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Data recently made public by the Social Security Administration confirm that in October, 2009, the program reached a grim milestone: six consecutive months of operating cash deficits. This is the first time Social Security has faced this situation over the entire time period, dating back through 1987, for which SSA posts the monthly data online. From May through October inclusive, Social Security’s outgoing payments have exceeded incoming program revenue, generated mostly by the payroll tax (with a smaller amount coming in via the taxation of benefits). When a cash-deficit situation develops during a period that the program is still technically...

Congress has, in their beneficence, decided that there will be no cost of living raise in 2010 for social security recipients. Congress and the Senate on the other hand will receive a $4,700.00 cost of living allowance or whatever you want to call it in 2010. The really dastardly part of it is that they have it fixed so that it is automatic and they, claiming plausible deniability, can say I didn’t vote for it. A lot of people have been crying for relief from these parasites for a long time and the numbers are growing daily. This is just...

Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute Tell GOP Senate: “Stop Putting Your Christmas Vacation Ahead of Our Country” Posted : Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:14:19 GMT Tea Party Support ( http://teapartysupport.com ) and the Social Security Institute ( http://socialsecurityinstitute.com ) joined forces yesterday to blast out a million-and-a-half email messages asking people to demand that Republican Senators stop assisting Harry Reid to ram ObamaCare and the Reid health bill through the Senate by year’s end. The email campaign has generated more than 25,000 letters and emails to Capitol Hill so far. Tea Party Support President Matthew Perdue...

U.S. Social Security Will Go Bankrupt In 2010 Economics / US Debt Dec 08, 2009 - 03:16 AM By: Gary North For the third time in my life, the Social Security System will go belly-up. The first time was in 1977 – well, almost. To head off the bust, Jimmy Carter got Congress to pass a major FICA tax increase – sorry, "contribution" increase – in order to save Social Security. The rate would be hiked in phases from 2% to 6.15% (times two: employee and employer). He promised: "Now this legislation will guarantee that from 1980 to the year...

The Federal Government admits to over $12 Trillion dollars in debt. In reality, its obligations are multiples of that number. The unfunded promises from Social Security and Medicare total around $100 trillion. To properly fund the forecasted future deficits in Social Security and Medicare, $100 trillion would have to be put in the fund today. Without this infusion, this liability grows exponentially. Next year, for example, it will be $4 - 5 trillion higher! The Government has promised benefits that they cannot possibly honor. The total net worth of the entire country (the country's total assets less liabilities) is slightly...

The Congress of the United States of America is consigning you, your children, and your children's progeny to slavery. Maybe it's the Scottish strain in my DNA, but I've been concerned about the national debt since before it breached the $1 trillion mark. That was way back in 1982. So it's heartening to see folks finally getting concerned about this issue. Debt matters. From the installation of America's first government in 1789, it took 193 years to rack up that initial 13-digit debt. To put such an ungodly bar tab in context, here are some key debt benchmarks. Each benchmark...

Small Business Tax & Toil By: Larry Walker, Jr. I have been contemplating all the blood, sweat, and tears shed by Small Business owners like me. Having been in business for the past 9 years, I have come to the realization that: I am paying a hell of a lot in Taxes (and government mandated fees), and I am feeling mighty under appreciated. The Federal Government, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, chose to give a Social Security tax cut, the Making Work Pay Credit, to workers making under $75,000 per year. That's all well and...

All young Americans need to wake up and pay attention. You are being sold out by the federal government. Your future will be bleak indeed if you do not heed my warning. You are being sold down the river on so many fronts that I cannot list them all in this short article, but I will attempt to give you a small glimpse of what your future holds if you do not stand up. You need to get informed NOW. You need to speak up and let your voices be heard....or become a working slave to support the federal addiction...

Government Statistics And Lies Politics / Market Manipulation Nov 02, 2009 - 11:14 AM By: Dr_Ron_Paul There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first...

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades. If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has gone...

The current debate over Social Security reform is reminiscent of the discussions that occurred in Galveston County, Texas, in 1980, when county workers were offered a retirement alternative to Social Security: At the time they reacted with keen interest and some knee-jerk fear of the unknown. But after 24 years, folks here can say unequivocally that when Galveston County pulled out of the Social Security system in 1981, we were on the road to providing our workers with a better deal than Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The Problem with Social Security. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system under which taxes...

Proving my contention that broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs leads to more broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs, the Treasury Department has reported that America faces a $43 trillion unfunded obligation in Social Security and Medicare benefits with 77 million retiring baby boomers and rising health care costs.

