Posted on 10/02/2022 8:38:18 AM PDT by george76
One of the biggest advantages of Social Security is that its payments get annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). When inflation is high -- as seniors have seen during the past couple of years -- these COLAs cause monthly checks to rise the following January to help retiree purchasing power keep pace. 2022's COLA boosted benefits by 5.9% this year, and early estimates make it likely that the COLA that will take effect in early 2023 will be between 8% and 9%.
What's even better news is that, unlike in 2022, many Social Security recipients are more likely to see the full amount of their cost-of-living adjustment actually hit their bank accounts. That's because the impact of another key program for older Americans, Medicare, is likely to reverse the painful blow it dealt participants this time last year.
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The 5.9% COLA that took effect at the beginning of 2022 increased benefits for about 70 million Americans.
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However, even those who were eligible for those benefits didn't see their actual checks rise that much. That's because the Social Security Administration automatically withholds Medicare premiums for those recipients who have enrolled in Medicare.
In 2022, the increases in Medicare costs for retirees were extremely high. Medicare Part B premiums jumped 12.7% in 2022, from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 this year. That took away $21.60 per month out of that $90 average benefit boost.
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much of the increase came from a single factor: the Biogen Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm
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Don't go spending that money just yet..
(Excerpt) Read more at nasdaq.com ...
“… checks were invested in the S&P 500 and not just kept by the government?”
Eh, I believe they spend it. The same pols who know mostly nothing about basic economics as evidenced by their general tendency to never have had a real job and their work on driving the national debt to 31 trillion are allowed to take from the SS funds and spend.
The same people who vote themselves raises, who entitle themselves to exorbitant pensions for serving as little time as conceivable, who don’t stoop to using Obamacare, but have superior medical benefits -
Taxing Social Security was done by a special bipartisan congressional committee in the 80s. I predict we’ll see
another committee after the midterms, if GOP takes the House. The two parties will gang up and bipartisanly cut Social Security by raising taxes or postponing when people can take it (so more people die before eligibility). At the same time, Congress will be able to find money to send overseas in foreign aid and new subsidies to Ukraine. It’s called priorities.
FTA: Don Luskin’s apt phrase about “the conspiracy to keep you poor and stupid.”
I thought so. It’s just a slush fund for the thieves in Congress...and they couldn’t resist buying votes for themselves with it.
I’m thinking this happens when one has withholdings deducted from ones SS benefits. I have witholdings deducted from my pension check, not SS benefits. But since my pension is more than the govt deems me worthy of, I claim 0 dependents so as to cover the taxes owed on my “excess” SS benefits.
....and some people think there is no “means testing”...lol
However, the additional benefits may well be eaten up by federal and state income taxes.
I have learned to despise our government and all who support it. They are thieves, liars and I’m sure murderers.
The facts speak for themselves. Equity investing is the single best vehicle for growing wealth in the USA, period. Better than gold, land, or anything else.
As far as whether or not I’m “for” SS is not germane to aria’s question. I’m drawing SS, as is mrs. abb. Neither of us had any choice in the matter on whether to pay SS taxes, as we worked for wages in the private sector.
And yes, it will be with us for the foreseeable future.
Consider FDR’s quote when it was enacted. “With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program. Those taxes aren’t a matter of economics, they’re straight politics.”
I’m thinking of selling two homes... does the cut ever last longer than two years? And does it change what you pay for Medicare?
Thanks for that chart
Since I am nowhere near $97,000 AGI, I never knew this.
Just chalk it up to the ignorance of a former wage slave. lol
“ Taxing Social Security was done by a special bipartisan…”
Yea. Bla bla bla.
You cannot give a straight answer to my question. Nor can google.
My only point is that Republicans need to take Trumps advice and stop publicly denigrating the program. He said the party will never win the presidency again if it’s candidates don’t stop calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme or a ripoff. Remember that in 2016 he carried states that the GOP had been losing previously, and his pledge to defend Social Security was probably one of the reasons. He didn’t run as a conventional Cheney-McCain-Romney-Paul Ryan Republican
You don’t need to do that. Just understand what these people who are hired/elected to care for and protect the constitution are doing with their positions
Isn’t there a one time capital gains exemption on your house?
Democrats win votes by campaigning on the lie that Republicans want to eliminate Social Security. Republicans need to wise up and not give Dems so much ammunition.
Nothing much compared to the 22% pay raise that Congress gave themselves earlier this year.
If you want, you can totally opt out of SS. But, there is no going back.
I didn’t know that...but too late for me.
Just an indication of the competition between federal agencies ... in this case between the SSA, CDC and FDA in the War for More Drugs.
What you said.
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