i guess these clowns want to starve Granny & Gramps , put them on the street and THEN pull the plug. Seems they have a plan
Please do not demogougue on Social Security. National health insurance is another issue, however.
Social Security is a generational Ponzi scheme. Early generations paid little payroll taxes but received increasing levels of benefits. In the mid 80s, politicians increased payroll taxes substantially to fix the program. However, the excess tax revenues were spent so there are no savings to pay for the baby boom retirement.
The cost of living increase formula has been controversial since its inception. Social Security uses an average wage index to increase benefits. Thus, Social Security benefits increased much faster than the rate of inflation. The fact that benefit increases have slowed is a positive development in one sense. Seniors have been receiving unsustainable benefit increases because of the wage indexing. In another sense, the static benefit levels are signs of future problems. It is an anomaly that wages have increased slower than inflation. In a slow or no growth economy, wages will increase slower than inflation except for protected classes (unions, government workers, and politicians). Seniors have advocated wage indexing because they wanted benefits to grow faster than inflation. However, the opposite may occur if the economy stalls.
The reason for wage indexing is not so much to placate seniors as it is to increase tax collections. Both benefits and payroll tax limits are indexed to wages. Thus politicians can enact a hidden tax increase every year on higher income earners without passing any legislation.