Well…the problem with the sunrise coming later and later is that I now have a couple of hours to fill as I wait to be able to get on the bike…so I thought I’d talk about the SS raise that is going to be announced today…with inflation running hot for most people, there has been speculation that it will be anywhere from 8-11% and I think it will be more like 9 or so but we will find out this morning…even at 9%, the raise I’ll see is going to be over 2 grand a year and that will come in handy as the property taxes on this place are continuing to be raised to match it’s valuation…but, I’ve been able to survive the rest of this inflationary time with just a little belt tightening so I guess I’m luckier than most…and the only raise in my housing costs are taxes and energy…and with gas going up by 50%, the heating bills are going to hurt this winter…I am expecting them to be about 150 bucks a month or more and that is well over the highest one of about a hundred bucks last year….so, I can’t wait to see so I can plan a little better…I really would like to be able to splurge on some unnecessary stuff like a new bag for the bike and maybe some new clothes but I hate shopping for that stuff so I probably won’t buy much…we’ll see….
Tag Archives: social security
Trillion dollar deficits…
Well…who would have thought that cutting taxes for the rich and corporations and increasing spending would lead to trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see? Just every frickin economist that is not a right wing shill. With the CBO report that is coming out later today (and that was previewed over the weekend), deficits for the federal government are projected to be at least a trillion dollars a year…but the report states that this is the most optimistic reading, that the deficits could be twice that and will continue for at least the next ten years if nothing changes. Do you remember when the biggest threat to the economy were the deficits during the Obama years? Yep, just another bit of hypocrisy from the repubs and shows you it was never really about the deficits then…it was about trying to hurt Obama and trying to keep him from being successful. One other thing that you need to remember, that SS and Medicare have nothing to do with these exploding deficits…they are completely separate accounts and SS and Medicare have been paid for by you and me…remember that whenever the repubs say that these programs are “in crisis”….they are not and won’t be for at least 30 years…and that can be fixed with just one change…by making all income subject to SS taxes….and that’s what we’ll do when we take back the house and senate…
It’s gonna be a bloodbath…
Well…just when I thought the repubs couldn’t go any lower in their zeal to give the country away to the rich and corporations…today we had little Marco Rubio just flat come out and admit that the main thing that the repubs want to accomplish with this tax bill is to destroy Social Security and Medicare…by driving the deficits through the roof by cutting taxes, they have an excuse to gut all of what is left of the safety net….and I predict that if they do pass this bill, there will be a bloodbath that will destroy the repubs in 2018…especially since they are attacking one of the only groups that staunchly support them…old, white retirees….what is going to happen when next year they cut 25 billion from Medicare and then tell these same retirees that their cancer treatment is no longer going to be paid for. So, who are the “death panels” in this country? It is the repubs that will be killing people by cutting the Medicare and SS that retirees like me have paid for our entire lives…and now the repubs say “nevermind” we’ll keep the money you paid in and give it to the rich in the form of tax cuts…this is what you voted for you stupid repub voters…impeach,,,
The repubs are just sick…
Well…Paul Ryan and his repub cronies are just sick bastards and if you didn’t know it before, just listen to what they are crowing about today with their new “take healthcare away” law. In the CBO report, buried a little ways back, there is a 3 billion dollars a year saving for Social Security that these idiots are puffing their chests out about….but, as always, these sick bastards didn’t read the fine print…just guess where that 3 billion dollars comes from? C’mon, just one little guess…give up? It comes from the fact that more people will DIE from lack of healthcare before they apply for Social Security….so SS won’t have to pay out for those people that the repubs just took healthcare away from. Just a bunch of sick bastards is the only way to describe them….and to show pure glee that they can make people die earlier so they can cut taxes for the rich shows they just don’t give a damn about you and me…after all, these “people” just love causing pain…or I should say “causing freedom” as they gut the safety net…bastards all….impeach
This is what it’s going to be like…
Well…didn’t have to wait too long to see what at a repub dominated congress was going to look like and you only have to see the first three things they worked on to know…the first thing…the very first thing was to pass a bill to cut SS disability payments and to forbid borrowing from the retirement trust fund to pay for the disability side….nevermind that this has been done 15 times in the past 30 years with no effect on retirees and it is the first step in their plan to privatize the disability portion of SS and then the rest of the programs…..the second thing was watering down of Wall street regulations…allowing more of the shenanigans that melted down the economy in 2008…and the third is the 20 week abortion ban that these asses are salivating at and thing will lead to the repeal of Roe v. Wade…never mind that the supreme court has said that these bans are illegal…but you and I know the repubs only pay attention to the Constitution when it suits their partisan goals…..get out the veto pen Obama….you’re going to need it….
