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Saving Social
Security won't be painless
Politicians have clamored for 20 years about fixing Social Security,
but few members of Congress have the political mettle to make the
program solvent. (click
for full article)

Report on Social
Security delayed
The Obama administration is delaying release of the annual report
on the financial health of Social Security and Medicare so that
the new report can reflect the impact of the recently passed health
care overhaul. (click
for full article)

Social Security
needs an overhaul to save it
Something happened recently that should alarm us all. For the first
time in more than two decades, Social Security has started paying
out more benefits than it collected, a total of $29 billion more
for this year. The problem is our government has been borrowing
and then spending the money you pay into social security for other
purposes. (click
for full article)

Social Security
to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year
The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession
have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. (click
for full article)

Recession puts
more stress on Social Security
Security provides a majority of the retirement income for about
two-thirds of Americans over age 65, but if you're in your mid-50s
or younger, it's time to make alternate arrangements. (click
for full article)

Social Security
is next big issue
Now that landmark legislation overhauling the health insurance system
is about to become law, addressing Social Security's solvency could
well become the next big thing for President Barack Obama and congressional
Democrats. (click
for full article)

Social Security
IOUs stashed away
The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away
in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from
the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
(click
for full article)

Defaulted Loans
May Haunt Seniors
A little-noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security
checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who
owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than
a decade old. (click
for full article)

4 Unusual Ways
To Boost Social Security Benefits
For many retirees, Social Security retirement benefits are their
only source of fixed income once they stop working. As retirement
approaches, people start thinking about when they should apply for
these benefits. (click
for full article)

Social Security
Depletion: Is The Fear Justified?
Scary headlines about the depletion of the Social Security program
have been in the news for years. The grim text on the yearly statement
sent to future Social Security recipients doesn't help matters,
with its dire warning that the Social Security Trust Fund will be
exhausted if changes to the program are not made. (click
for full article)

Senate rejects
Social Security bonus payment
The Senate on March 3 rejected a proposal by President Barack Obama
to give people on Social Security a $250 bonus check. (click
for full article)

The Social Security
Conundrum
Last May, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue met with Financial
Planning during a trip to New York to promote the $250 recovery
payments that were being issued to people who receive Social Security
and Supplemental Security Income. (click
for full article)

Seniors
getting smaller checks
A majority of seniors are receiving a smaller Social Security check
this year than in 2009, according to an annual survey of elderly
Americans, released earlier today by The Senior Citizens League
(TSCL). (click
for full article)

Next in line
for a bailout: Social Security
NEW YORK -- Don't look now. But even as the bank bailout is winding
down, another huge bailout is starting, this time for the Social
Security system. (click
for full article)

Direct deposit
of Social Security is safer, easier for winter travelers
(ARA) - As cold weather sets in, thousands of retirees are making
plans for a winter getaway. If you're one of them, switch to direct
deposit for your Social Security payments before you leave - it's
the safest, easiest way to receive your money. (click
for full article)

People getting
older happier than they used to be
CHICAGO - Even if the candles don't all fit on the cake, there's
extra reason to celebrate some key older birthdays in the post-meltdown
economy. (click
for full article)

People getting
older happier than they used to be
CHICAGO - Even if the candles don't all fit on the cake, there's
extra reason to celebrate some key older birthdays in the post-meltdown
economy. (click
for full article)

10 things to
know about Social Security
Social Security is a lot like the ozone layer - we all know it's
there now and we count on it being there in the future. Yet some
people may not know much more about it than that. (click
for full article)

Pols Seek To
Boost Social Security $$$
City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and Rep. Anthony Weiner joined
seniors for a rally on Monday, Oct. 26 at the Middle Village Adult
Center to call on the U.S. Social Security Administration to increase
social security payments for New York Citys elderly citizens.
(click
for full article)

Social Security
benefit cuts or higher taxes likely coming
SAN FRANCISCO - Social Security provides a majority of the retirement
income for about two-thirds of Americans over age 65, but if you're
in your mid-50s or younger, it's time to make alternate arrangements.
(click
for full article)

Addabbo slams
cuts to Social Security
New York State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) has assailed
the Social Security Administration's decision to cut cost-of-living
allowances as a hardship for seniors. (click
for full article)

