No COLA for SS Beneficiaries = Lower Benefits?
There will be no COLA this year because officially there is no inflation. But in reality, many prices — above all healthcare costs — continue to rise.
What is your experience? Are your costs of living going up? Should COLA be redefined so that it is more consistent with reality?
Mr. Shepard Smith: For many, many years, some would argue when it’s politically expedient to do so, critics on both sides of the aisle have claimed that Social Security was going to go completely bankrupt. I mean, bankrupt, it’s over, unless the entire system is drastically overhauled. We’ve all heard it.
Well, today, there’s a preview of things to come again. For the first time since the 1970s, the Federal government will not be giving seniors a cost of living increase (COLA). The amount on the checks will instead stay the same, but as healthcare costs rise, what this basically amounts to is a smaller Social Security check for seniors. I mean, if you look at it, that’s what it is.
Complicating matters, millions of babyboomers are now preparing to become senior citizens and it’s the babyboomers that we’ve known all about for decades and all of a sudden, it’s a crisis. With us now is financial consultant and money manager, Rodney Anderson. Rodney, it’s great to see you. Thank you.
Mr. Rodney Anderson: Thanks, Shep.
Mr. Shepard Smith: It’s not as if we didn’t know that babyboomers were about to get older, they are. We’ve known it for decades that it was coming. I mean, please don’t tell me this is the end of Social Security because we all know better. Every time they say it, they just find more money for it and make it work. Otherwise, they’d get voted out of office, right?
Mr. Rodney Anderson: Well, the decision to freeze Social Security is like putting a band aid on a compound fracture. We’re seeing where seniors are having their benefits cut and their cost of healthcare go up. We’re seeing them where they’re having their investments, which are the 401ks or IRAs just plummet down but not only that, we’re seeing their investments such as their CDs and their savings rates go down and this is where they lived off of. But many of these seniors through healthcare are having to finance their debt, debt that they’ve never had to finance before and that is being taken on by credit cards and then we have the banks raising everybody’s credit card rates and it’s killing the seniors and that’s why more and more are going into bankruptcy right now.
Mr. Shepard Smith: Well, it’s killing everybody to bankruptcy. And quite frankly it’s killing the seniors, but I don’t know… I don’t know how that leads us to say that this is the beginning of the end of Social Security because I’m not going to listen to it for a long time anyway because I’ve been hearing it for so many decades and it never happens. I mean, why would it happen this time?
Mr. Rodney Anderson: Well, in 2016, we don’t have enough money going into Social Security to fund it. But in the year 2037…
Mr. Shepard Smith: Yeah, well, in the previous administration, it was a different year, then in the administration before that, it was different year. It doesn’t matter if you have an R or a D after your name. They say this every few years, here it comes, and then we fund it. I mean, what’s different? Help me.
Mr. Rodney Anderson: Well, what’s different this time is truly because this healthcare crisis is going out of control that they have two major crises in front of them; one of them is healthcare. We’re hearing about it every day every minute of the day. The next one is Social Security. They keep wanting to print money, but pretty soon, Shep, the money is not going to be printed anymore.
Mr. Shepard Smith: And so because we’re not printing anymore money, Social Security is going to go away?
Mr. Rodney Anderson: No, Social Security will not go away, but what seniors will see is they’ll see no cost of living adjustment and what they’ll see is those paychecks, those monthly checks go down.
Mr. Shepard Smith: So…
Mr. Rodney Anderson: It may not go away, but it’s just going to be like Medicare where the benefits are cut every year.
Mr. Shepard Smith: So are you saying that an overhaul of the healthcare system is urgent and must happen to keep Social Security from falling apart? We’ve got the cost down?
Mr. Rodney Anderson: I think it’s a must happen… yeah, it’s a must happen. We have to get the costs down because seniors are being hurt from every side right now.
Mr. Shepard Smith: Well, it sounds like the President agrees with you on this, right? He’s the one who said we got to get the costs down. We’ve got to overhaul. We’ve got to overhaul the whole healthcare system and we’ve got to have a government option in there, that is what he used to say. Is that your sense that that would help save Social Security?
Mr. Rodney Anderson: Well, yeah, I think it will help Social Security in a lot of ways, Shep. But here’s what’s going to happen. I talked to my mom on my way here and mom knows best and mom says, “People can’t even or buying food right now, instead of buying medicine. It is a problem and right in my own family, because the fact of the matter is none of us or we’re all living older and that’s going to bankrupt Social Security.”
Mr. Shepard Smith: Well, I’m not well. We’ve known this was coming. This is not brand new information. We’ve known babyboomers were going to get older. We’ve known it forever. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a crisis. Well, yeah, it is. Babyboomers, they’re getting older. We got to do something about it. The President says he has a plan and the Republican say it’s a bad plan and we’ll see what happens. Rodney Anderson, let’s hope something happens. It’s good to see you. Thank you.
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i barely make ends meet now president obama please help us americans i know a eldery in her 90s she is black and i love her as a grandmother and try to help her when i can, we can only do so much ,
NO ONE CAN GIVE A LOGICAL ANSWER AS TO WHY AFTER SO MANY YEARS THE COUNTRY CANNOT GIVE ITS MOST VULNARABLE SEGMENT OF OUR SOCIETY A SMALL PALTRY COLA TO THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS. BILLIONS HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO THE AUTO AND BANKING INDUCTRY WHO IN TURN HAVE GIVEN BONUSES TO SOME OF THEIR HIGHER ECHELON EMPLOYEES, BUT NOT ONE PENNY FOR THOSE OLDER AMERICANS WHO RELY FOR THEIR EXISTANCE ON SOCIAL SECURITY. TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY THE MEDICARE PAYMENTS WILL INCREASE MEANING THAT NOT ONLY WILL SOCIAL SECURITY RECIPIENTS RECEIVE NO INCREASE THIS YEAR BUT THEY WILL GET LESS BECAUSE OF THE HIGHER MEDICARE PREMIUMS. MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OUR PRESIDENT, ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE PLEA OF MILLIONS. IF NOT WE SHALL TAKE YOUR INDIFFERENCE TO THE POLLING PLACES IN THE NEXT ELECTION