For the second year in a row, there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security. Though this isn’t in direct Congressional control, it’s still bad news for Democrats, since seniors are going to blame the party in power for two years without an increase.
No COLA
by $8 blue check mistermix| 31 Comments
This post is in: Good News For Conservatives
Comrade Javamanphil
Those old people should just suck it up and stop trying to bankrupt the country. Oh wait, this isn’t the kind of government spending they are against? So hard to keep it all straight.
Mattski
Isn’t COLA based on inflation? Since inflation has been relatively low, the cost of living hasn’t increased all that much (over the past two years) so no COLA required. (plus a negative COLA is never allowed by law).
Anyway that’s how I justify not being agry at why my raises have fallen for the past 2 years even though performance has improved. Getting a 2% raise when the Core Price Inflation index is at 0% is better the getting a 5% raise when the CPI is a 4.5%. But I guess most people don’t look at it like that.
JPL
Most seniors received a check for $250.00 to go towards their prescriptions. I don’t remember the Democratic Party receiving much credit for that and they actually passed the bill.
Cataphract
It’s called “curbing runaway gub’mint spending,” you old fucktards. This is exactly what you’re voting for when you vote GOP.
satby
Well, the ones who will be angriest and blame the Democrats are already Teahadists, so no real change there. And a lot of the other ones may not be happy, but they know the country’s economy is in trouble. My own mother, a Bill O’Reilly fan, has become disgusted with the Repug obstruction on a lot of stuff.
Even FauxNoise can’t make that turd smell like a rose any more.
Warren Terra
I’m with Mattski here, more or less: you may be right about the politics, but I’d rather thought that COLA had been automated, and the reason it isn’t increasing is that the official statistics show no increase in the cost of living.
That’s my impression and my recollection, at least. The crappy horse-race article you linked has absolutely nothing whatsoever about policy or the actual cost of living, nor even any details about how this decision became reality in Congress. Couldn’t you find a source with an interest in reporting the news?
beltane
@Cataphract: Yeah, don’t they want it all privatized anyway? Don’t they want austerity? Here’s their austerity.
Comrade Javamanphil
And if your company is typical, your CEO is using that improved performance to justify his 20% compensation increase.
The Grand Panjandrum
This is all part of the plan to take healthcare away from McDonald’s employees and euthanizing granny. What next? Gummint takeover of Medicare? Things are going just like Obama planned.
Skepticat
However, the party in power is the Republicans. No blame ever seems to attach to them though.
Chyron HR
But what about the hyperinflation? Obama is just like Mugabe (if you know what I mean), so America must be in the death grip of hyperinflation, right?
JD Rhoades
And the people who scream the most about “reining in entitlements” will be smugly touting this as a failure of the Obama administration.
God DAMN, I hate these fuckers.
SBJules
This is my first year of collecting social security. I’m working also, so I consider SS & medicare as a huge blessing. I think seniors know who is campaigning on getting rid of Social Security and medicare and it isn’t our President.
grumpy realist
Iive by the COLA, die by the COLA. No inflation–>no COLA.
What no one wants to admit is we’re all going to have to tighten our belts and may have to end up committing the equivalent of financial triage: it’s horrible to stiff Granny and public pension holders, but if the alternative is to not have a working infrastructure (necessary for an economy to run) we may have to force cuts and cram-downs across the board. People who voluntarily retire at 50 don’t get 90% salary pensions until they die. Ditto for the salaries on the top public officials. Brutally large increases in taxes on the rich are also going to be necessary. AND large cuts in the military.
I’d also argue in favor of 0% taxation on corporations with the exchange that everything gets passed through to the shareholders ever year, plus making capital gains taxable at the same rate as ordinary income. Treat all income equally….
WereBear
@grumpy realist: How the hell is that realism?
If there’s any belt tightening to be done, let it be the people skimming off the profits and eating ice cream sundaes covered in gold.
I’ve tightened my damn belt until the buckle is digging into my spine; screw that!
Linda Featheringill
@SBJules:
Likewise.
This is especially good in a world where it looks like nobody else can get a job.
More money would be very, very welcome. But I realize that the whole world economy is fighting deflation right now.