While we slept,
Congress looted our Social Security
High Social Security payroll taxes have contributed to yearly Social
Security Trust Fund surpluses until the proclaimed surplus is now
in excess of $2,420 billion ($2.42 trillion). (click
for full article)

Social Security
makes it official: No COLA in 2010
There will be no cost of living increase for more than 50 million
Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise
since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. (click
for full article)

'Income' eats
away at Social Security disability checks
The recession is expected to add more people to the Social Security
rolls - so many, in fact, that the government said it will pay out
more benefits than it will collect in taxes the next two years.
(click
for full article)

New York reps
criticize Social Security plan
A group of Democratic elected officials and a City Council candidate
have demanded that the Social Security Administration scrap its
plan to cut off cost-of-living allowances for two years despite
rising costs. (click
for full article)

Sales tax error
launches campaign to preserve SS COLAs
When it comes to money, Howard McKenna counts every penny - literally.
On Thursday, he discovered that two Dollar General stores in Farmington
were charging 9 percent sales tax instead of the proper tax of 7.975
percent. McKenna contacted the city, the state revenue department
and State Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington. (click
for full article)

Low oil prices
block retirees' cost-of-living adjustment
It was higher oil prices last year that led to the largest annual
cost-of-living adjustment to federal entitlements since 1982. Good
thing, too. (click
for full article)

Pro-Con | Should
Social Security recipients receive an annual cost-of-living adjustment
despite there being no inflation?
I always tell people to refrain from griping if they didn't vote.
But not only did I vote, I did everything in my power to keep the
current president out of office. In the Democratic primary, our
fair city voted for Hillary Clinton, hands down. (click
for full article)

Queens politicians
outraged over Social Security COLA freeze
With the cost of healthcare, housing, prescription drugs and transportation
increasing, news that Social Security benefits will remain stagnant
may make difficult times even worse for seniors. (click
for full article)

Seniors wary
over Social Security changes
Monroe, NJ - Fixed income seniors may have to pinch their pennies
a little tighter next year as experts around the country are projecting
cuts in Social Security benefits. (click
for full article)

More
charged in Social Security fraud case
MUSKEGON (Michigan) -- Another batch of people have been arraigned
for allegedly cashing duplicate Social Security disability checks
in the Muskegon area. (click
for full article)

No Social Security
COLA is no biggie
"Millions of people face shrinking Social Security checks next
year," The Washington Post reported Monday, "as officials
project that benefits will stay flat for the first time in a generation."
(click
for full article)

Put Congress
on Social Security
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security and,
of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits are not suitable for persons
of their rare elevation in society. They feel they should have a
special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their
own benefit plan. (click
for full article)

Petitions and
Memorials -- (Senate - April 22, 2008) [Page: S3252]
The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate
and were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:
...POM-308. A collection of petitions forwarded by the
Benefit Security Coalition relative to establishing a more equitable
method of computing cost of living adjustments for Social Security
benefits; to the Committee on Finance. (click
for full PDF file)

Health Plans
Could Aid, Hinder Efforts To Fund Social Security
While a health care overhaul takes precedence, the Obama administration
will eventually tackle the Social Security issue, top White House
economic adviser Lawrence Summers said last week. (click
for full article)

Mountain of
debt: Social Security crisis looms
WASHINGTON - As Congress agonizes over health care, an even more
daunting and dangerous challenge is bearing down: how to shore up
Social Security to keep it from burying the nation ever deeper in
debt. (click
for full article)

Retirees rethink
Social Security in tough economy
CHICAGO - Many Americans are living on the edge these days, and
that means more are opting to take Social Security early. The potential
consequences for them down the road are troublesome. (click
for full article)

Is Hiding Your
Social Security Number Worth It?
Consumers who have spent hours locking up their passports, shredding
their billing statements and filing away their tax returns may soon
learn they've wasted a great deal of time. Their efforts to shield
themselves from identity theft by guarding their Social Security
numbers are being undermined by government officials and social
networking sites. (click
for full article)

Payback:
Making Money Off Social Security
Americans give the government interest-free loans with their salary
withholdings. There's a way to turn the tables. (click
for full article)

Continuing a
Conversation on Social Security
The rules covering Social Security are so numerous and so complicated
that it isn't easy to figure out the optimal time to take benefits.
As we recently wrote, this decision is different for each person
and depends on a variety of factors: your health, your savings,
when you stop working, whether you are married or single, and more.
(click
for full article)

