Actress Bette Davis once said:
Old age ain't for sissies
FDRs statement should be true. For decades Social Security was considered untouchable, but Republicans have been schemeing and meming since the Social Security Act was passed. George W. Bush tried hard to privatize it so his Wall Street pals could profit from it, but failed miserably. Here we go again, but this time, it's a Democrat proposing cuts for not only current seniors, but everyone.
While fair minded and sensibile people everywhere think that offering up cuts to Social Security is just nuts, for me
This has gotten personal.
My very first Social Security "check" (actually it will be a direct deposit) is due next month. Being single, I prepared early for retirement, knowing that nurses can't work more than 30 years in such a grueling profession. Ditto, those in construction or other physically demanding work. So, like millions of others, I planned, saved, and worried a lot. I had to retire 10 years ago thanks to ever increasing problems with my knee and back and a whole lot of Scott Walkers lousy management of Milwaukee County, but, thankfully, I had enough years for full retirment with a guarenteed pension and enough in a retirement account to see me through to Social Security.
I'm fortunate, much more fortunate than folks whose employers gave up on fixed pension plans in favor of much cheaper (for them) 401 K plans which are now the retirement plans for a majority of workers in this country. We saw what happened to those "you could be a millionaire by the time you retire" plans in 2008 when Wall Street Thieves and Banksters gambled away the retirement savings of a majority of Americans. We nurses in Milwaukee County only manage to keep our retirement benefits by giving away wage increases for a couple of decades, so much so that our pay fell $5-8 less per hour than nursing positions in the private sector, but we did feel it was worth it for pension security. Too many workers had their taken away or gambled away by Wall Street.
For far too many seniors their Golden Years have already become a Retirement Nightmare. If Chained CPI becomes our reality, a person retiring at age 62 will lose $600 per year by age 72 and that decrease goes over $1000 by age 82. And that's on top of Social Security already is not keeping up with the spending done by seniors.
Just when we thought this was off the shelves due to a huge public rejection, it's been restocked
If you have ever stopped into a fast food restaurant for their morning shift, you'll see many senior citizens. No, they're not sipping coffee at the tables enjoying their retirement, but
working behind the counter. Their stories bring tears like the man in his early 80s who works at McDonalds because he needs the health insurance to pay for his wifes meds, or the elderly woman who needs to work because her husband, now deceased, took a larger pension for 15 years rather than a smaller one which would have paid benefits for his and her lifetime (the 15 years were up and the pension ended), or the woman who told me about being embarassed at having to pull groceries from her order at checkout because she couldn't pay for the entire order, or the one who needs to periodically go to the food pantry because she just can't stretch out her money for a whole month of groceries.
Worse is the man who wonders how long he can keep on working because his wife needs a lot of prescriptions filled every month. He's 83.
Social Security is already insufficient for the needs of senior citizens because their needs (perhaps I should say "our" needs) and spending are different. While the Consumer Price Index covers a wide range of things we purchase, it doesn't reflect the spending done by seniors which include larger than average purchases of increasingly higher priced health care and prescription drugs. Even continuing to base yearly Social Security payments to the current CPI makes seniors fall farther and farther behind as the prices of those things they buy the most continue to increase well beyond the Consumer Price Index. Chaining CPI, preventing even that miniscule annual adjustment, just makes things worse faster.
Worse yet, it's not just seniors that are going to be affected by chained CPI.
Disabled vets and those receiving Social Security Disability or Survivors Benefits (think widows and orphans) will also find their payments "chained" (lessened) as payments fail to keep up with the Consumer Price Index because the CPI will be virtually chained and unable to rise.
And those other programs, listed above, are increased only in response to the CPI since Congress doesn't really pass any increases on their own (for fear of a RW chorus of "rewarding the moochers" echoing throughout the Beltway and/or - gasp - campaign "soft on the lazy bums" attack ads). If an anvil gets dropped on increases, there will be, shall we say, diminishment in those programs which already provide less than needed benefits. And those reductions will also increase over time.
Social Security and Medicare are programs that need to be improved, not cut, so they are available for current and future seniors. They are NOT "entitlements", but EARNED BENEFITS that we all pay into. Hands off.
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PS: Today is April 10 and I just realized it's my dads birthday. He passed away many years ago. Despite never being able to graduate from high school (he had to leave high school to get a job to help support his parents during the depression), he was the smartest man I have ever known.
