Posted on 10/15/2015 7:57:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON (AP) — There will be no benefit increase next year for millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees, the government said Thursday.
It's just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010.
And there's more bad news. The lack of a benefit increase means that many older people could face higher Medicare costs, an issue that has advocates lobbying Congress.
The main reason for no increase next year is low gas prices.
By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. That gauge came out Thursday.
As of Wednesday, AAA said the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.30, about 90 cents less than it was a year ago.
"The big story has been the plunging gas prices," said Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "There's not a lot of inflation anywhere."
The announcement will affect benefits for more than 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
The old people must suffer so that the “refugees” can benefit.
Wait a minute. They don’t count food or fuel costs when they are calculating the “inflation rate,” but now they do.
Liars and figures comes to mind.
I recall being told several years ago that gas prices were not included in calculating COLA as they were too volatile.
This was when they were sky high.
Yeah, someone has to pay for all the illegals and people that NEVER PAID INTO SS can get money that is not even theirs, even in part.
Silly peasant. Shut up and accept your chocolate ration raise.
"The 'Un-Cola'"
RE: Shut up and accept your chocolate ration raise
Errr... What raise?
All the porch monkeys, in all the colors of the rainbow, are sucking this country dry, slowly.
How much is welfare increasing?
“The big story has been the plunging gas prices,” said Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “There’s not a lot of inflation anywhere.”
yeah, right.
This crap about NO inflation just makes me crazy!!!! Do these idiots shop for groceries??? EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING has shot waaaay up beef is outrageous, chicken ridiculous, what the hell bubble are these people living in????
Interesting....most headlines would have said...Obama, yet this is bad news so now it is government.
This is by design.
They are doing it to build a constituency for the Dems “Tax Wall Street and Expand Social Security” meme next Fall.
Of course people will conveniently forget that it was a Democrat President who stiffed them 3 times in 6 years.
Hell, they’ll likely blame George W. Bush for it.
SS looked at my 2013 income and decided that my 2015 Medicare Part B would be $104.90 PLUS a 100% penalty of another $104.90. It took me 9 months to get them to look at my 2014 income to readjust that penalty.
So from what I read in this account is that the $104.90 could go up for 2016 to something over $150 ? Is that right?
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