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Who really believes that SS and Medicare won't be cut, beginning with next year (actually it's been cut for years, due to the way the chained CPI is figured) and that inflation is only around 1.5% a year? Raise your hands.
The chained CPI has not yet been enacted. I'm not saying it won't be around in the near future, but at this point, the "COLA" is based on the CPI-W.
Last edited by lenora; 10-25-2013 at 10:06 AM..
Reason: because I temporarily lost my mind.
Cut out SS and Medicare completely? Cut it 50%? Cut it X percentage for people under a certain age? If so, what age? Will you please define what you mean by using the word 'cut'?
No one seems too sure how it will come about. Chained CPI; straight cuts to SS and reduced payments to Medicare providers; straight cuts for current recipients and/or reduced benefits for future recipients -- no one seems to know for sure yet. But it's on the table for the next debt ceiling negotiations.
The chained CPI has not yet been enacted. I'm not saying it won't be around in the near future, but at this point, the "COLA" is based on the CPI-W.
You're right -- it's not yet. I don't know why I wrote that. But the government has cut food and energy out of the equation -- which is totally ridiculous. We know that inflation is more than 1.5% (give or take). My food budget has almost doubled since fall 2008. (And in the exact same stores, I buy the exact same things -- well, not true, because I buy far more generic things now and have been for the past 3 years.) And since prices double over 10 years, given a 10% inflation rate, I know that food has gone up by more than 10% in just a little over 5 years. (I know this, because I've been keeping a monthly and annual budget on Excel for the past 7 years -- I still have all of them on my computer -- and for 25 years previous to 2007, I was doing my monthly and annual budgets on paper.)
Last edited by Fran66; 10-25-2013 at 11:32 AM..
Reason: edit
No one seems too sure how it will come about. Chained CPI; straight cuts to SS and reduced payments to Medicare providers; straight cuts for current recipients and/or reduced benefits for future recipients -- no one seems to know for sure yet. But it's on the table for the next debt ceiling negotiations.
Who knows. Sorry I bought it up.
I'd bet big bucks that our lovely politicians (legislators) will NOT make any benefit cuts (e.g. reduced amount of normal Social Security retirement benefits) to current Social Security recipients...nor to future recipients that are currently over the age of 50 years old. In my opinion the only change that may be made to current benefit recipients would come about if the government used the IRS to determine recipients' assets, and if those assets were greater than x1, x2, x3, etc. amounts then those recipients would receive 'less than full benefits' on a sliding scale (based on their assets)...but I really do not foresee that happening.
I do believe however that one day the government will make it where people under the age of 50 will be affected by some reduced benefit percentage amount until [possibly] people that are under the legal work age (having never worked and paid into the fund) are eliminated entirely, Thus, if you paid into the fund you will receive some benefit, but if you never paid into the fund you will not receive any benefits.
I'd bet big bucks that our lovely politicians (legislators) will NOT make any benefit cuts (e.g. reduced amount of normal Social Security retirement benefits) to current Social Security recipients...nor to future recipients that are currently over the age of 50 years old. In my opinion the only change that may be made to current benefit recipients would come about if the government used the IRS to determine recipients' assets, and if those assets were greater than x1, x2, x3, etc. amounts then those recipients would receive 'less than full benefits' on a sliding scale (based on their assets)...but I really do not foresee that happening.
I do believe however that one day the government will make it where people under the age of 50 will be affected by some reduced benefit percentage amount until [possibly] people that are under the legal work age (having never worked and paid into the fund) are eliminated entirely, Thus, if you paid into the fund you will receive some benefit, but if you never paid into the fund you will not receive any benefits.
Why do we think it's never going to happen to us?
I sure hope you're right (altho' my SS is so small it barely pays for Medicare Part B). But I'd bet big bucks you're wrong.
And -- btw -- I'm genuinely interested -- why do you think our legislators won't attack SS (and Medicare?)?
