Free Republic

the International Monetary Fund has urged governments to encourage fit, older workers to delay retirement. Its recommendation is that people of the baby boomer generation should stay in work for longer to help balance public finances amid fiscal pressures caused by an ageing global population. The IMF said: “The 70s are the new 50s,” and released data that suggested a person aged 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive function as the average 53-year-old in 2000. Physical health had also significantly improved, the IMF found. Governments burdened with historically high levels of public debt, the IMF said, could not afford...

President Donald Trump failed Tuesday to sway key House Republicans from blue states to drop opposition to a major tax bill, which they say does not do enough to boost so-called SALT deductions for their constituents. Opposition to the bill from five self-identified members of the "SALT Caucus" threatens to derail the legislation, which Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hope to see passed before Memorial Day weekend. Trump visited the GOP House caucus on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push lawmakers to approve the bill quickly and directly called out the caucus, which is focused on the question...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated that the Biden administration is “trying to help people deal with the consequences of rising prices, whether it’s increasing the SNAP benefit or whether it’s making sure that the child tax credit is available to folks or whether it’s rebuilding the infrastructure of this economy” to fix supply chain issues. Vilsack said, “I think it’s — the key here is that we’re also trying to help people deal with the consequences of rising prices, whether it’s increasing the SNAP benefit or whether it’s making sure that the child...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has officially announced the payment dates for the upcoming cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase in benefits. Beneficiaries will soon learn the exact percentage of the COLA, which the Senior Citizens League (TSCL) predicts will be between 2.73% and 3.2%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzes inflation data annually to determine the necessary increase to ensure Americans can maintain their purchasing power... Analysts anticipate a decrease in the COLA for Social Security benefits in 2025 compared to previous years due to easing inflation. The SSA will announce the 2025 increase on October 10, with the...

The Biden-Harris team has signaled that it’s gearing up for an “October Surprise” on student loan cancellation — although it might come even sooner, sneaking in before early voting starts. Once again, they are trying to shift hundreds of billions of dollars in loans onto the 90% of Americans who don’t owe student debt, to gain favor with voters who do. And this time they’ve added a brazen direct-marketing campaign to appeal to those indebted voters, just ahead of the presidential election. Their new loan-forgiveness effort is particularly devious because it is designed with the administration’s previous court losses in...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a stunning miracle, congresspeople just emerged from negotiations over 2.3 trillion loaves and fishes, somehow turning the trillions of morsels of food into enough meals for just five people. An exhausted Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) held up the small basket so crowds of unemployed citizens could witness perhaps the most historic event in the history of mankind, in which countless loaves and fishes given by those same citizens were magically transformed into, like, four or five measly meals. "This is significant," noted a sweating Pelosi, surely weary after working nearly 40 hours per...

While Social Security is set to increase by 3.2 percent in 2024, many seniors are worried about how the limited inflation adjustment will keep them afloat. In a new report from Atticus, a majority of seniors voiced dissatisfaction with the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2024. In total, 62 percent of the 400 Americans over the age of 62 in the survey said they were unhappy with the payment bump. "About that 3.2 percent COLA increase for 2024, well, it sounds good on paper, but, honestly, it's not quite cutting it for seniors," Christopher Hensley, financial adviser and the president of...

Mike Johnson‘s new role as House speaker heightens the chances of a major political clash next year over one of the nation’s largest welfare programs and the government’s preeminent aid package for farmers and rural America.The fallout is likely to reverberate in countless congressional races, not to mention President Joe Biden’s attempts to win back rural voters in the 2024 presidential race.

Milton Friedman once observed, “If the government ran the Sahara, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” He was right. The government has run Social Security for more than 80 years, and now there is a shortage of security. At this point, the experts believe that someone who is 79 years old today is likely to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. The solution, according to the White House fact sheet on the 2024 Budget Proposal, is: do nothing, and the Republicans cheered. That leaves a rapidly growing problem to third parties.Social Security presents a...

In 2023, Social Security benefits got an 8.7% COLA, the largest cost-of-living adjustment since 1981. According to the United States Social Security Administration (SSA), "COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)." So, when inflation starts to cool, that means a lower cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients. Currently, inflation is at its lowest level in two years, dropping to a 12-month rate of 3.0% in June. This is down from 4.0% in May and 4.9% in April. David Payne, staff economist from the Kiplinger Letter, forecasts a 3% Social...

