10,996,447: Disability Beneficiaries Hit New Record

(CNSNews.com) - The total number of disability beneficiaries in the United States rose from 10,981,423 in March to 10,996,447 in April, setting a new all-time record, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The number of Americans receiving disability benefits continues to exceed the populations of Greece, Tunisia and Portugal, and is approaching the population of Cuba, which according to the CIA World Factbook is 11,047,251.

The 10,996,447 total disability beneficiaries includes 8,942,232 disabled workers, 153,475 spouses of disabled workers, and 1,900,740 children of disabled workers.

None of those individual categories of beneficiaries set a record in April, but the combination of all three was the highest it has ever been in the history of the disability program.

The number of disabled workers peaked at 8,942,584 in December—with 352 more workers receiving disability than in April.

Via: CNS News

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2014: Obamacare Puts Down Roots for the Long Haul

Yes, Obamacare has raised premiums, caused people to lose their health coverage, raised taxes, and more. But on January 1, Obamacare started digging in for the long haul: putting down the deep roots of entitlement programs.

Entitlements—like the big three of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are the biggest causes of America’s spending and debt crisis. And Obamacare creates a new entitlement program while expanding another.

The creation of a new entitlement: Taxpayer-funded subsidies for millions of Americans

Obamacare created insurance exchanges to sell and subsidize government-approved health care plans. Most of those who attain coverage through the exchanges will have their costs partially subsidized by federal taxpayers.

By 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 24 million people will obtain coverage in the exchanges, 19 million of whom are expected to receive subsidies. CBO estimates that together, the subsidies will cost taxpayers nearly $1.1 trillion from 2014-2023.

Who can get a subsidy?

• Those earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,490 to $45,960 for individuals and $23,550 to $94,200 for a family of four in 2013) will be eligible for premium subsidies that are applied on a sliding scale, with the lowest income receiving the highest premium subsidy.
• Those who purchase a silver plan in the exchange and earn between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for cost-sharing subsidies to help offset their out-of-pocket costs, in addition to the premium subsidy.

Via: The Foundry

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These 13 Tax Increases Hit in 2013

It’s about time for us to uncover our eyes and take a hard look at what 2013 did to our finances.

Did you feel the pinch of the 13 tax hikes that hit Americans this year?

Before you review the list below, put these two on your watch list for 2014:

• Obamacare’s individual mandate. Beginning in 2014, it’s mandatory to purchase health insurance. If you don’t, you’ll pay a penalty that dramatically increases over time. It starts at $95 or 1 percent of your income (whichever is greater). It rises to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016.
• Obamacare tax on insurance companies. If you liked seeing your premiums go up, you’ll love this new tax on health insurers—which they are most likely to pass on to you.

As you start reviewing your tax information for 2013, here’s what you’re contending with.

The 13 Tax Increases of 2013

1. Payroll Tax: increase in the Social Security portion of the payroll tax from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent for workers. This hit all Americans earning a paycheck—not just the “wealthy.” For example, The Wall Street Journal calculated that the “typical U.S. family earning $50,000 a year” would lose “an annual income boost of $1,000.”

2. Top marginal tax rate: increase from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for taxable incomes over $450,000 ($400,000 for single filers).

3. Phase out of personal exemptions for adjusted gross income (AGI) over $300,000 ($250,000 for single filers).

4. Phase down of itemized deductions for AGI over $300,000 ($250,000 for single filers).

Via: The Foundry

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After a Month of Trying, I Still Can't Sign Up for Obamacare

After a month of trying, I still can't complete an application to join the D.C. Health Exchange. For a week, the Obamacare marketplace asked me to prove my citizenship, my daughter's existence, and my fixed address in the District of Columbia, but it would not allow me to submit the requested material.

That changed, slightly, yesterday when it started allowing me to submit those things, which I did, but it must now validate them via a person. Perhaps this is why Barack Obama’s staff had to physically visit the D.C. exchange in order to sign up the president for Obamacare.

It also apparently keeps losing all of my family's personal information, so I’m having to type my name, address, Social Security number, as well as a) a fixed address or b) whether I’m incarcerated or c) or whether am a member of an American Indian or native Alaskan federally protected tribe. 

