GOVERNMENT GOES BOTH WAYS!

Seniors and those in need of assistance were recently informed that the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, COLA will not go into effect this year. That means that anyone collecting Social Security will not get the tiny raise in benefits they have been getting at the start of next year.

The reason COLA will not take effect according to the government is, simply put there has been no inflation and therefore no need to for increased payments.

But at the same time Medicare premiums paid monthly by many of the same people not getting a COLA on their Social Security will rise by as much as 53% next year or from $104 to $159.30!

The reason given by the Republican controlled House of Representatives (remind me just exactly who do they represent?) is rising healthcare costs.

Those two statements are obviously at odds with each other but neither the first time nor the last time anomalies such as these will be used against the middle class.

On Long Island the energy industry friend Long Island Power Authority, LIPA is allowing and about to implement a rate hike of 9% over the next three years.

They claim this is necessary due to a shortfall in the budget caused by a drop in sales tax revenue.

By the way the reason the sales tax revenue is down is because Long Islanders cannot afford to buy as much as in previous years due to lower incomes and rising costs.

The American Association of Retired Persons, AARP says LIPA is using ‘fuzzy math’ to make their case.

All the arguments used by those in power sound legitimate when taken by themselves but when put together start to smell of lies, greed and corruption.

In college logic courses they teach syllogisms which are generally two or three statements put together that sound logical but will cause the listener or reader to pause and think, wait what?

For example:

The American buffalo is a vanishing animal.

That animal is an American buffalo.

Therefore it is vanishing!

Or one of my favorites:

News of Russian aggression is no news.

And since No News is Good News,

News of Russian aggression is good news!

Business owners started using the double standard tactic a while ago too.

They claim no raises will be given because business is down and the economy is terrible.  They also moan about the increased costs in health care as reasons for dumping more of the costs on the individual.

So the worker gets less money in his/her paycheck but has to use the less money to pay for higher healthcare costs etc.

But what costs are going up?  Surely they’re not salary related since no business is giving raises so what is causing this?

Could it just be general inflation?

No, that cannot be because inflation is so low that those on Social Security will not be getting a COLA!

The bottom line is if you can figure out two sides to any financial story and you want to feed the information to the public use them both but make sure the middle class gets the short straw!

We Don't Play by Your Rules Here!

If we continue on the current path of radical partisanship where one side totally blocks any social progress that would help the vast majority of citizens in the country then we may be looking at the end of the experiment known as America!
Billy Joel paired a catchy tune with a list of key moments in our history entitled We Didn't Start the Fire.
I offer new words and ask you to use his song's tune and beat and decide how long we can continue before something gives?

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

No healthcare, End Medicare, If you die we don’t care

Union busting, filibustering, We do those best

Tax breaks for the filthy rich, Tell ya folks life is a bitch

We help only those who pay, And dump on the rest

Block the vote of those we hate, In your red or your blue State

Making all the rules is great, We control our future fate

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

Climate change is not a hoax, Leaders in DC are jokes

Fossil fuels can’t be your friend, They’ll cause the world’s end

Gun control is just a must, But can’t even be discussed

Instead let’s block women’s rights, How the hell do they sleep at night?

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

Bankers never paid their debt, Voters better not forget

On one thing we'll surely bet, Regulations keep us safe

Asking kids to go to war, Don’t tell them what they’re fighting for

Returning damaged forever more, Their plight we ignore

Think once for the other guy, Help him out do not ask why

There but for the grace you know, We will surely some day go

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

There are no silly fools here

So we have no worries

no sir, no real worries

And we will stay in office as our terms go on and on and on and on and on....

Sipmle Social Security Solutions for Solving Solvency

Medicare premiums will most likely be going up for those in higher earnings brackets.  Basically the idea is those who can afford to pay a bit more for the services provided under the system should do so.

I have mixed emotions on this but mostly favor it since this country is after all the UNITED States of America and we must all hang together or, as Ben Franklin hinted we shall surely hang separately.

But lumping Medicare and its possible future monetary woes with the Social Security administration’s possible future shortfalls is unfair and disingenuous. And using the one word unfair definition of entitlement is just plain wrong.

Medicare is a program designed to help the aging with incumbent increased medical costs and it has worked well for decades.

It is a sort of gift we give ourselves as we age and the rug should not be pulled out from those in need just because lawmakers in DC have squandered funds elsewhere.

These elected officials allowed our tax payer dollars to be thrown into black holes such as two illegal immoral and unwarranted wars.

Then they handed over vast fortunes of our money without any strings attached to financial institutions that had gambled with and lost THEIR money!

So after those wonderful events America has nothing to show for a decade of governmental stupidity except tens of thousands of dead or disabled soldiers and millions of out of work or underpaid citizens.

This while an ever increasing ruling class comprised of the wealthiest people in the country, including many from the same financial institutions we had to bail out control the conversation in Congress!

But while these attacks continue what can we do to ensure the future solvency of Social Security.

This wonderful program can easily survive without any changes at all but could be even more secure with just a few tiny tweaks that would be painless to nearly everyone.

