Obama's Weekly Address on Social Security Aug. 14

Obama says republicans are looking to privatize social security, but it shouldn't be done.

No COLA for Seniors But $250 Payouts Instead?

I've seen some people say that Obama is taking away seniors' social security.
No. No. No.
Social Security checks won't see an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) because COLA is tied to inflation and inflation is negative (see inflation rate chart here).
Obama doesn't have anything to do with raising or lowering COLA. Obama is proposing $250 payouts to seniors, which would amount to about a 1.8% increase.

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No Cost of Living Increases for Social Security Recipients

Yet another problem that Obama will need to tackle (next year). Social security increases are tied to inflation and inflation is negative. But seniors still face rising costs. I wonder if republicans are pleased with this form of "socialism" and if they'll stand in the way of fixing social security. Imagine if social security had been privatized like Bush wanted. Private industry does things so well, especially when it comes to bringing down the global economy.

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.

The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.

By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.
....
President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations.

Bernie Sanders is working to offer social security recipients a one-time payment this year. I wonder if republicans will fight that too:

Lawmakers are preoccupied by health care, making it difficult to address other tough issues. Advocates for older people hope their efforts will get a boost in October, when the Social Security Administration officially announces that there will not be an increase in benefits next year.

"I think a lot of seniors do not know what's coming down the pike, and I believe that when they hear that, they're going to be upset," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is working on a proposal for one-time payments for Social Security recipients.

"It is my view that seniors are going to need help this year, and it would not be acceptable for Congress to simply turn its back," he said.

Read the whole story at MSNBC

Obamanomics Explained (In Detail)

David Leonhardt, an economics columnist for the NYT writes extensively about Obama's economic plan in the NYT magazine out on Sunday. McCain simply hasn't put this much oomph into his economic policy, whatever that is, something about no taxes I think and more wars. Too bad that the people who need to read this article, the ones who say they don't know what Obama stands for, will never know this article exists. 

The fact that the economy grows — that it produces more goods and services one year than it did in the previous one — no longer ensures that most families will benefit from its growth. For the first time on record, an economic expansion seems to have ended without family income having risen substantially. Most families are still making less, after accounting for inflation, than they were in 2000. For these workers, roughly the bottom 60 percent of the income ladder, economic growth has become a theoretical concept rather than the wellspring of better medical care, a new car, a nicer house — a better life than their parents had.

Americans have still been buying such things, but they have been doing so with debt. A big chunk of that debt will never be repaid, which is the most basic explanation for the financial crisis. Even after the crisis has passed, the larger problem of income stagnation will remain. It’s hardly the economy’s only serious problem either. There is also the slow unraveling of the employer-based health-insurance system and the fact that, come 2011, the baby boomers will start to turn 65, setting off an enormous rise in the government’s Medicare and Social Security obligations.
...
In practical terms, the new consensus means that the policies of an Obama administration would differ from those of the Clinton administration, but not primarily because of differences between the two men. “The economy has changed in the last 15 years, and our understanding of economic policy has changed as well,” Furman says. “And that means that what was appropriate in 1993 is no longer appropriate.” Obama’s agenda starts not with raising taxes to reduce the deficit, as Clinton’s ended up doing, but with changing the tax code so that families making more than $250,000 a year pay more taxes and nearly everyone else pays less. That would begin to address inequality. Then there would be Reich-like investments in alternative energy, physical infrastructure and such, meant both to create middle-class jobs and to address long-term problems like global warming.
Read more

Obama On Social Security

Who knew social security was 73 years old?
Obama's statement:

On this anniversary of Social Security, let’s reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that Social Security remains a safety net that seniors can count on today, tomorrow, and always. It is impossible to fully measure Social Security’s value for its recipients, as well as for those who look after and love them. Nearly 13 million seniors depend on it each month to keep from falling into poverty, and millions more depend on survivor and disability benefits to protect their retirement.

As President, I will protect Social Security for today’s seniors and future generations. That means strengthening Social Security’s solvency while protecting middle class families from benefit cuts, tax increases or increases in the retirement age. It means treating Social Security not as a political football or describing it as an “absolute disgrace,” but instead honoring it as the cornerstone of the social compact in this country. And it means opposing efforts to privatize Social Security, as I did when President Bush proposed risky private accounts a few years ago. Privatization is wrong and tears at the fabric of Social Security – the very idea of mutual responsibility – by subjecting a secure, earned retirement to the whims of the market. The Bush privatization plan that Senator McCain now embraces would tell millions of elderly Americans that they’re on their own, putting them at risk of falling into poverty. That’s not what this country is about.

It’s time to reclaim the idea that in this country, we’re all in it together. That is America’s very promise – and Social Security’s very guarantee. And it requires a President who will change the ways of Washington, protect the people’s interests, and bring Americans together to meet the great challenges of our time. That is exactly the sort of leadership I intend to offer.

McCain and Bush on Social Security

newsweek
THE SPIN:

"I do not and will not privatize Social Security," McCain said Friday in New Jersey. "It's not true when I'm accused of that."

He said he does want a system enabling "younger workers to take a few of their tax dollars and maybe put it in an account with their name on it. Please don't let them (the Democrats) twist that."

Too late. They've been making hay with it for months.

"Imagine if your security now was tied up with the Dow Jones," Obama said Friday. "You wouldn't feel very confident about the security of your nest egg."

THE FACTS:

The Republican plans McCain has supported over the years essentially seek to privatize part of Social Security by letting people invest some of their payroll taxes into private retirement accounts.

Just how much they could divert is not certain but it's much more than a "few dollars." McCain has proposed in the past that up to 20 percent of payroll taxes could be funneled into private retirement accounts.

The idea has been one of President Bush's leading domestic policy priorities but he's never been able to sell it.

McCain and other Republicans once spoke more openly of "privatization" but realized people didn't like to hear that. Now they talk of "personal accounts." It's the same thing.

obama on social security

Obama Talking Retirement

Obama Supporter Gives Social Security Explainer

short and sweet, the problem in a nutshell.