Harry Guerrilla
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Millions face shrinking Social Security payments - Yahoo! News
If you read the rest of the article, you'll find that some in Congress want to increase Social Security payments even though we are in a slight deflationary period.
This is what happens with government programs, they always find a way or reason to increase spending in them even when it isn't warranted.
Seems to be another attempt to pay off the welfare class for future votes.
WASHINGTON – Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.
The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.
"I will promise you, they count on that COLA," said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal."
Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.
Critics argue that Social Security recipients shouldn't get an increase when inflation is negative. They note that recipients got a big increase in January — after energy prices had started to fall. They also note that Social Security recipients received one-time $250 payments in the spring as part of the government's economic stimulus package.
"Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt," said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. "Congress has to be able to tell people they are not getting everything they want."
If you read the rest of the article, you'll find that some in Congress want to increase Social Security payments even though we are in a slight deflationary period.
This is what happens with government programs, they always find a way or reason to increase spending in them even when it isn't warranted.
Seems to be another attempt to pay off the welfare class for future votes.