But with or without these fixes the right wing of the Republican Party, which is arguably a wholly owned subsidiary of the top 1% earning class of America, will continue to claim the entire program is headed for bankruptcy.

In one real sense their lies are comedic since that same right wing group has hated Social Security since inception and would love for it to be doomed to bankruptcy.  After all the more people who become and remain poor the wealthier they can feel by comparison.

I hereby submit for your approval five easy pieces to stop future worries about Social Security.

1. Get rid of the income ceiling for social security deductions.
1. This most egregious slap in the face of the lower wage earners must go
2. The small amount taken from paychecks should not hurt those in the higher brackets
3. Current salary limit of $113,700 means wealthy earners essentially get a raise for being wealthy!
4. We are one nation etc. and should all pull our weight.
2. No one should be allowed or forced to take Social Security payments if they are still working and earning above a certain income level.
1. More and more people are working into their 80s and many are earning nice money thank you.
2. States should set the earning limits

                     i. Those who reside in New York or California are faced with much higher costs of living than those in States such as Arkansas etc.

                     ii. COL adjustments should be reviewed yearly so as to alter fair amounts.

3. Social Security should be considered as income.
1. The income must be reported on tax returns even after retirement
2. Social Security income added to investment income should be taxed as ordinary income for all recipients
4. In the off chance an individual does not wish to collect his or her social security payment they should be allowed to decline it
1. The amount of the payment they are entitled to (yes, entitled!) should be used as a charitable deduction on their tax return
2. Money not paid out to entitled recipients must remain in the Social Security coffers to offset future needs
5. People who continue to work past the age of 70 do not receive an increase in their retirement payouts from Social Security BUT
1. The Social Security payroll deduction should continue regardless of age or salary
2. The amount of the payroll deduction for workers past age 70 may be reduced by an amount set by the State in which the worker resides.

                                        i. However Federal limits will apply.

All laws and programs in America are constantly reviewed for current relevancy and Social Security should not be exempt from such scrutiny.
However simply because the very wealthy do not take advantage of a program or need to is no reason to end or vilify it!
If we as a nation start forgetting about the elderly or the poor or the needy we are heading down a dangerous path.
Which group will be next on the chopping block?

When Medi-Care Doesn't!

At this time of year we are subjected to ads and commercials advising us that Medicare open enrollment is now and it ends December 7^th. (Funny, that date sounds familiar for something. Hmmm.)

Those affected by this are naturally seniors and if lucky getting older every year while still under the protective arm of the Medicare system.

What the ads say however always annoys me to some extent.  They explain that you must compare plans and choose the one that’s right for you.  In other words the one blended specifically for that which ails you if you will.

You are told to do this by researching online and visiting various websites to compare costs and coverages.

The problem is that while many new seniors are in their mid sixties the majority of Medicare users are not.

The targeted audience is obviously those who have already been enrolled in Medicare. These people are less likely to be up on new technologies and less likely to have the skills needed to navigate the increasingly confusing internet.

So at a time in our lives that used to be pointed to as the Golden Years we are expected to spend more time perusing different health care plans all designed to confuse and hide certain facts so as to lure us into signing up for deals designed to make the insurer wealthier and drive customer crazy, or crazier after all these years.

Picture a ninety year old surfing the web and charting the available plans and you will realize how ripe for fraud the entire thing is!

This is all related to my next post (or actually the one I posted first so that it would appear below this and thus look as though it was in correct chronological order.)

Hopefully you read that one first but if not go back and read it again.

What's in a Name? PLENTY!

I was actually hoping to give this, or some form of this a s a speech in front of an AARP group but sadly the meeting for this forum was during the morning hours of a weekday.  I work during the week and could not possibly get away so here are the thoughts that I was hoping to share with other AARP members.

We have allowed certain groups of people and politicians to define and basically ruin some good words.

One such word is Liberal.

If one has guests over and is liberal serving food and drink it is generally considered a good thing. It is certainly a nice thing to do for guests and it will be appreciated and even reciprocated should the circumstances be reversed. AT least one would hope.

Liberal tends to mean being open and caring enough for the needs of others as to try and make sure they are taken care of. And some times we may put ourselves out a little to ensure this is done.

I don’t believe it would be very nice if you were conservative with your meal should you have guests over for a dinner party, do you?

So why is the word so bad?

Why is the act so bad?

Why have we allowed a small group of greedy, selfish people to define a word that symbolizes helping others as bad?

If they don’t wish to be nice then that’s their prerogative.

We are only on this Earth for a short period of time so why look to hurt others? Why make stepping on others’ rights for personal gain your main goal?

The world would be a far better place if more people acted in a liberal manner than a conservative way.

Another word that has been usurped by a small radical group of selfish people is “Entitlement.” And not just entitlement but by simple extrapolation all forms of the word ‘entitled.’

Suppose you had some extra cash. I realize in the current economic climate that might be a stretch but allow me an indulgence.