As far as I can tell, the goal of the AARP — formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons — is to enslave all those of working age. Once enslaved, workers will support retirees in the style to which the AARP feels they are entitled. This would be good for the AARP because its real business is selling products to older people by direct mail, and the more income older people have, the better it is for the AARP. Too bad about everyone else.

It's hard to instill confidence in the U.S. economy when Washington keeps finding new and creative ways to spend money it doesn't have. Take President Obama's proposal to send additional $250 checks to Social Security recipients - on top of the $250 checks they already received as part of the president's $787 billion economic stimulus package. Because seniors don't need a cost-of-living increase, the president wants to give them a bonus. Don't even try to follow the logic. You can't find it. Last week, the Obama administration said that for the first time since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were...

On August 24, 2009 I wrote a commentary titled, "COLA Freeze for Social Security Recipients: Part of an Obama Ruse to Keep Senior Voting Bloc?". I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Barack Obama has proposed Congress approve a one-time $250 payment to seniors and handicapped ...

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me: President Obama on Wednesday attempted to preempt the announcement that Social Security recipients will not get an increase in their benefit checks for the first time in three decades, encouraging Congress to provide a one-time payment of $250 to help seniors and disabled Americans weather the recession. “One-time payment” my foot. Reminder: There is no such thing as a temporary government entitlement. Obama endorsed the idea, which is expected to cost at least $13 billion, as the administration gropes for ways to sustain an apparent economic rebound without the kind of massive spending...

WASHINGTON – The Social Security Administration makes it official Thursday: There will be no cost of living increase for Social Security recipients next year, the first year without one since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. The announcement comes as President Barack Obama and key members of Congress call for a second round of $250 payments to more than 50 million seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities. The payments would be equal to about a 2 percent increase for the average Social Security recipient. The cost: $13 billion. Obama called on Congress Wednesday to approve the payments,...

If you watch C-Span for a while, you’re sure to hear a politician or pundit criticizing some idea by comparing it to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” It’s a vivid illustration of the short-sightedness and futility of so much of what Washington does superficially to improve failed programs. In Washington today, however, we are witnessing an unprecedented extension of the Titanic analogy: Both parties and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are focused on rearranging our deck chairs while there is still time to steer around the iceberg, if only someone would grab the wheel...

The government option? Government controlled co-op? Beware of fluffy, cutsie-pie nice sounding 1,500 page bill amendments attached in the dead of night. Government sucess stories: Social Security Medicare Medicaid The Veterans Administration Above are four government run healthcare systems well run, well administered and loved by doctors and hospitals. After four successes like the ones listed above, let’s let them have government take over one more program and control all private doctors and private insurance. After all, they’ll base the new system on their previous successes.

A pensioner from western Sweden may have received the smallest benefit payment ever paid out by the country’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan). Ängelholm resident Gunnel Johansson receives a whopping 50 öre (7 cents) every month in support payments for low-income seniors (äldreförsörjningsstöd), the Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper reports. According to a description on the agency’s website, the payments are meant to guarantee the elderly “a reasonable standard of living even if you have a low pension or no pension at all”. The payment is so small that Försäkringskassan has taken the unusual step of paying Johansson every other month. She...

No, what I am writing now is not satire, but a report I saw two days ago – which is still relevant as long you don’t have your own retirement account – was indeed funny. The AP report of Monday September 27, reads as follows: “Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years… The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won’t affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated...

WASHINGTON -- Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits -- $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 -- won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit. Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits—$10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011—won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.

Contrary to what the Left and their media minions told Americans in 2005 when President George W. Bush wanted to reform Social Security, the nation's largest entitlement program is now projected to run deficits for at least the next two years. In an article on the subject published Sunday, the Associated Press mysteriously hid the seriousness of this revelation while never once mentioning the Republican push to solve this problem four years ago, or that Democrats in January 2006 -- including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- actually applauded the death of the previous year's reform efforts.

Come January, seniors may do a double take after seeing their Social Security checks. The 2% to 3% increase in benefits they usually get each year won't be there. The reason: For the first time in three decades, there likely won't be a cost-of-living adjustment. Though benefit amounts for 2010 won't shrink, with investment losses and lower home values, the lack of an increase will feel like a loss to many seniors. checks could be lower when factoring in premiums for Medicare Part B, which are deducted from monthly benefits. For most of the 42 million Part B beneficiaries, the...

In a recent WSJ interview, Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, estimated the present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare and Social Security to be in excess of $100 trillion, with actuarial reports showing them both close to insolvency. Thus our true National debt is more than ten times its reported size and currently there is no method to paying it down. If every earned dollar were paid in taxes, it still would not cover the expenditure. For the country to survive this impending bankruptcy, it has to immediately begin to shift health insurance to the...