I’m done with Obama…
Well…I am sitting here really, really pissed at Obama with the nonsense in his budget that cuts both SS and Medicare…two programs that have absolutely nothing to do with the deficit and which are solvent for the next twenty years…and I am not one of those supporters of his who think this is some “11 dimensional chess” where he is going to be able to get the tax increases the country needs and still not have to make cuts to the programs that seniors and the middle class depend on. I think he is just enthralled by his own legacy where he would be hailed for some stupid “grand bargain” that he could get from the repubs…I think he is just delusional if he thinks he will ever get any compromise from those idiots and why should he even try? When the rich keep getting richer by stealing more and more from the workers that make them successful…where ceo’s pay has gone up by almost 100% in the last three years while they plead poverty and cut benefits…and Obama sits there and does nothing about it…I guess the hope of the middle class now rest with Bernie Sanders and Senator Warren….we’ve all been abandoned by Obama…you guys keep up the good fight…geez…
I promised another one….
Well…the recovery has started to take hold so I thought I’d came back for the second one that I promised today…don’t have a big topic but just some reminders and thoughts as we stumble over the fiscal bump…first, let’s forget the notion that SS has anything to do with the deficit…it is supported by its own tax structure and no general revenue or borrowing goes into supporting it…so let’s stop talking about using slashes to it to help the deficit…it won’t, and the only reason it is being talked about is that the repubs hate any program that helps anyone but their rich welfare recipients…the 1% and the corporations that pay no taxes. Hmmm….it has been a slow week for politics with everyone out of town from DC, so maybe I should talk about something else? There was a cool article in Slate today by Phil Plait…their astronomy writer about a star quake on a magnetar over 50,000 light years away that released so much energy 8 years ago that it almost fried satellites that are circling the earth…that was some frickin explosion….from an object that is halfway across the galaxy….and I think it’s cool that the explosion happened 50,000 years ago and it just got here 8 years ago….yep, I’m an astronomy geek….
More deception about Social Security..
Well…have been reading a lot about the proposals that have been floated over the past few years about how to “save” social security since it is not going to be too long before I’m going to be that age…so, it has a real meaning to me. One of the things that the repubs are lying about again is the need to raise the retirement age since people are living longer…and, as always, they are just bad at math or are deliberately misleading people about the changes in life expectancy…which one do you think? I’ll go for the deliberate lies…I will admit that life expectancy has risen over the past 50 years, but you have to look into the numbers to see why…and the major reason is that less children are dying young from preventable diseases so the average goes up…not hard math to understand but it appears they don’t understand it. But, the second part of this puzzle is that the people that are living longer are concentrated in the upper classes…people who have had easier lives and good health care their entire lives…these people actually do live longer, but those that have done physical labor their entire lives don’t…so, raising the retirement age for these folks puts them at an age where they will probably die within a few years of retiring…just what the repubs have said jokingly is the solution to SS’s problems…don’t let them get away with this lie…geez…
Wandering again….
Well…there are a bunch of things that I want to comment on…or maybe just a couple of things….the first is the reaction of the crowd at the repub debate that clapped and cheered when a question concerning the 263 people Texas has executed in rick Perry’s tenure there…really, cheering for someone dying? Even when it has been shown that many of them were mistakenly convicted? This just shows you the type of neanderthals that inhabit the repub party these days…and what we have to look forward to if these thugs are elected. Then, we have ole Rick calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” that he would like to eliminate….even Romney the flip flopper wouldn’t bite on that nonsense…
One other thing…not political but pretty cool nonetheless…a Great Blue Heron has taken up residence in one of the retention ponds along M-6 and it is just the coolest looking bird…and this was the third day he was there…brightened up my day for sure….there might be more later if I don’t hang out with T…..