Social Security
Payments Could Shrink for Some
Because Social Security won't provide a cost-of-living adjustment
next year and Medicare Part B premiums likely will rise, some retirees
will get smaller checks. (click
for full article)

David Walker
Explains Social Security's Future
David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, has made it his mission
to call attention to how current spending patterns could hurt future
generations. He rails against the budget deficit and speaks out
in favor of spending controls. Now, as head of the Peter G. Peterson
Foundation, Walker continues to urge politicians to make programs
such as Social Security and Medicare sustainable. (click
for full article)

Trustees: Outlook
is not good for Social Security, Medicare
You'd have to have been living under a rock to be surprised by the
news in May from the Social Security and Medicare trustees that
the programs are in trouble. In a nutshell: The U.S. population
is aging, health-care costs are spiraling upward and neither program
has the money to cover promised benefits. In addition, politicians
have known this for many years, and yet no progress has been made
in fixing the programs. (click
for full article)

Security trust
fund exhausted 4 years sooner than last year's forecast
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The recession has taken its toll on Social
Security. The officials who oversee the program forecast May 12
that the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2037 --
four years earlier than estimated last year. (click
for full article)

Recession puts
Social Security in spotlight
The financial crisis has cast a shadow over a perennial debate in
Washington: How to ensure the long-term financial health of Social
Security.
While President Obama has taken on more major issues in his first
few months than most presidents, the entitlement program for retirees
hasn't made the list. (click
for full article)

Lawmakers Seeking
Consensus On Social Security Overhaul
Key lawmakers from both parties have held tentative talks about
overhauling the Social Security system, and Congress could turn
its attention to the federal retirement program as soon as this
fall if a bipartisan consensus emerges, House Majority Leader Steny
H. Hoyer said May 5.
"I am hopeful. It's a tough issue," Hoyer (D-Md.) said
in an interview, adding that he and other lawmakers are still trying
to assess whether sufficient support exists to move forward. (click
for full article)

Hoyer Delivers
Keynote Address on Entitlement and Health Care Reform
WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered
the keynote address at a Bipartisan Policy Center forum, "Unprecedented
Federal Debt: Putting Our Fiscal House in Order," hosted by
former Senator Pete Domenici at the St. Regis Hotel. Below are his
remarks as prepared for delivery:
"If I were to guess the single most lasting lesson of our economic
crisis, and if I were to spell it out in just five words, I would
say: this is what debt does. (click
for full article)

Hoyer 'hopeful'
on entitlement reform this year
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said May 6 he's "hopeful"
that Congress will reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
later this year, after lawmakers deal with contentious healthcare
reform and energy bills. (click
for full article)

50 million retirees
to get $250 checks in May
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 50 million retirees can expect to receive
$250 payments from the government in the next few weeks as their
share of the economic stimulus package enacted in February. (click
for full article)

Don't Count
on Future Social Security Increases
Social Security payouts increased 5.8 percent this year. It was
the largest cost-of-living increase in more than 25 years and increased
the typical retiree's check by approximately $63. (click
for full article)

Zero Social
Security COLA Increase Until 2013 For 37 Million Senior Citizens
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 37 million Americans aged 65 and
over who receive a Social Security check each month are forecast
to receive no increase in their Social Security checks until 2013.
(click
for full article)

Recession Puts
a Major Strain On Social Security Trust Fund
As Payroll Tax Revenue Falls, So Does Surplus
The U.S. recession is wreaking havoc on yet another front: the Social
Security trust fund. (click
for full article)

COLA for Military
Overseas Plunges with Dollar
STUTTGART, Germany Most service members in Germany can expect
about a $200 cut in their monthly cost-of-living allowances this
year as a result of rising prices for goods in the U.S., where inflation
has outpaced that in Germany, according to the Department of Defenses
Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Committee. (click
for full article)

One-Time $250
Social Security Payment Due In May
WASHINGTON (AP) - People who collect Social Security or disability
benefits will share $13 billion in federal money, each receiving
a one-time, $250 payment beginning in May, Vice President Joe Biden
said March 26. (click
for full article)

