It would seem that our government officials have no idea what goes on in our country when it comes to cost of living. They say there is no increase in our cost of living; therefore, there is no need for our Social Security benefits to increase. Then they decide to give us a measly 0.3 percent increase, but at the same time, they increase our payments to Medicare and therefore steal it back from us. A measly 0.3 percent.
Am I not a citizen of the greatest country on earth? Did I not work and earn my Social Security benefits? Did I not pay into the system every year of my working career? And now I’m rewarded by not so much as a dollar increase in order to keep up with the rising costs of food, clothing, housing, medicine, medical treatment, transportation.
They say there’s no increase in the cost of living. Do not those in government shop at the same stores where we citizens shop? No, I bet they do not. If they did, they would see the increase in our cost of living expenses.
President-elect Donald Trump, if you really want to make this country great again, start here.
I suggest that you put all government employees, everyone in any office of the government in charge of our country, on the same Social Security and Medicare that the citizens are “enjoying.” No more voting themselves raises that our country, nor its citizens, can afford. Take a hard look at the salaries the government officials are earning—did I say earning? I’ll bet we can cut the deficit by reducing those salaries to a reasonable level. No more government paid vacations, under the guise of working. There are so many ways money can be saved, waste can be cut. You know it, and every citizen in this country knows it. Tradition in our government is fine if the government can afford it. We can’t. Not any more. Not with the deficit staring us in the face. President Trump, please change this. Make our country great again. Help us.
Back to Social Security. I have observed the cost of living steadily rising for more than a year. Food, housing, gas (although that is down at the moment), medical care. If your eyes are truly closed, or perhaps blind, hear this. THERE HAS BEEN A DISTINCT RISE IN THE COST OF LIVING FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS. Whatever system is being used to determine the rise, or in this case the lack thereof, is broken. Go back to the old one. My old pastor used to always say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Good and sensible advice.
Something needs to be done. Picture this. What if everyone on Social Security stopped using credit cards, debit card, checks, and larger bills to pay for everything? What if we all decided to turn our money in for coins: quarters, half dollars, silver dollars (if you can even get the last two anymore). What if we started to pay for everything in quarters? I mean everything. We get to the cash register to pay for our groceries, which that day comes to $65.00. We take out a box from a tote bag and start counting out 260 quarters. We go to the gas station and buy $25.00 in gas, walk into the little attached store to pay for the gas and count out 100 quarters. Then we go to the electric company to pay our electric bill of $150.00 for the month and count out 600 quarters. Do you think we would get someone’s attention to the fact that we retired folk are contributors to the economy? Do you think that maybe some of these businesses might get a little perturbed with our government if they hear why we are paying our bills with quarters instead of business as usual? To get your attention.
The government tells the young people that the system is broken. Who broke it? It’s not broken. It has been robbed! Money was siphoned out for other purposes, continually. I for one demand my money back. It has been used where it should not have been used, and someone needs to give it back.
How about if we make complaints to every government official via their email once every morning, noon and night? How many constituents does the average official have receiving Social Security benefits (without an increase for the cost of living, I will remind you)? That would be a lot of emails to wade through every day.
Yes, this is a bit farfetched, but something has to be done to get the attention of those in charge of our government. Those who can and should make changes so that the people on Social Security, who have worked all their lives and paid into the system, those who should be getting increases just as much, if not more, than those working in the government are getting. They should at least be able to pay for their expenses monthly without trying to decide if they will go without food or medicine, without a new jacket or give up the car and walk everywhere with their old, possibly arthritic legs and feet.
No increase in the cost of living. Whom do you think you are kidding?
And one last question. If there’s no increase in the cost of living, why did our payment to Medicare increase?
Sharon K. Connell 