I sure hope you're right (altho' my SS is so small it barely pays for Medicare Part B). But I'd bet big bucks you're wrong.
And -- btw -- I'm genuinely interested -- why do you think our legislators won't attack SS (and Medicare?)?
Well, there are a number of reasons why I think as I do. To reduce or take away a benefit that retirees have 'already' been collecting and most people receiving the benefit absolutely count on to provide income in retirement would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell rasing! To take away a benefit that people have already paid into (but they have not yet started collecting benefits) would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell raising by tens of millions of seniors and people approaching becoming seniors! All those people that would be affected by a change in SS benefits (beginning as young as age 18 or VOTING AGE) would raise so much hell with their congressmen and congresswomen that Congrees would not dare make changes to anyone's benefit that have: (a) already retired, (b) are within 12 years of receiving benefits at age 62. Congress could only: (c) reduce benefits to people under age 50, and (d) Congress could make drastic changes for people under the legal work age that have yet to pay into the fund.
Last edited by highcotton; 10-25-2013 at 12:00 PM..
Well, there are a number of reasons why I think as I do. To reduce or take away a benefit that retirees have 'already' been collecting and most people receiving the benefit absolutely count on to provide income in retirement would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell rasing! To take away a benefit that people have already paid into (but they have not yet started collecting benefits) would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell raising by tens of millions of seniors and people approaching becoming seniors! All those people that would be affected by a change in SS benefits (beginning as young as age 18 or VOTING AGE) would raise so much hell with their congressmen and congresswomen that they could not make changes to anyone's benefit that have (a) already retired, (b) are within 12 years of receiving benefits at age 62. Congress could only (d) reduce benefits to people under age 50, and (d) Congress could make drastic changes for people under the legal work age that have yet to pay into the fund.
I was thinking along those same lines. In addition to the groups of people you listed who would be up in arms over changes to Social Security benefits for anyone over age 50, I would add the subset of people under 50 who have aging parents dependent on SS. Imagine someone age 45 who has a parent age 70. If the 70-year-old's benefit is cut, the 45-year-old may have to step up to the plate and contribute to the support of the parent.
And of course not all older SS beneficiaries have children, and of those who do, not all the children are in a position to help out their parents because some are barely scraping by themselves. Congress could never stand the heat from the public (of all ages) generated by helpless old people dumpster diving for food; the media is good at choosing especially heart-rending examples to present.
Well, there are a number of reasons why I think as I do. To reduce or take away a benefit that retirees have 'already' been collecting and most people receiving the benefit absolutely count on to provide income in retirement would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell rasing! To take away a benefit that people have already paid into (but they have not yet started collecting benefits) would not go over too well - would it? Talk about hell raising by tens of millions of seniors and people approaching becoming seniors! All those people that would be affected by a change in SS benefits (beginning as young as age 18 or VOTING AGE) would raise so much hell with their congressmen and congresswomen that they could not make changes to anyone's benefit that have (a) already retired, (b) are within 12 years of receiving benefits at age 62. Congress could only (d) reduce benefits to people under age 50, and (d) Congress could make drastic changes for people under the legal work age that have yet to pay into the fund.
And just exactly what hell-raising do you think retirees would do? Send an e-mail? Write a letter? Threaten to vote them out of office (as if we actually could)? March on Washington? Well, we all know how well all that has helped re other things.
[On Nov.1, food stamps are going to be cut. People are angry -- but how much 'hell-raising' have you seen? Certainly nothing that prevented that cut from taking place.]
Over the past 12 years, our civil rights and liberties have been taken away -- and now we know that we're also being spied on -- and what 'hell raising' have we done and are we doing -- anything that has really made a difference, I mean? We're still being spied on -- our phones, our computers, on the streets.
When the SS and Medicare cuts come, we'll do what we've always done: lie down and take it.
Last edited by Fran66; 10-25-2013 at 12:26 PM..
Reason: grammar
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