“Ponzi Scheme” is a term that was coined about 100 years ago. It was named after an Italian immigrant, Charles Ponzi, who realized he could get investors by promising large returns for undefined, high-yield investments. His endeavor needed to make just enough money to keep attracting new investors, whose money, after Ponzi’s cut, was used to pay some of the earlier investors. In our modern day, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme resulted in losses in the billions of dollars when the stock market tanked during the Great Recession. Selling the Deal Americans are just beginning to see the tip of the...

. You can see where this is going. The FOX News $$$ recruits every person representing the Republican View on TV / Radio to say it’s not the Trillions to failing, unaccountable Cities - but the people getting 25k a year for the 45 years they paid into it. This Conversation, which will be the RNC platform, neglects to say that Congress allowed and incentivized Corps (Donors) to do away with Pensions and Retiree Healthcare and change their systems to assume (adequate) Social Security Income at 62 which moved to 65 in exchange for donations from those Corporations. From Hannity...

There are plenty of postmortems about Raphael Warnock’s defeat of Republican candidate Herschel Walker in the runoff for the Senate seat in Georgia. Yes, in the same state, Republican Brian Kemp won a decisive victory in the race for governor. And, yes, to be kind, Walker was not a great flag-bearer to draw voters, particularly black voters, to the Republican Party. But let’s ask why voters, particularly black voters, would send Warnock to represent them for another six years in the U.S. Senate. The Georgia electorate is around 30% black, and 90% of them voted for Warnock. What are these...

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the number two Republican in the U.S. Senate, said on Tuesday that the GOP plans to use the debt ceiling as leverage to make cuts to Social Security and other social safety net programs. "There's a set of solutions there that we really need to take on if we're going to get serious about making these programs sustainable and getting this debt bomb at a manageable level before it's too late," Thune said in an interview with Bloomberg News, adding that raising the retirement age is one of the solutions Republicans want to explore.

'With many older people choosing to live in suburban areas or rural areas, some will benefit more...' (Headline USA) On Thursday, the U.S. government is set to announce how big a percentage increase Social Security beneficiaries will see in monthly payments this upcoming year. Some estimates say the boost for more than 65 million Social Security beneficiaries may be as big as 9%. It’s virtually certain to be the largest raise in four decades and will add more strain on the welfare program’s trust fund, which is expected to expire within the next decade, even as younger taxpayers continue to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seventy-year-old Cassandra Gentry is looking forward to a hefty cost-of-living increase in her Social Security benefits — not for herself but to pay for haircuts for her two grandchildren and put food on the table. The three live in a Washington apartment building that houses 50 “grandfamilies” — where grandparents take care of children who do not have parents present. Gentry, who took in her grandkids to keep them in a safe environment, says the boost in benefits will help her make ends meet. “I never thought about contributing to Social Security when I was working, but...

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...

But is that actually a good thing?Retiring on Social Security alone is a dangerous thing. That’s because those benefits will only replace about 40% of the typical worker’s pre-retirement income, and most seniors need about twice as much money to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.But the reality is that a lot of people do end up retiring solely or largely on Social Security. And it’s those same people who are apt to be the most impacted by Social Security raises.Each year, benefits are subject to a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, based on inflation levels. Since inflation has been sky-high this year,...

Inflation has been taking its toll on retirees, especially those who rely solely on Social Security. But have no fear, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and seven Democratic cosponsors recently introduced S. 4365, the Social Security Expansion Act, a bill to enhance Social Security benefits and ensure the long-term solvency of the Social Security program. If this bill passes, retirees 62 and over would start to receive an additional $200 a month in benefits beginning in January 2023. Most retirees rely heavily on Social Security benefits, and for some it’s their only source of income. Currently, Americans will stop receiving their...

President Biden told union workers at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia, that Republicans want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid based on a proposal by National Republican Senatorial Conference Chairman Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which calls for all federal legislation to sunset in five years. “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” Scott’s proposal states. […] Biden attributed Scott’s proposal to the Republican Party despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-S.C.) saying months ago that such a proposal will not be part of the Republican agenda....