So what's with this Social Security "Stimulus Payment???"

[Warph]

Last month, the Social Security Administration announced that there would be no cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2010, marking the first time since 1975 that Social Security recipients would receive no annual raise.  Yet Medicare payments by seniors are slated to jump 9 percent, at least according to Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).  She's the sponsor of a House bill to give a one-time payment of $150 to Medicare recipients as a makeup for losing the 2010 COLA.  Can anyone say "stimulus" payment?

For the most part, food and energy costs have gone down, leaving the largest source of increased costs to be the government.  One tiny case in point is the $7 billion cost to make these one-time payments.  Of course, the feds will take back some of that money since Social Security benefits are considered taxable income.  Beware of the hand that gives since it can take away as well.

Oh yeah, I might as well throw this at you, too, if you missed it.  Do you have an extra $1761 bucks to play with???

Obama Admin: Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year

"The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent," CBS News reports. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/15/taking_liberties/entry5314040.shtml

"At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year."   The Treasury Department released the report Tuesday after a Freedom of Information Act request by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute pried it out.  Given the dismal numbers, it's no wonder the administration kept the report hidden until forced to be transparent -- despite Obama's campaign promise that his administration would be the "most open and transparent in history."

In one Treasury document, the estimated cost of cap-n-tax is blacked out: "While such a program can yield environmental benefits that justify its costs, it will raise energy prices and impose annual costs on the order [redacted]."  That's comforting.  A separate administration memo notes, "Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1% of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation."

Cap-n-tax passed the House by a slim margin in June -- only seven votes -- and prospects for passage are not good in the Senate.  Ol' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is already suggesting the bill may wait until next year so when he's voted out of office in 2010, he won't have to mess with it.  Treasury's report helps opponents who have warned all along that the massive cost imposed by legislation will have negligible impact on the environment.  NONE!  ZIP!  It would be a victory for liberty indeed, my friends, if cap-n-tax runs out of gas.