General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: FFS... the PURPOSE of ENTITLEMENT REFORM is to REDUCE benefits [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Hillary opposed raising the cap. That was one of the reasons that Obama won over Hillary.
Shame on Obama for giving up on that idea.
Millions of Americans will suffer if they cut Social Security benefits. And they won't all be seniors. Many of them will be the children of poor seniors and disabled people.
The chained CPI is a terrible idea. I know a lot of very elderly people. If you work and earn an average or close to average salary all your life, you cannot raise a family and personally save enough for your retirement. That is something that only rich people and upper income people can do. Thus, when you get in your 80s, you have spent your savings -- on things like glasses and hearing aids and prolonged hospital care, co-pays and deductibles, winter coats and boots, your mortgage and other necessities.
The average Social Security payment is just enough to keep seniors above the poverty level. I have posted it here so many times. And you will find it posted on my DU blog.
Cutting Social Security will hurt the whole country. It will be another blow to the economy. It will be taking a lot of money out of the economy.
Seniors spend their Social Security checks and mostly in America. Most of it goes for food, the rare item of clothing that a senior buys, medical needs not covered by Medicare, necessary transportation and housing. Seniors help the American economy.
Seniors who have I-phones or I-pads or expensive items made outside the US usually buy those items with their savings. And those seniors are in a minority. They also pay taxes at the same rates as everyone else because if they have over a certain amount of income they full taxes. As I recall there is a tax increase at annual income of $40,000 and an even higher one for seniors with more than $80,000 of income.
It is a complicated aspect of our tax system, but the idea that Social Security should be means-tested is foolish. Through the tax code, it already is.
Once they have cut Social Security what else will they do to harm our economy and to harm the middle class and the poor.
This is where we have to draw that line in the sand -- Social Security.