Strengthen Social
Security
At this point, we need to confront an elemental truth: No Wall Street
rally can obscure the scary historical prospect that most Americans
now working can expect to have less income security in retirement
than their parents. (click
for full article)

The payoff for
waiting to collect Social Security
Readers had two questions about my recent column on taking my Social
Security benefits. Most readers wanted to know why I had waited
so long several months after my 68th birthday. After all, they argued,
it would take years to recoup the benefits I had deferred. (click
for full article)

Amnesty BillWorst
Provisions
Lou Dobbs discusses the worst Provisions of the new Amnesty Bill.
(click
to view the video)

Social Security
chief hopeful on system's solvency
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue is
hopeful the Obama Administration will address the solvency of the
system before the 2012 elections. But in a speech on Monday in St.
Louis, Astrue declined to speculate on exactly how the administration
plans to fix it. (click
for full article)

Social Security
Workers Feeling Strapped
Workers at the Social Security Administration are working harder
and enjoying it less, while its customers grow ever more frustrated.
That's a major take-away from a recent Government Accountability
Office report detailing the negative impact of SSA staff cuts. (click
for full article)
Taking Apart the
$819 billion Stimulus Package
The centerpiece of President Obama's domestic agenda is an $819
billion economic stimulus plan. The Senate will consider the measure
this week, with an eye toward the amount of tax cuts and spending.
Republicans and Democrats spar over what to consider a tax cut.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tallies
the tax-cut portion to be significantly less than the one-third
Democrats claim it to be. (click
for full article)
Bunning's Social
Security change defeated again
Kentucky U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning's bid to lower Social Security taxes
died this week when his amendment to the financial stimulus package
was soundly defeated.
Bunning, a Republican, blamed Senate Democrats for leading the
charge against the amendment that fell Wednesday night by a vote
of 57 to 39. (click
for full article)
The Congressional economic stimulus plan would place the Social
Security Trust Fund into deficit for the first time ever next year,
if the current economic stimulus package is passed by both Houses
of Congress.
Social Security is funded by payroll taxes that employees and their
employers pay into the system. Money that comes into the Social
Security Trust Fund is used to pay the Social Security checks retirees
receive each month, and since the creation of the Trust Fund in
1983, the program has always had more money coming in than going
out.
However, that may change as soon as next year, due to a proposed
refundable payroll tax credit which would offer workers a refund
on their portion of Social Security taxes, meaning there would be
insufficient cash to pay benefits. The $145.3 billion refundable
payroll tax credit proposal would give individual workers up to
$500 and couples up to $1,000.
The Benefit Security Coalition joins The Senior Citizens League
in advocating for any decrease in payroll taxes to be taken from
the general treasury, not the Social Security Trust Fund.
http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20090129/DC6451529012009-1.html
You want change?
Try these ideas
Each presidential candidate is giving his rendition of the changes
he wants for America.
Here are a few that I believe all Americans want... (click
for full article)

Robin
Summerfield, representing Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, addresses
an audience of 50 at the Civic Council-sponsored Seniors Resource
Center in Frederick, MD, on December 10, 2008. He discussed some
of the challenges facing the Social Security and Medicaid systems,
and some of the options for addressing those problems.
Thomas
Cromwell (at podium) and Edwin Pierson, of the Civic Council, explain
some of the advocacy programs of the Council to 50 guests gathered
at its Seniors Resource Center in Frederick, Maryland, on December
10, 2008. Among the issues discussed was the need to achieve a fairer
COLA calculation for Seniors, as well as the dangers posed by a
totalization agreement with Mexico.

The only way to
fix Social Security
August 20, 2008, NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- John McCain and Barack
Obama both talk about how they would put Social Security on sound
financial footing.
The program will face the first signs of a financial crunch within
a decade and have to rely on Uncle Sam - who's in hock already -
to make up for the shortfall. (click
for full article)

Medicare Drug Premiums
to Rise about 12 Percent a Month in 2009
August 17, 2008, Medicares beneficiaries will see about a
$3 increase in their monthly premiums for prescription drug coverage
in 2009, federal reports said on Thursday.
This increase of 12 percent will boost the monthly premium to $28
for standard drug coverage. It seems to be three reasons behind
this premium increase, according to Kerry Weems, acting administrator
of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (click
for full article)