El Cid
@Chyron HR: It’s all the hyperinflation, which is caused by the deficit, and printing all the money, and letting China buy us all up, which is preventing patriotic American politicians to stand up to Obama-Luo soshullism and raising Social Security rates so that we will be able to raise the Social Security retirement age because we’re worried Social Security is a bankrupt Ponzi scheme which soon won’t be able to afford the kinds of benefits people expect today.
It all fits together somehow or other, I’m sure of it.
cat48
This is truly unbelievable…did they check the price of groceries? They have gone up a lot in the last 2 yrs. I would be ticked at BigGov if I was getting one!
John
What a horrible article (the original). No mention of why the COLA is zero this year: no increase in the cost of living.
Duh.
Meanwhile the Republicans want to get rid of SS anyway.
Moses2317
It is really unfortunate that people will blame Democrats for this, given that the tea party Republicans are trying to turn the U.S. into No Country For Old Men – America After Republicans Eliminate Social Security and Medicare
Winning Progressive
WyldPirate
@JPL:
That’s because most seniors are too fucking stupid to realizee that the gubmint is subsidizing their medical care and they “earned” their SS (which they did).
Short memory much, JPL or no TV? who do you think was t all of those clown hall meetings in Aug. 09? Who are the predominant faces at TeaTard rallies. Old fuckers on SS! Many of them (most actually in my area) can’t STAND that a black man is Prez. They wanna yell “n****r , n****r” so bad they can hardly stand it.
WyldPirate
@cat48:
This is because of the “Core consumer price index” (CPI) slight of hand that the gubmint does to fool folks. It excludes “volatile items” such as food and energy costs.
It’s a lot like the slight of hand that is done when calculating the unemployment rates.
jinxtigr
Yeah, totally tax capital gains. giving special breaks for that stuff is psychotic at this point. It’s already wrecking the global economy with make-believe money, not getting some infrastructure benefits out of that is inexcusable.
Dennis SGMM
At 62 I found myself unable to find a job in my chosen field at any wage. I enjoy what I did and I would have been happy to take what I was making ten years ago. It wasn’t to be so I took early SS. COLA-no COLA, as long as it it puts food on the table we’re okay.
Dennis SGMM
@jinxtigr:
I was more than a bit unhappy that the .25% tax on stock trades didn’t go through. Apparently, paying one-fourth of one percent on a trade would have destroyed Wall Street.
The other thing I don’t understand is why capital losses are 100% deductible while capital gains are only taxed at 15%.
Martin
@Dennis SGMM: Soçialize the loss, privatize the gain. Might as well engrave that over the NYSE.
I agree that they really need to revisit the trade fee. From the simple benefit of settling the markets alone, it’d be worth it. Fewer day traders can’t be a bad thing.
dude
I have a full time job, on salary, meaning I get no overtime even though I work 60+ hours per week, I’ve had my pay cut and no COLA, so I don’t feel a lot of sympathy for people who get paid because they’re old, especially when a great number of them insult my generation with impunity.
I love social security. It’s a great program fighting senior poverty, a heartbreaking issue that America was one of the first to solve. But sometimes, the willful ignorance of retirees on a number of issues and the sense of entitlement that comes from them is a bit much.
Bill H
The government calculates inflation omitting food and energy. Why? Because those two items are “too volatile.” Actually because those two items are the only ones where prices are actually rising and it doesn’t want to admit that inflation actually exists. For seniors, of course, those two items are the majority of what they buy.
In similar manner, people who have quit looking for work are no longer reported as unemployed, keeping the unemployemnt rate below 10%.
Yeah, great. $250 to fill the $3,600 “donut hole” in Medicare Part D.
lol
Democrats tried to push through an increase anyways in March and failed.
I’m sure they’ll get lots of credit for trying and failing though.
scarshapedstar
Shouldn’t these wrinkly old Teabagger fucks demand that their Social Security be cut instead? It’s bankrupt, don’t ya know.
Slakko
@DennisSGMM @25: Capital gains losses are (a) deductible first against capital gains, (b) only deductible over and above any capital gains up to $1500 for individuals, $3000 per couple. 100% deductibility (which is only 100% of whatever your marginal tax rate happens to be) isn’t the issue.