Republican Senator Joni Ernst
Credit: Gage Skidmore
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) just said out loud what Republican politicians usually only talk about in secret meetings with their billionaire donors: The GOP wants to cut our earned Social Security benefits—and they want to do it behind closed doors so that they don’t have to pay the political price.
At a recent town hall, Ernst stated that Congress needs to “sit down behind closed doors” to “address Social Security.” She vaguely asserted, “A lot of changes need to be made in this system going forward.” But, she complained, if these changes were proposed in public, she would be accused of pushing “granny over a cliff.” It is not hard to figure out what “changes” she has in mind.
Congress should address our nation’s looming retirement income crisis by increasing Social Security’s modest benefits. Congress should […]
Some time ago the Wall Street Journal had an article to the effect that small adjustments in the base would solve the actuarial problems.
Steve do I take it you mean “small adjustments” mean a cut in my small monthly payments in order to maintain the cap on contributions by the obscenely wealthy? Experts have pointed out for some time that some modest increases in deductions, removing the cap or reducing payments to the wealthy who don’t need any additional pocket change would make a significant difference in the short and long term.
We poor and/or disabled Americans depend on social security to live as we age out of this life. Of course that does make us dependent on the government dole but I have paid in since I was 16 and continue to from my small part-time job. Payments need to be adjusted up not down!
I totally agree with you Will. Any cuts and my wife and I may die because of it. Our disabilities mean that we have great monthly pharmaceutical expenses and if my wife, in particular, does not get enough to supply her with her needed insulin for her diabetes and medications for her heart ailments, she will not survive. And all this because Trump wants his rich friends to have tax cuts. It is time for a REVOLUTION against the Republican agenda. A democratic society shares; an oligarchy does not. Lets do away with the oligarchs, and regain a DEMOCRATIC Republic, where everyone treats their fellow citizens as they would have them treat themselves if they were poor.
The people work all their adult lives paying for Social Security should not have their poverty level stipends cut. Perhaps they should look at cutting the higher stipends received by Federal retirees. This would give the Feds more incentive to spend the taxes they collect more fruguly.