Posted on 03/07/2010 5:39:08 PM PST by Daniel T. Zanoza
Assault on Seniors and Disabled Continues
In 2009, the Dept. of Labor announced there would be no Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for individuals receiving Social Security benefits. According to the Consumer Price Index, there was no inflation for the past fiscal year, therefore a yearly increase in Social Security benefits was not warranted--for the first time in over a quarter of a century. Though the Dept. of Labor predicted inflation would not increase for two years, it has been reported Social Security recipients will not receive a COLA for at least 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Middle and lower income seniors and disabled received more bad news when applications for the state of Illinois' Circuit Breaker program were recently sent out to those who qualify.
From the Dept. on Aging's web site http://www.cbrx.il.gov/ which administers the program, Circuit Breaker is defined as:
The Illinois Department on Aging's Circuit Breaker program provides grants to senior citizens and persons with disabilities to help them reduce the impact of taxes and prescription medications on their lives. When the costs of property taxes and prescription medicines begin to "overload" our seniors and persons with disabilities, this program steps in to help, just as a circuit breaker prevents overloads in an electrical system.
For the first time in nearly thirty years, the state's Circuit Breaker tax relief grants were cut by half. Those who applied online received the following information regarding an estimated $20 million reduction in monies allocated to and for those seniors and disabled who qualify for property tax relief. This info is also from the Dept. of Aging's web site http://www.cbrx.il.gov/ NOTICE: In past years, the Department on Aging has been able to issue Circuit Breaker grants at the maximum allowable amounts. However, the state budget for fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010) did not fund the Circuit Breaker program at those levels. In order to continue to provide the Circuit Breaker grant benefit to older adults and persons with disabilities on and after July 1, the Department made the difficult decision to cut each grant awarded in half. This decision based on budgetary cutbacks cannot be appealed.
Thank you for your understanding. The media has written little about the decrease in Circuit Breaker benefits. However, an article in the Springfield State Journal-Register on July 9, 2009, titled "Quinn rejects budget, layoff notices go out" by Ryan Keith http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x737359780/Layoffs-furlough-days-in-latest-budget-cut-plan reported :
Department on Aging cuts total more than $29 million and include: • 12 furlough days • 10 percent cut in some programs and grants • $20 million reduction in Circuit Breaker grants
The Circuit Breaker program also provides discounts for license plate renewals for those who qualify.
One state senator said he was unaware of these cuts, saying the Circuit Breaker program is very important to seniors and disabled. Many see the reduction of the Circuit Breaker grants as a further assault on those who need it most.
Though $787 billion was provided to states under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus package) and President Barack Obama claimed two million jobs were either saved or created through the stimulus program, clearly much of these funds were targeted to preserve government jobs, providing little relief to small businesses in the private sector.
Shortly after the Dept. of Labor announced there would be no Cost Of Living Adjustment for those receiving Social Security, Obama threw seniors a bone by announcing Congress would consider a one-time payment of $250 in fiscal year 2010 to offset the COLA freeze. At the time, the one-time payment was earmarked to come out of the stimulus package, but the $250 benefit to seniors was then included in a 2010 $85 billion jobs program which was reduced to $15 billion by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The bill is currently pending in Congress and will, most likely, be signed into law by Obama. However, this legislation (jobs bill) did not include the one-time $250 payment to Social Security beneficiaries.
During Mr. Obama's presidential campaign, he spoke of "spreading the wealth around." Many advocates for seniors and disabled clearly understand this redistribution of wealth was not "top down" but "inside out", meaning the middle class and poor are not the beneficiaries of Obama's political agenda. In reality, trillions of dollars are flowing out of the nation's coffers because of ever-mounting debt. The clear beneficiaries of the redistribution of wealth concept are bankers and lobbyists, including politicians who voted themselves a cost of living increase for the current fiscal year.
Please tell me where the money for all this is supposed to come from.
Maybe we can rip off future generations even more so people can have today.
Socialism is a failure waiting to happen. We are starting to see ours on the horizon and yet we still insist on keeping the facade going in order to look enlightened.
