Social Security Increase to be Lowest in Years

Back in 2009, any American could walk into any Wendy's fast food chain and order off the dollar menu.  I used to order a sour cream and chive baked potato, a small bowl of chili and a Caesar side salad and each item cost $1.

Today if you go to the same Wendy's and order the same exact food, you will discover the potato costs $1.69, the chili is $1.49 and the salad is $1.59.  Now you do the math on what kind of inflation factor that equates to.

It seems everything, except TV's and computers, is getting more expensive...but yet the government insists that it's not.

WASHINGTON -- For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January.

Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of roughly 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

Next year's raise will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven't gone up much in the past year.

The exact size of the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, won't be known until the Labor Department releases the inflation report for September. That was supposed to happen Wednesday, but the report was delayed indefinitely because of the partial government shutdown.

Advocates for seniors say the government's measure of inflation doesn't accurately reflect price increases older Americans face because they tend to spend more of their income on health care. Medical costs went up less than in previous years but still outpaced other consumer prices, rising 2.5 percent.

"This (COLA) is not enough to keep up with inflation, as it affects seniors," said Max Richtman, who heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "There are some things that become cheaper but they are not things that seniors buy. Laptop computers have gone down dramatically but how many people at 70 are buying laptop computers?"

The cost of personal computers dropped by 10.6 percent over the past year, according the CPI-W.
That's a small consolation to Alberta Gaskins of the District of Columbia, who said she is concerned about keeping up with her household bills.

"It is very important to get the COLA because everything else you have in your life is on an upward swing, and if you're on a downward swing, that means your quality of life is going down," said Gaskins, who retired from the Postal Service in 1989.

Here;  http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20131013-social-security-raise-to-be-among-lowest-in-years.ece?nclick_check=1

Friends, in the real world a few of my clients who retired from General Mills and Honeywell had pension plans.  They are probably only 2 out of 100 that actually still HAVE pension plans.  And guess what?  THERE IS NO COLA on ANY PENSION PLANS in the private sector.

So why should Social Security and/or Federal Employee Retirement have Cost OF LIVING ADJUSTMENTS? (COLA) 

Don't we already know that the whole system is hopelessly bankrupt...and as we near the end of this starving program....those of us who are still paying have to know that we have little chance of ever seeing that money come back to us.

To hear the Democrats talk, they say, "This program is wildly popular with American voters."

Really?  Ask the voters age 45 and younger how they feel about this?

As we have said numerous times;  Social Security was originally designed to pay for a retired worker (singular) at age 65 WHEN THE LIFE EXPECTANCY IN THIS NATION WAS 65.  So now that we are living to 85, did we really believe that we could retire EARLIER (now retirees can get benefits at age 62) and keep the payments coming, with increases, for 20 years longer?? 

Plus now they have expanded WHO GETS PAID so now widows, wives, children and disabled people also collect from Social Security....so they have quadrupled the number of payees while at the same time putting a COLA on the entire thing!!  How can that possibly work??

"But Dennis!  I depend on Social Security and I NEED the government to continue that plan!!  I don't care whose money they have to take to keep it going....just keep it going as long as I'm alive!"

Really?  Do you care if they take your grand kid's money even knowing full well he may never see a dime come back to him?

"But Dennis!  They are just giving me back ALL MY MONEY THAT I PAID IN!"

No.  Your money that you put in is already long gone.  It went to your parent's first and then any remainder was to go into a SS TRUST FUND so there would be money to pay out in the future.

Ponzi schemes are always fun for the first people who get into the 'program'....but they are always miserable for the last folks in.

Why should the government have pension plans with COLA when NO ONE in the private industry sector offers pensions with COLA?  Is it because the government can MANUFACTURE ITS OWN MONEY?....so people believe they deserve to have COLA??

Strange times.

Here is what I do know.....this "program" will go bust some day.  There is NO MONEY in the Trust fund....that money was borrowed by the Federal Government many years ago...so the ONLY THING in the Trust Fund is IOU's issued by the Federal Government....and now with them shut down and fighting over whether to raise the debt limit....how much faith and confidence do you have in those IOU's sitting at the Social Security headquarters?