They Voted to NOT give you Social Security or VA benefits Cost of Living Raises

[Wilma]

Have you ever collected unemployment?  Just whose money are you collecting?  You haven't paid anything into it.  Not even tax money.

[srkruzich]

Have you ever collected unemployment?  Just whose money are you collecting?  You haven't paid anything into it.  Not even tax money.

It is funded by state taxes on employers. The feds only pay for adminstrative costs.  If you go into extended benefits, the feds pay half usually. Right now the feds are funding it fully out of the general treasury.

[greatguns]

If, God forbid, any of you die at a young age I am sure your spouse will appreciate the social security your children will draw (even though they have never paid in) to help the raise themand educate them.

[twirldoggy]

There is unemployment tax that the employer pays on a regular basis, quarterly.   If one of the employees gets unemployment then the percent the employer pays goes up.  This is why the employer wants the employee to quit rather than get fired.

[Varmit]

Have you ever collected unemployment?  Just whose money are you collecting?  You haven't paid anything into it.  Not even tax money.

No, I have never collected unemployment.

[Warph]

I just checked something that has been in the back of my mind.  Warph, where did you get this article?  Congress does not vote on the COLA for SS.  Neither does it vote on raising the Medicare Part B premium.  It is all built in to the law and automatic each year.  Cost of Living is determined from the 3rd quarter statistics for each year.  If we are not getting a COLA this year, it is because the Cost of Living did not go up during the 3rd quarter.  If there is no raise, neither is there a raise in the Part B premiums.  It is in the law.  Are you saying that the law has been changed?

Sorry, Wilma... been out of town for a few days.  I will try to answer your question.

First of all, forget the title and its content, Wilma.  I received this in an email from a colonel friend of mine.  He has always been right on the money with his emails but, this time he blew it... and I blew it by posting it.  I should have checked further into the content with snopes and others as I usually do.   Snopes give you the details on the email if you want to check.

No, the law hasn't changed, but....  It isn't official yet but you will probably NOT be getting a COLA in 2011 either, Wilma.  Forbes, Goldman Sachs, even the Social Security system trustees and the Congressional Budget Office are also predicting no increase in benefits beginning in 2011.  The federal inflation figures that are used to determine the amount of a cost of living increase currently show a decrease in prices instead of inflation pushing prices higher.  While the time period for computing next year's COLA does not end until September, the chances of this figures skyrocketing in the next few weeks is close to zero.... double zero.  Keep in mind that the prices for goods and services the retirees use may still have gone up.  But, while the prices you are paying may have gone up, these are not necessarily the items used to calculate your COLA.  Under the regular consumer price index, transportation is 18% of the index; education is 6% and medical care is only 6%.  Retirees are more likely to be going to a doctor or a hospital than getting a college education so the price index does not necessarily reflect your real expenses.

Will Congress act before September 2010 to head off a potential election-year firestorm of disappointed Social Security recipients and federal pensioners when they learn there may be a second year of no COLA increases?  Probably not, Wilma because most Senators, Representatives, and their staffs are still not aware that a simple technical correction to the cost-of-living computation quarter would diffuse this political time bomb.  That being... according to David Huchabee, retired from the Library of Congress as a Specialist In American National Government who is an expert on this: "A simple technical change to re-define the existing cost of living computation quarter in existing law might result in a modest to significant federal pension and Social Security raise in 2011.  This raise (perhaps between 0.76% and 2.2% based on current trends) could happen if the Congress and the President agreed to a modify in the cost-of-living computation quarter definition to one most observers thought was already in place.  But don't count on this."

Two years of no COLA in a row..... really bad news for the democrats with the elderly and fed employee crowd.  Wonder what 2012 will look like?

......Warph

[srkruzich]

they don't care warph they have illegals now...

[Warph]

Warph, I was just using your name as an example...sorry, won't happen again.  As for Anmar being right, in a way he is.  If we are going to take from working folks and give to non-working folks i.e. retirees, then we can't really complain about welfare or other social programs.  What kills me about this is when people say things like "I paid into it, I should get it even though I know it is nothing more than a scam."  That is nothing more than Fruit of the Forbidden tree if you ask me.  The moral thing to do would be to end this fraud and give back what was paid in to the rightful owners.

Glad to hear that, Varmit.... I started paying into SS at 15 when I was a junior in H.S. setting type in a small town newspaper and stopped when I retired at 69.  I will never get back the money I put into SS..... and I couldn't begin to live in retirement just on SS payments.   I saved my money, invested it the old fashion way, and live comfortably with my military retirement and small stipend from State.  I EARNED these benefits through HARD work.  So, for me, at 69, was a perfect time to retire, relax and play a little golf when my back allows it.  I stay busy in retirement.... I volunteer for different things.... one being to help out in the AZ primary this tuesday. 