Pay Raises Not
Always Welcomed
March 30, 2008, Washington -- Most people would like the ability
to set their own salaries. The U.S. Constitution requires Congress
to do just that.But it never has been a chore it relishes, and it
has struggled with a variety of systems to accomplish it.
From 1789, when congressional salaries were $6 a day, until 1968
when they were $30,000 a year, Congress enacted stand-alone legislation
for 18 separate salary adjustments. Partisan battles accompanied
many of those votes, and sometimes a decade would pass between increases.
(click
for full article)

Social Security
Announces 5.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2009
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits
for more than 55 million Americans will increase 5.8 percent in
2009, the Social Security Administration announced today. The 5.8
percent increase is the largest since 1982. (click
for full article)

Social Security's
Running Out of Time
March 19, 2008, (Fortune Magazine) -- One of Washington's rites
of spring is almost upon us. It's the wonks' version of the Cherry
Blossom Festival - the release of the annual Social Security trustees'
report showing the health of our nation's biggest social program.
Each year the report touches off a debate, mostly misguided, about
Social Security's financial status. Given the political environment
this year, you can expect more heat than usual when the report comes
out. But you're unlikely to see much light. (click
for full article)
Democrats Get Wish:
More Taxes!
March 14, 2008, WASHINGTON - The Senate rejected calls from both
parties' presidential candidates to take an election-year break
from pork-barrel spending as a Democratic-run Congress passed budget
plans that would torpedo hundreds of billions of dollars in tax
cuts won by President Bush. (click
for full article)

Rebate Letters
to Cost $42 Million
March 7, 2008, WASHINGTON At a cost of nearly $42 million,
the IRS wants you to know: Your check is almost in the mail.
The Internal Revenue Service is spending the money on letters to
alert taxpayers to expect rebate checks as part of the economic
stimulus plan. (click
for full article)

Cost of Living
Too Costly for Seniors
February 27, 2008, SACRAMENTO The threshold for seniors to
qualify for government assistance is so low that most Ventura County
seniors who have incomes twice that high don't have enough money
to pay for the necessities of living, a UCLA study released Tuesday
shows. (click
for full article)

2.8 % Increase
Would Raise Average Benefit Just $30.20 Per Month During Economic
Downturn
February 14,2008, WASHINGTON /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Late last
month, the Congressional Budget Office published a little-noticed
estimate that forecasts seniors will receive just a 2.8 percent
increase in their Social Security checks beginning in January, 2009.
(click
for full article)

Benefit Security
Coalition in the Congressional Record
Petitions and Memorials -- (Senate - February 07, 2008) The following
petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and were referred
or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:
POM-284. A collection of petitions forwarded by the Benefit Security
Coalition relative to establishing a more equitable method of computing
cost of living adjustments for Social Security benefits; to the
Committee on Finance. (click
for full article)

Town Wants to Let
Seniors Work Off Taxes
GREENBURGH, New York (AP) -- Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a
$620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply
rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her
family there and after 43 years, she really doesn't want to leave
Greenburgh. (click
for full article)

2008 COLA Lowest
in 4 Years!
WASHINGTON (AP) Come January, Social Security benefits for
nearly 50 million Americans are going up 2.3 percent, the smallest
increase in four years. It will mean an extra $24 per month in the
average check, the government announced Wednesday. (click
for full article)

48 Million Seniors
Forecast to Receive Second Smallest Social Security COLA '08
WASHINGTON, April 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In its annual report
released to Congress earlier this week, Social Security's Trustees
announced that the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
for 2008 -- the annual adjustment provided to seniors each year
to help them keep up with inflation -- is forecast to be just 1.4
percent, and could be as low as 1.2 percent. (click
for full article)

Social Security
Adjustment Isnt Calculating the Cost-of-living
Seniors Medicare premiums are rising so rapidly that in five
years, the premiums alone will wipe out the annual cost-of-living
adjustments in their Social Security checks, according to a new
study.
The yearly cost-of-living adjustment is supposed to keep pace with
inflations effect on the costs of energy, food and transportation.
But the monthly premiums for Medicare Part B alone have gone up
much faster than the cost-of-living adjustments, and the situation
is expected to worsen. In addition to Medicare Part B doctors coverage,
many seniors face higher-than-expected premiums for the new Part
D drug coverage. (click
for full article)
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