A federal judge approved a civil-court settlement requiring the Social Security Administration to repay $500 million to 80,000 recipients whose benefits it suspended after deeming them fugitives. The supposed fugitives include a disabled widow with a previously suspended driver's license, a quadriplegic man in a nursing home and a Nevada grandmother mistaken for a rapist. They were among at least 200,000 elderly and disabled people who lost their benefits in recent years under what the agency called the "Fugitive Felon" program. Launched in 1996 and extended to Social Security disability and old-age benefits in 2005, the program aimed to save...

Entitlements: That day when Social Security pays out more in benefits than it takes in with payroll taxes is no longer years away. It's here now. Reform, alas, is not. It's widely known that Social Security is headed for deep financial problems. But mainly because projections didn't have the program running deficits until almost 2020, there's been little urgency to make changes in the system. Typical. Politicians are generally inclined to avoid making decisions on such difficult issues. When President Bush proposed a partial privatization plan four years ago, Congress deferred because most members figured they wouldn't be in office...

New tax on senior discounts would pay for Social Security shortfalls WASHINGTON – With the Social Security program projected to face a cash shortfall of $10 billion next year, Congressional democrats have been racing to find novel ways to extract taxes to counter the deficit. Inspired by recent proposals to tax “health care” items like Q-tips, contact lenses and condoms to help pay for free health care for all, democrats in the House and Senate are proposing bills that would levy a similar tax on senior discounts and funnel the receipts into the Social Security program. The tax rate would...

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air had the catch of the day yesterday when he revealed, based on Congressional Budget Office internal projections distributed to Congress during the summer, that the Social Security system will spend more cash than it takes in during the government's next fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.

Four years ago, George W. Bush attempted to reform the entitlement program Social Security, warning that the system was accelerating into collapse and would soon run deficits. Democrats scoffed and claimed the Social Security system was solid and wouldn’t have problems for at least 50 years, as Harry Reid told PBS’ Jim Lehrer in June 2005. Just last year, the CBO — under the direction of Peter Orszag, now budget director in the Obama administration — claimed that the first cash deficits in Social Security would not come until 2019. Now, however, the CBO has determined that Social Security will...

In the last few years, many alarms about the bankruptcy of the Social Security program have been sounded. Some people have calculated and published dates when it will be insolvent. Part of the problem has been shown that the number of people contributing to the program is shrinking and the number of people drawing from the program is increasing. The situation seems to be most critical as the baby boomers retire and begin drawing benefits from the program. There must be some reasons for this imbalance. One reason for this imbalance, according to some hearsay reports, is that the federal...

(CNSNews.com) – The Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued benefit checks totaling $40.3 million to an estimated 6,100 beneficiaries for months – and in some cases for decades -- after receiving notification of their deaths, according to a June audit report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. Approximately 1,760 of the 6,100 listed as deceased actually were dead, the government auditor estimated. The rest were alive, but had been wrongly listed as deceased.

Lawmakers are calling for an increase to Social Security payments that would cost the government billions of dollars. The congressional push comes after the Social Security Administration reportedly indicated there will be no inflationary adjustment to Social Security benefits next year. It would be the first time since 1975 that Social Security benefits would not be subject to a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA). Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation this week that would provide seniors and others who receive Social Security payments a one-time $150 payment to make up for the loss of the COLA. The bill has 14 Democratic cosponsors. Social...

Dear Carrie: My husband died recently, and it's just me now. Who will look out for me if I have issues with Medicare or Social Security? -- A Reader Dear Reader: My heart goes out to you as you adjust to the loss of your husband. The death of a loved one can make everything else pale in significance. But as your question implies, you still need to deal with the practical and financial issues in life, and those can seem a lot more difficult when facing them alone. At this time, it's really important to reach out to friends,...

What on earth is the Republican Party thinking? Or rather, what is it foolishly ignoring? The Obama administration has handed Republicans and conservatives a huge club with which to pound their Democrat opponents and to my knowledge, it has been ignored almost entirely. Certainly the biased media has ignored any discussion of the topic but then that is to be expected nowadays. The national media no longer serve their nation; they slobberingly serve only their Democrat masters. The issue? After decades of the Democrats scaring senior citizens prior to every election with phony accusations that the Republicans would reduce or...