If I was an IL taxpayer and someone came looking to take my kids’ money for someone else I would tell them to screw.
If you don't mention unions, specifically the recipients of GM and Chrysler, then you're probably a commie.
People at the Federal, State and Local levels had better start getting used to this.
Dear Mr. or Mrs. Geek,
A reduction in property taxes is not an entitlement, unless you don’t believe in tax relief and, in that case, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
If you think there’s no inflation, you must have a maid doing your shopping and a chauffeur driving you around with tinted windows where you can’t see out the windows to see the rise in prices. Perhaps you don’t look at your energy bill either. But you probably didn’t read the whole column or you don’t have the ability to write one yourself.
Republicans are the ones fighting against the $500 billion hit on Social Security that would be included in Obama’s health care reform bill. Or haven’t you noticed?
I’m sick of you people born with a silver spoon, sticking out of the wrong places, who only complain when something bad happens to them.
People who paid into the Social Security system, some for 60 years, are entitled to a Cost Of Living Adjustment as those thieves in Congress who voted themselves one.
State workers get pensions and now in Illinois they want to extend these pension benefits for same-sex couples, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but they cut the Circuit Breaker tax relief program by $20 million.
Since I’ve been posting on Free Republic, I see a lot of this elitist snobbery and it’s getting worse. Do I believe in high taxation? NO! That’s why I support the Circuit Breaker program or perhaps you don’t know the difference between tax relief and entitlement.
People should be required to take a literacy test before they are allowed to vote. Perhaps they should be required to take the same kind of test before they are allowed to post comments on the Free Republic, especially under anonymity.
Dan Zanoza
Commie? Please! I’m a commie because I’m for tax relief and didn’t mention unions? I wasn’t writing a book.
Dan Zanoza
the workers and the taxpayers NEED the property tax relief and the free cheese and help with their prescriptions...
the TOTALITY of SS benefits,Medicare,Medicaid, parking passes,prescription benefits,free cheese etc....let alone college tuition breaks, food stamps,free summer camps for kids,and housing help......far surpasses the advantages many of those who WORK for this country get......
tax relief and benefits for the WORKERS...otherwise, why the hell should any of us work.
I know this guy all my life. He has been on SSI for almost 20yrs. You name the illness, hes got it. Uses a walker yet walks faster then me. Lifts it up to walk over grass. I have him on film using it. No reason he couldn’t work.
He got married, then separated. They both live in public housing in different buildings. I ask him if he is getting divorced, he says no. So, they both get a check, living in 2 different apts.
He gets food stamps, medical, low rent, break on utilities. He goes to a dentist, they charge him $50 to pull a tooth. I go, I pay $160.
I turned him in twice to SS and they did nothing. They crack down on people like him and they could save a bundle.
My mother worked all her life and when I did her taxes I was shocked at the little amount she was receiving. I don’t now how she was able to make it. She applied for a link card and was turned down because she was over by just a few dollars.
Why is it, my mother who paid taxes all her life had to pay for medical ins. yet the guy on SSI doesn’t?
I paid into SS for 45 years, I don't feel bad about drawing from it now. It isn't my fault that the government pissed off the money, and now pays out to those who have never held a job in their lives.
I wasn't ever unemployed for more than 48 hours, in all those years!
We've been allowing illegals in to do work "Americans won't do". Meanwhile there are millions of overweight but healthy deadbeats drawing checks and refusing to work. We are paying women to do nothing but produce babies, babies likely to grow up and sit on their asses, on welfare.
I managed to buy a little piece of land to live on, big enough that my daughters family also has a home here, but there sure wasn't enough to invest for a sumptuous retirement.
I get really tired of hearing hardworking seniors accused of robbing the nation.
Could it be because we won't burn down the cities if our retirement funds disappear?
Put the blame where is belongs, on deadbeats and fat government hogs!
Everything with “Social” in it’s name should be abolished!
Most, if not all, union contracts also have a COLA automatic increase.
So no union members will get an COLA increase this year and however many more qualify.
Right?
Right?
...hello?...
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