30 Days, 30 deceptions - 20 of 30

By 'raindrop'

Tax cuts v. Social Security

On the campaign trail, Obama said-over and over again-that he will provide a tax cut for 95% of all working Americans earning less than $200,000 a year.

Have you gotten your tax cut? And even if you rec'd a tax cut, how long do you think you'll get to keep it?

Seniors will be bearing the burden for these so-called 'tax cuts' for working Americans (many of whom currently pay NO taxes), since Social Security payments will NOT rise with the Cost of Living for this year or next year. In fact, Social Security payments will NOT increase at all for the next two years and will increase only one-and-one-half percent the third year out. Since monthly payments for Medicare prescription drug coverage will surely increase (as they have, every year), this will represent a REDUCTION in Social Security payments for seniors.

"For the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients will not get any increase in their benefits next year, federal forecasts show. The absence of a cost-of-living adjustment, calculated under a formula set by law, will be a shock to older Americans already hit by plummeting home values, investment losses and rising health costs. More than 50 million people receive Social Security. "Most seniors have never been through a year in which there was no Social Security COLA," said David M. Certner, legislative counsel at AARP, the lobby for older Americans. Beneficiaries have received automatic cost-of-living adjustments every year since 1975. The increase this year was 5.8 percent...The forecasts, by the Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office, indicate that Social Security beneficiaries will not receive any cost-of-living increase in 2010 or in 2011..."If, as expected, there is no COLA in Social Security next year but premiums for drug coverage increase, as expected, millions of beneficiaries will see their Social Security checks reduced for the first time"