The 114th Congress will see many new faces after the 2014 midterms; however, the face of our nation’s middle class remains largely unchanged - they’re poorer, more diverse, getting older and facing a retirement crisis which threatens millions.
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#health care #politics #social security #medicare #news #p2 #seniors #retirement #retirement crisis #middle class #retirees #entitlements #congressWhen a candidate promises to “save these programs for future generations” by raising the retirement age, raising the Medicare eligibility age, privatizing Social Security, changing the COLA formula and means-testing Social Security while exempting near retirees what they’re actually saying is: “We know seniors vote so we’ll protect them now and slash future benefits for their children and grandchildren instead.
Harwood: Retirement age?
Stivers: We need to come together. I think we need to say, “You give a little, we give a little,” and figure out how to sustain Medicare and Social Security into the future. The other thing on Medicare is we have to bend the cost curve on health care.
via CNBC.
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America’s seniors, people with disabilities and their families who
depend on Social Security have legitimate reason to be scared whenever
Congress starts cutting backdoor deals because they know from experience
that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been used as piggy
banks or political hostages by GOP leaders always looking for ways to
cut benefits.
Political insiders gave us a glimpse today into the GOP campaign playbook: Don’t tell voters your plans and then cut Social Security & Medicare after you’re elected.
Each of them following the same conservative talking points portraying Social Security as welfare, seniors as “greedy geezers” and demanding benefit cuts to pay for billionaire tax cuts they consider off-limits for reform.
via Entitled to Know.
Women are especially vulnerable. Almost half of unmarried elderly women getting Social Security benefits in 2013 counted on them for 90 percent or more of their income, according to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, an advocacy group. That is a dangerous dependency.
Few would say they have a clear read on President Trump’s plans for these massive programs. (A White House representative said she would look into the matter.)
via Bloomberg.
National Committee grassroots activists were on Capitol Hill today to deliver 2 million signatures to the Senate urging Congress to reject ongoing efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) received the petitions and vowed to continue leading the fight to protect these vital programs.
via Entitled to Know.
Nope, I’m not kidding. We’ve seen a sharp slowdown in health care costs across the board over the last seven years. This has led the Congressional Budget Office to lower its deficit projections. In fact, the reductions in projected deficits due to this slowdown has been sharper than the reductions that we might have seen as a result of almost any politically plausible cut in benefits. But Robert Samuelson is not happy. He tells readers:
“No one truly grasps why Medicare spending has slowed so abruptly. A detailed CBO study threw cold water on many plausible explanations. What we don’t understand could easily reverse.”
Our project, EQUAL TIME, will bust through the myths and misleading statements in the news about Social Security and Medicare. We will find and correct the factual errors and politically charged perspectives.
Have you seen a story in which media got it wrong?
If so, let us know and we’ll track it down and provide the truth about Social Security and Medicare.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
The majority party is already hard at work on those cuts. Republicans have released a plan that would raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and impose stingier cost-of-living adjustments — meaning massive benefit cuts for America’s seniors.
The president’s 2019 budget slashes Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits by a staggering $64 billion over ten years. His budget director once disingenuously claimed that SSDI is not part of Social Security even though the words “Social Security” are in its name.
Tens of millions of Social Security beneficiaries will not get a raise in 2016, the government announced on Thursday…
…Max Richtman, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said the lack of COLA will be especially harmful, because it is coupled with an increase in Medicare Part B premiums for some seniors. Those premiums are automatically deducted from seniors’ Social Security checks.
“If accurate inflation protection for seniors is truly our goal, Congress needs to adopt a fully developed CPI for the elderly,” Richtman said in a statement. “Until then, we urge Congress to act quickly to mitigate the devastating Medicare hikes headed for millions of Americans who can’t afford them.”
via Huffington Post.
Today’s announcement that there will be no Social Security
cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase next year, for only the third
time in 40 years, means that millions of seniors who rely on their
Social Security to get by will once again find their expenses outpacing
their Social Security benefit.
