Obama Makes Tough Budget Cuts On Backs Of Social Security Recipients
by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director
It seems President Barack Obama has decided to demonstrate fiscal restraint, but his turn towards less federal spending has come at the expense of Social Security recipients in 2010 and, as recently announced, in 2011.
Those who receive Social Security benefits will not receive a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) in their monthly checks for the second year in a row. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whose data is compiled under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Labor, there has been no inflation during the past two years. Subsequently, with no inflation, according to the CPI, senior citizens, the disabled, the temporarily disabled, widows, widowers and their dependents will have to survive on the same level of Social Security income they have been receiving since 2009.
There are those who will claim the CPI is a trusted independent source which gauges inflation in America. However, Hilda L. Solis, the Secretary of the Dept. of Labor is a political appointee. Subsequently, the federal agency responds to the whims of the Obama administration. With the U.S. deficit and accumulated debt soaring into the trillions of dollars under Obama's presidency, he has decided to make some tough cuts in spending. Unfortunately, while Obama's spending spree continues, he has become fiscally conservative, but only when it comes to the federal government's obligation to Social Security recipients. With the "hope and change" President's $500 billion projected cuts in Medicare over the next ten years, which is included in the Health Care Reform law, Obama has further targeted those with the least political clout by continuing the COLA freeze.
A ten year old child will tell you the price of candy has gone up since 2009. And every American who has to operate under a budget fully comprehends that the money it took to buy three bags of groceries in 2009 now will only buy two. The cost of energy has gone up, including gasoline prices which, in many parts of the country, average over $3 per gallon. But most experts agree that gasoline prices will skyrocket after the midterm elections.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico should have increased fuel prices dramatically. However, through the skillful manipulation of oil supplies, the Obama White House has kept a lid on the cost of gasoline at the fuel pump. In the past, a stiff wind or a small fire at a refinery would send gasoline prices through the roof immediately. But with the election looming and with Democrat's heads already on the political chopping block, a spike in energy costs would have further doomed Obama's political party and something had to be done. Anyone who believes that gasoline prices were not artificially manipulated is either naive or drinking a very powerful Kool-Aid cocktail.
However, perhaps the group hit hardest with the continued COLA freeze are those seniors and survivors with dependents whose rent, property taxes, education expenses, etc. go up every year (like all Americans) but they are locked into the fixed income they receive from Social Security. Yet what's good for the goose, apparently, is not good for the gander. In 2009, Congress voted themselves a healthy pay increase to keep pace with the cost of living. They also voted themselves a very substantial increase in their yearly entertainment budget which amount, on an individual basis, would dwarf the average annual payments received by Social Security recipients. Expect the lame duck session of Congress to give themselves another healthy pay raise, after the November 2nd election.
It is clear Obama and the Democratic Party have written off the votes of seniors and the disabled. But Republicans can assume some of the blame themselves by not raising hell fire over the COLA freeze and other financial hits being taken by those who receive Social Security benefits and Medicare. Let's remember, even with the flood of baby boomers who are now approaching retirement age, Social Security would have been totally solvent--if the politicians in Washington, D.C. had left the Social Security trust fund off budget. There should have been more than enough money in the Social Security trust fund to keep the program solvent for many years. However, when Congress raided the trust fund decades ago and replaced the revenue therein with an I.O.U., the funding problems began and the system was doomed to eventual fiscal insolvency.
Yes, I know, many younger Americans believe they will never see a dime of what they are paying into the Social Security system as it is now formulated when they retire. This is probably an accurate assessment. Less than a half century ago, those paying into Social Security outnumbered recipients by 13 to 1. Today that figure is quickly approaching three to one and the money simply will not be there as Social Security is now formulated. Again, there is no money in the Social Security trust fund. And talk about a lock box is nothing more than political subterfuge used to mislead the American public.
Yet there are millions of Americans who have been paying into the Social Security system for as long as half a century. We are not simply talking about the poor. Those impacted by Obama's financial policies include the middle class which may be the hardest hit during this President's attempt to redistribute wealth. Obama never meant to increase the standard of living of America's poor, contrary to what many believed he was saying during his presidential campaign. Obama's plan from the beginning was to bring down the standard of living of all Americans to more closely mirror the economic status of the world, including Third World countries. Eventually, there will be the elite--which will include Obama and the political ruling class. The rest of us will, essentially, be serfs, akin to the fixed social strata of the Middle Ages...where the American dream was just that...a dream.
Hopefully, in less than two weeks, Obama's plan for America's economic destruction will be temporarily derailed. In the mean time, any senior citizen who votes for a Democrat and Republicans who have made politics a profession rather than a service to their country deserves what they get...which won't be much.
And here's some more bad news for those who are dependent on Social Security: Expect the COLA freeze to continue through at least 2012.
Okay, let's all remember what we are being told by the Democratic majority. There is no inflation, America's economy is on the rebound and Obama's stimulus package created millions of shovel-ready jobs. But the operative question here is: Just what was the American public shoveled?
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, there is a Tooth Fairy and the check is in the mail.
Related Articles:
Social Security COLA: Congress Gets Pay Raise, Seniors & Others Did Not by Daniel T. Zanoza
Obama Promised Social Security Recipients $250 To Offset COLA Freeze: Where Is It? by Daniel T. Zanoza
Anyone wishing to receive RFFM.org e-mails should contact: [email protected]
NOTE: Comments to RFFM.org's blog which include ad hominems or personal attack will automatically be rejected. No hyperlinks allowed.
To make a secure online donation to support RFFM, please go to: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5U5V8GAKCYTU8
Very good article. Says what I have been telling people for years. The only way to equalize the wealth is to bring most of our population down to a lower level. I voted today in the early voting. I voted only for those who support change, even if that meant a third party. Expect my income to drop radically in 2011. We old retired folks have to expect that, voters in this nation have lost the sense of history and government.
Posted by: Charlie | October 22, 2010 at 06:44 PM