Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Boosting SS

How Elizabeth Warren Upset the DC Establishment's Plans to Weaken Social Security | Alternet:
When Senator Elizabeth Warren came out for increasing Social Security last month it set in motion a remarkable turn of events. For over a decade the only discussion of Social Security by the Washington power types was over how much to cut it and when. The extreme left position was that current spending was about right.

Senator Warren changed the debate when she endorsed a bill proposed by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin that would index retirees' benefits to an index that more closely tracks the cost-of-living of seniors. The bill also would raise benefits by roughly $70 a month. As a result of Warren's prominence in national politics, and the fact that raising Social Security benefits is actually quite popular, the Washington insider types were forced to take the idea seriously...

3 comments:

billy pilgrim said...

forget liz warren, i just finished reading adventures in larryland.

larry zbyszko rules!

Alessandro Machi said...

In home support services income index has remained the same since 1989! So seniors getting over 700 dollars a month in SS have to deduct any amount over 700 dollars for in home support services even though outside caregiver services can cost 5 to 10 times as much.

The further irony is that when a family member becomes a caregiver, they reduce their raw resource footprint tremendously which is what the world needs now to prevent more and more wars over fewer and fewer resources.

Bob Harrison said...

i like larry, billy. one of my favs.

Alessandro-- you have such a good handle on these things! I was unaware that particular problem but it certainly sounds like something that needs to be addressed.