First, the bad news. For the first time since 1975, Social Security recipients are being told they won't be receiving an annual cost of living increase in their monthly benefits. At the same time, their Medicare premiums will go up, so monthly checks will actually shrink next year. Not to worry, though. Here's the good news. Seniors may not have to live on such meager funds for long because the government is going to help them plan how they want to die. This benevolent plan is in Section 1233 (p. 424) of the health care reform bill known as "America's...

For all the shouting that has dominated these town hall meetings on health care lately, they have yielded a few important insights. The first is that the town hall itself has probably reached the end of its usefulness in the Internet age; if you’re looking for thoughtful dialogue, you might as well hold your next meeting on the stern of a Somali pirate ship. The second is that we now have a visual sense of the kind of voter who is militantly opposed to Obama’s health care agenda and, more broadly, to the president himself... --snip-- But conservative theorists like...

This has been the "Summer of the Senior" in America.  While the health care debate has raged, senior citizens have been front and center at town hall events, challenging their representatives to explain how Obamacare will affect Medicare and pressing them to shoot straight about whether a "public option" will result in health care rationing or "comparative effectiveness" policies (what Sarah Palin has termed "death panels"). In the midst of the turmoil, America's seniors learned this week that, for the first time ever, they will not be receiving a cost-of-living adjustment to their monthly Social Security benefit.  The reason for...

Despite the fact that it’s misleading, a headline from the Associated Press article caught my eye last night… The fear-mongering title? “Millions face shrinking Social Security payments.” The harsh reality? This is exactly the prescription that America needs right now to restore long-run government fiscal prudence. Of course, “shrinking payments” isn’t really what the Associated Press meant… The article goes on to explain, payments are only shrinking because the actuaries of the program estimate that there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. Why? Deflation, of course! If only the Associated Press had hired...

One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide. A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased. It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds. “President Obama’s $787 billion...

Barack Obama already has had a tough time with seniors on the health-care reform initiative, and for good reasons. The latest news from Social Security won’t make them any happier about it. The Social Security administration has canceled cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for the next two years, which means the fixed income on which these seniors rely will freeze at current levels. However, their Medicare premiums will still increase, which means they will get less money over the next two years, the first declines in SSA in more than 30 years: Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next...

WHITE PLAINS (CBS) ― For the lunchtime crowd at the White Plains Senior Center, it was very unappetizing news. "We work all our lives, and now they want to cut back on the little bit they give us? I don't think that's right," said Mercedes Leis. Every year since 1975, social security recipients have received a cost of living adjustment, known as a COLA. "Each year that we get that little raise, that's a big help to us seniors, it really is," said Joan Narracci. Last January the COLA was 5.8 percent, boosting the average monthly retiree check to $1,153....

... The President has already come under heavy criticism concerning his plan to reform national health care. Seniors have turned out in droves at town hall meetings across the nation, voicing their opposition and outrage regarding $500 billion of projected cuts to Medicare. Many seniors feel the reform of America's health care system would primarily by paid for on their backs. According to data, 25% of Medicare's budget is spent on the last year of an individual's life. Even the most steadfast supporters of health care reform admit one day medical services to the elderly would eventually have to be...

It’s funny. Some of the veteran teachers I work with indicated last November that the largest pay increases they ever received occurred during Reagan and Dubya’s time in office; that in fact when Dems are in the White House, raises were more like meager cost of living adjustments which ended up netting less than the rate of inflation. Anecdote, I know, but interesting. I digress. Social Security hasn’t missed a COLA (cost of living adjustment) increase since 1975, but is slated to stay flat for the next two years (outside those whopping stimulus checks, of course!). This amounts to a...

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly. "I will promise you, they count...

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn’t happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

What do the liberals at AARP think about the latest from Obama as reported by AP: No cost-of-living increases forSocial Security recipients for the next two years! The Social Security COLs, as everyone knows, are rigged to provide a tiny increase each year, much less than the true cost-of-living increase for seniors. Not only will these pittances be suspended for the next two years, but the Medicare premiums paid by the same seniors will INCREASE. These Medicare premiums are automatically DEDUCTED from the Social Security payment every month. This means that America's seniors will receive a REDUCTION in.benefits in 2010,...

What do the liberals at AARP think about the latest from Obama as reported by AP: No cost-of-living increases forSocial Security recipients for the next two years! The Social Security COLs, as everyone knows, are rigged to provide a tiny increase each year, much less than the true cost-of-living increase for seniors. Not only will these pittances be suspended for the next two years, but the Medicare premiums paid by the same seniors will INCREASE. These Medicare premiums are automatically DEDUCTED from the Social Security payment every month. This means that America's seniors will receive a REDUCTION in.benefits in 2010,...

WASHINGTON – Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.