Say you placed that money in one of our formerly bailed out banks expecting an exorbitant 0.3% interest rate.

After a year or so you decided to withdraw that money.

Would you be ‘entitled’ to do so?

OF COURSE, IT’S YOUR MONEY!

Well what do you think Social Security is?

IT’S YOUR MONEY TOO!
Every paycheck you receive during your working life has a Social Security deduction removed before you get the cash!  You know it, conservatives know it, everyone knows it!
So why should you not have it coming to you when you retire?

So the conservatives are correct, Social Security is an entitlement.
And you are entitled to it, period!

Medicare is the same type of entitlement with the same result!

For a long time now I have been arguing that we must stop allowing a few disgruntled people to define our lives and the issues of our time by naming and then vilifying them.

And if I may go off on a slight tangent the group of people who call themselves Pro Choice argue for a woman’s right to make that most awful of decisions concerning the life of her unborn child.
That fetus may be the result of incest or a rape and the conflict that would arise in the mind of the suffering woman would be mind boggling.

But for some reason the group opposing her anguish who, by their very nature admittedly have no dog in the hunt will infer that the "Pro Choice" people are against life by naming their group, “Pro Life!”

I would argue that the “Choice” people do in fact offer women and their spouses a choice in dealing with this terrible scenario while the other side does not and should therefore be renamed, “No Choice!”

So what’s in a name?

It turns out there is quite a lot in a name!

And we must not allow others to name us or our group or our lives. We decide what we wish to be called and we are allowed to be damned proud of the name we choose.

I am a Liberal who believes in Pro Choice and I love the fact that America is such a forward thinking nation as to have wonderful entitlements for all its citizens!

Skinning the Cat

The phrase, 'there’s more than one way to skin a cat' is hardly ever used these days and that’s unfortunate. You see it should be resurrected as a subtitle for the wonderfully wacky world of politics.

Simply put it means you can find many ways to do or say anything. And of course each of those ways will mean different things to different people.

Even placing the emphasis on different words in the same sentence will convey an altered meaning to the subject at hand.

Prove it to yourself by saying the following sentence six times emphasizing a different word each time.

“You want me to do that?” (My favorite is the third utterance.)

The above was a simple example. Now imagine a far longer sentence or better yet a complicated issue such as Medicare.

In the current fight between the two major political parties and one minor party the emphasis is on the cost and how it affects our deficit. But the cost should not only be a monetary one.

It’s easy to say that increased membership in Medicare caused by the aging of our society will increase our nation’s deficit but we should also note that drastically changing the system could increase our Nation’s death rate!

Unfortunately some of the people arguing the case sublimate that fact. They understand that the fewer people utilizing Medicare, be it from lack of need or death the less money will be spent. And the less money spent the more money to use elsewhere.

Do I hear the defense lobbyists lining up?

An issue as far reaching and multi-faceted such as Medicare cannot be explained in one line. There will never be a quick fix worthy of a satisfactory sound bite for us to hear on cable network news shows, at least not a real one.

But I herewith offer a streamlined view of one of the main points of contention between politicians from all sides of every aisle.

If a senior needs medical care they currently see their doctor and most of the costs involved come out of the government coffers. The coffers have that money as a result of contributions made by those seniors in the form of deductions taken from their lifetime of wages.

One could say the seniors are entitled to that money or at least the peace of mind coverage for which the money was paid all those years. Naturally the word ‘entitlement’ has been given a bad connotation by the same people who wish to rid the country of such ‘socialistic programs, but that’s another issue.

The ‘right’ wishes to privatize Medicare. They propose issuing seniors vouchers with which they may to go out and buy insurance on their own. This would remove the worry and expense of covering these elderly people should they get sick, and of course there is no disputing the fact that they will!

In order for the ‘right’ to save the government money in this scheme the amount of the vouchers must be less than the expected payment to cover the elderly in their hours of need.

Again there is no dispute on that fact.

So the ‘right’ will spin the issue and state that they are covering seniors and saving the government money. Who could argue against such a win-win conclusion?

But one need not delve too far into the facts to realize that if the government is saving money then less money is being spent and less money means less coverage.

Also the ‘for profit’ insurance companies will not be all that willing to actually cover the seniors to the full extent of their needs since they are after all for profit!

So the end result of the proposal by the Republicans on the ‘right’ higher profits for private insurance companies, possibly a slightly lower deficit assuming the small amount of money saved is not funneled into other non socialistic programs immediately, and a lower life expectancy for middle class Americans.

Doesn't this sound a bit like what the 'Conservatives' were chanting about a couple of years ago? 

There will be no easy solution to this problem as the majority of Americans enter into their supposed Golden Years. One might argue that a higher tax rate on the wealthiest among us must be considered and corporations, who have been given near citizenship rights by our Supreme Court, should therefore be included in that group. Certainly that would be a start but more is needed. And we need our leaders to stop posturing and, for lack of a better term, lying to our faces about the issues.

Remember that while it is only a euphemism, skinning the cat will result in the death of the cat. The problem is ‘we the people’ are the cat!