He worked in a factory and served as a union steward and committeeman for many years before he retired. He always told me to stand up for my rights and not let "the company" ever mess with me or my fellow employees. When I was a new union steward myself, he gave me great advice. The best ever was the reply I would always give the boss complaining about grievances being filed:
If you don't want grievances, don't violate the contract.
Social security was his only income (along with my moms) for the last few years of life because, upon retirement, he took a higher pension payment which didn't last for his or my moms lifetime. If he was alive today, he'd tell me that to get change you have to become "a pest" and let people in power know that to stop being pestered they need to do the right thing.
In honor of my dad, will you please become a pest with me and take the actions below?
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DailyKos Blogathon -- Week of April 8th
(All times are Eastern, diaries published by the Pushing back at the Grand Bargain group)
Monday, April 8
10:00 a.m. Roger Fox
12:00 noon eXtina
2:00 p.m. Guest crosspost by Yves Smith
3:00 p.m. poopdogcomedy
4:00 p.m. Horace Boothroyd III
6:00 p.m. slinkerwink
8:00 p.m. joedemocrat
Tuesday, April 9
10:00 a.m. Guest crosspost by Bill Black
12:00 noon Livestream Event diary/Team
2:00 p.m. joe shikspack
4:00 p.m. Roger Fox
6:00 p.m. Priceman
8:00 p.m. TomP
Wednesday, April 10
11:00 a.m. Liveblog budget announcement press conference
12:00 noon Words in Action
1:00 p.m. bobswern
2:00 p.m. One Pissed Off Liberal (OPOL)
4:00 p.m. Puddytat
6:00 p.m. Tool
8:00 p.m. SouthernLiberalinMD
Thursday, April 11
10:00 a.m. Letsgetitdone
12:00 noon CitizenofEarth
1:00 p.m. Words in Action
2:00 p.m. Liveblog event diary
4:00 p.m. Unitary Moonbat
6:00 p.m. cosmic debris
8:00 p.m. angelajean
Friday April 12
10:00 a.m. Reserved
12:00 noon
2:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m.
6:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m. Reserved
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1. Call your senators and representatives and tell them "Hell No!" with a priority on contacting senators. U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. You can find email contact information here
2. Contact the White House and tell them "Hell No!". Switchboard: 202-456-1414. Email contact page is here.
3. Petitions. There are a number of petitions available. Choose from the following or preferably sign them all.
a. White House petition calling for no cuts to Social Security.
b. AFL-CIO petition calling for no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and calling for more jobs, repealing the sequester and ending tax loopholes for the wealthiest individuals and corporations.
c. Sen. Harkin's petition telling Pres. Obama not to cut Social Security.
4. Social Media. Share this diary and promote this blogathon on Facebook and Google+ using the buttons at the top of the diary. Send this out on Twitter and add the hashtags #HellNo and #NoGrandBargain.
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Blogathon diaries you might have missed
Monday:
Hell No! #NoGrandBargain: "Pushing back at the Grand Bargain" by Roger Fox
Hell No! Chained CPI will reduce eligability for EITC #noChainedCPI by Roger Fox
Hell No! Dan Pfeiffer: "The President's Budget Shows That He is Serious About Solving Deficits" by eXtina
Guest Crosspost, Yves Smith: Obama Wants to Be the President Who Rolled Back the New Deal by Yves Smith via joanneleon
IA-Sen: Tom Harkin (D) Needs Our Help Telling Obama Hell No To The Chained CPI by poopdogcomedy
Hell No! Stop crushing the poor by Horace Boothroyd III
Hell, No! Social Security Contributes Nothing To Deficit by slinkerwink
Hell No! No Grand Bargain: Chained CPI: Social Security Means So Much To So Many by joedemocrat
Tuesday:
Bill Black: “Wall Street Uses the Third Way to Lead its Assault on Social Security” by Bill Black via joanneleon
Hell No! Livestream. Petition delivered to White House. Millions of signatures. 12:30pm by Lady Libertine
Hell No! No Grand Bargain. Are "Progressives" Destroying the New Deal? by joe shikspack
#HellNo ! #ChainedCPI : $65 billion income tax increase on working families #noChainedCPI by Roger Fox
Hell No! Chained CPI is a Cut. You Either Care About People or You Don't. by priceman
Hell No! No Votes or Money To Dems Who Vote To Cut Social Security. by TomP
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