So you still think anmar is right?  Your opinion and I respect that.  I do know that SS is necessary for many of my friends and the elderly I come in contact with.....  and NTM,  millions of baby boomers who will put a hell of a crunch on it shortly.  Definitely, something will have to be done.  So maybe she is right on this..... sorta.  But overall... take me (and the majority of the forum),  I look at her as someone who likes to complain and whine excessively about being picked on, even tho' she brings it on herself...... who whines just to whine and argues just to argue.... loves to pull everyones chain when she gets a chance.....  you'll see what I mean after her response to what I've written here.  She is what we would call a whiskey-charlie in the service.... 'She probably has more nuts in her than a snickers bar.'  BTW, what ever came of you asking her about her service in the military?  She probably wound up with a 'big chicken dinner' and is too embarrased to talk about it.

I hate to get off on a rant, and you know I hate to criticize her.... but when it comes to anmar, there are simply not enough hours in a day for one person to record all of her mischief.  Speaking for myself, even if I had a staff the size of Mrs. Obama, I'd probably still fall behind.  For instance, anmar loves to pretend that "separation of church and state" appears in the Constitution, although I'm sure that she is fully aware that the words only appeared in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association.  What's more, anmar in no way contradicted the First Amendment, which merely prohibited the federal government from establishing a state religion, such as existed in England.  But on the other hand, when attacking the Second Amendment on the grounds that the Founders only wanted guns in the hands of "a well regulated militia," anmar never bothered mentioning that it was Jefferson who said "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms" and "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."  See what I'm talking about.

Look.... it's not just that anmar gets it wrong 98% of the time, but when it comes to sheer, blatant ignorance, you can't beat anmar when she gets cranked up.  You probably know that.  Anmar, for instance, agreed there were two Vietnams existing peacefully side-by-side, North and South Vietnam.  Of course even if there were two such nations, we'd know them as East and West Vietnam.  When the error was called to her attention by a couple of members of the forum, anmar naturally said she'd misspoken.  See what I mean.

And here is another..... Remember when anmar claimed to be worried that the island of Guam might tip over if too many American servicemen were stationed there, she quickly explained that she'd misspoken, as she did when she'd taken Arizona to task for its immigration bill when, as any school child knows, it doesn't even share a border with Mexico.  I think it was two members of the forum that called anmar on the carpet for that one.  And how about her claim that Alaska will break off due to global warming and float to Russia sometime in 2011.  Crazy, huh?

There are subtler forms of stupidity on anmar's part.  We have Barack Obama declaring a six-month moratorium on off-shore drilling, thus doing everything in his power to destroy the Gulf's economy, while at the same time refusing to drill in Alaska or the lower 48, and, for good measure, sending two billion dollars to Brazil to help them and George Soros finance, of all things, off-shore drilling... and anmar agreed with BHO... agreed!   

To take anmar's stupidity to its logical extreme, we have Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, three of the schmoes most responsible for causing the financial meltdown, concocting a 2,500-page financial regulation bill.  When someone asked anmar (from the forum) if she thought the three stooges had actually read the bill, anmar said she was certain that they had at least carefully scanned it.  I mean, after all, how else could anmar be certain that their favorite lending institutions, the infamous Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would be excluded from any and all regulations?

Now anmar's latest thing is the mosque in Manhatten.  She said she was all for it and would be willing to drive the first nail towards its completion of the old Burlington coat factory into the 8th wonder of the world, the "B.H. Obama Ground Zero Mosque," located two and one-half blocks from this hallowed piece of ground where the WTC stood.  She said it wasn't a religious thing...  that in fact it was, in her words.... an Islamic thing.  Huh?

What's next on anmar's agenda that she'll be crowing about.... probably likely to be cap and trade, her favorite, which will do to American energy what British Petroleum did to Louisiana's pelicans.  But hey.... she doesn't care.  All in all, Varmit... and I'm sorry to say that, this proves that anmar is a far-left liberal loon.   To each his.... loon!

[Anmar]

what the hell are you talking about?  most of the things you say i said, i didn't say....  I think you're getting senile.

[Wilma]

Warph, I am not worried about not getting a COLA this year.  What I have beats not having a job or working a job that pays only half what I was used to making.  When the rest of the world is gainfully employed, then I will complain if I don't get a raise.