13 +0000

And what levers of power do these people control? We have a White House, Senate and House of Representatives that are all controlled by Democrats. What possible effect could all of these retired conservatives have? It's easy to campaign, it's hard to govern – Mr. Obama and the Democrats are re-learning this lesson.

I believe that was the point that daGoat was making.

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:19:39 +0000

“I was wondering how you were going to tie this to conservatives.”

She really would look the part if she completed her photograph by wearing a red or green beret (depending on whether she buys all the enviro craziness on the Left, de rigeur), or a tiny red top hat (Liza Minelli style).

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:17:43 +0000

Actually, I should add something — in response to the recent whining when I visit this well-left site and push back substantially (in numerous ways, including reiterating unpleasant truths) when appropriate:

Consider what an honest government _should_ do during deflation.

(Not to mention what it _should_ do if Obama's bogus promises ever were kept and entitlement reform ever truly happened: the retirement age would promptly be raised at least to seventy, early retirement discounted if not ended, and benefits and retirement ages subsequently indexed to increasing life span.)