Right now, anyone with a government voice is speaking about Social Security Reform. I am not an economist, not a government official but I do have a sense of which way the wind is blowing.
There have been in the past few years, a crackpot or two that has voiced these measures and has been criticized for their opinions, and certainly in homes of seniors everywhere, vile comments were directed at these people. They were testing the water back then to see where that kind of talk would get them. In that early time period, it was thought by most seniors that these kind of measures to demonize social security and medicare were simply ridiculous solutions to the economic difficulties we were facing. In that context, with other measures, they kind of slid by.
The older seniors that were collecting for years kind of put themselves above the conversation believing that no one would or could touch their checks and were fairly complacent until last year when there was no cost of living increase. The 62 year old's were getting the message that "you better start collecting now or you won't get it" Of course those that did thought they were making a decision that was based on how long it would take to make up the difference if they waited until they were 67 and the figures worked for them. They collected checks that were far less than the amount they would have gotten if they had waited until retirement age.
I have noticed that in the past year, the Social Security argument has grown to not simply those crackpot voices that claimed the system no longer worked and that something needed to be done with it, to a much greater voice.
The 35 year old's have been already warned that there won't be a Social Security check for them unless something is done to change this system. And they are looking at the Baby Boomer's like they are some kind of disease that has infected the country with their entitlement. (Divide and conquer)
I want to say that those of us that are collecting checks are collecting on the basis of how long we worked and the formula that the Social Security Administration uses to determine how much money we are Entitled to. As for Medicare, if you don't add a supplemental policy to your coverage by the government, you can, if you get seriously ill, go bankrupt. Hospitalization comes with Medicare, doctors visits do not, Without a supplemental insurance policy by a major health care corporation, it is worthless. Anyone who thinks that Medicare is free is uninformed. The payment for part B comes out of your check.
When social security came under attack, it was in small increments by people who were off the wall. It has slowly become conversation on TV shows by pundits, their guests and has now turned into the greatest demon to be reckoned with in the failing economy.
Any senior's who think that big changes are not coming needs to wake up and start writing. First there will be means testing, no new cost of living increases, higher medicare co pays until your check will be just enough to buy some food for the week.
If we as senior citizens don't fight this bullshit, it's still early enough to voice our concerns. If we wait until some congress or legislator draws up a bill that passes without much resistance, it will be because we trusted the government to do the right thing, or we were just plain stupid and complacent to do anything about this. Things are changing, we have been warned first quietly and now this is on the top ten list of cuts.