And despite selecting "send me all messages via email" it doesn't actually do that—the messages just sit in my account at the D.C. exchange, which tells me when I log in that I have a message there. Which I can't read because when I click on it my computer asks me to select a program to use to access whatever it is and no matter what I select it just displays a bunch of random characters. Word, Word Perfect, Microsoft reader, and PDF are not helping with this—but why would they use that sort of program for a message like that?

Via: Red State

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Social Security benefits may be on table in budget talks

WASHINGTON — With congressional budget negotiations moving behind closed doors, one item apparently on the table is changing the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated for seniors, veterans and other recipients of government benefits.

The consumer price index, or CPI, is the government’s main gauge of inflation and is used to determine cost-of-living adjustments, often shorthanded as COLAs. It’s a formula used for more than four decades.

But President Barack Obama earlier this year proposed a less generous formula called a “chained” consumer price index, in hopes of saving the government $230 billion over 10 years.

In April, Obama’s proposal was viewed as an olive branch to Republicans that was largely rejected. With budget bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate now in a conference committee to narrow differences and a mid-January deadline approaching, the issue is back on the table.

The chairman of the congressional talks, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., identified the issue as an area ripe for compromise.

Via: McClatchy

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/14/208625/social-security-benefits-may-be.html#storylink=cpy

Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million -

Each U.S. taxpayer now has a federal-debt liability of $1.1 million, and rising.

Remember that when President Obama boasts that the federal deficit—the shortfall between annual revenues and spending—is declining. Of course, the primary reason for the decline is the sequester, which was his idea but now adamantly opposes.

The public tends to focus on the total national debt, which just passed the $17 trillion mark—up from $10.6 trillion when President Obama took office. But that figure pales in comparison to the federal government’s long term unfunded liabilities—money the government is obligated to pay over and above the revenues it is estimated to receive.

According to the U.S. Debt Clock, total long term unfunded liabilities are at $126 trillion, a $1.1 million liability for each U.S. taxpayer.

The main driver of that astronomical number is two of our major entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare.

The Debt Clock says Social Security is looking at $16.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities, while Medicare faces $87.6 trillion. And Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, which passed in 2003, adds another $22 trillion.

The Debt Clock’s Medicare unfunded liability is twice the current government projection—$43 trillion—because Democrats used Obamacare to try and deceive the public. Prior to passage the government’s estimate was similar to the Debt Clock’s.

That difference is because Obamacare requires the Medicare trustees, who annually report on the program’s financial condition, to assume that Medicare will significantly cut reimbursements to doctors and hospitals in the future.

Via: Rare

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Charlie Rangel Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
October 29, 2013 11:41 am

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., NY) quoted some false history during Tuesday’s Ways and Means Committee hearing regarding Obamacare’s rocky rollout.

During his allotted time to question Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, Rangel claimed that no Republican voted for the Social Security Act of 1935. When Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) informed Rangel that such information was inaccurate, Rangel responded:

“Maybe one or two. I don’t know. But they opposed Medicare. I spoke with President Johnson and he shared with me at the ranch the people that had signed off on Medicare.”

Politifact fact-checked similar claims made by Fmr. Governor Howard Dean (D., Vt.) in 2009, and noted that in 1935 the Social Security Act passed the House 372-33, with 81 Republicans in support of the bill. The Senate passed the bill 77-6 with 16 Republicans on board.

Medicare passed in 1965, and while no Republicans voted for the bill when it came out of the Ways and Means Committee, 70 House Republicans voted for final passage. In the Senate, the bill passed 70-24, with 13 Republicans voting aye.

Via: WFB

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Congress aiming low in new budget talks, as Reid dismisses entitlement reform as 'happy talk'

Congressional Democrats and Republicans are setting low expectations about budget talks scheduled to begin next week -- with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissing as 'happy talk' any notion of a grand bargain that would include cuts to entitlement programs.

The Nevada Democrat won't be directly involved in the formal House-Senate budget negotiations set to begin Wednesday. But he has been among the most overt in blaming the opposite party -- even before the talks begin. And he has given perhaps the bleakest assessment for a potential compromise on tax increases and cuts to entitlement spending.

"You keep talking about Medicare and Social Security," Reid said on Thursday, cutting off a Nevada Public Radio host. "Get something else in your brain. Stop talking about that. ... There is not going to be a grand bargain."

He also said Republicans would have to agree on tax-revenue increases for Congress to achieve a large-scale agreement, but they instead have their mind set on "nothing more on revenue."

"And until they get off that kick, there's not going to be a grand bargain," Reid said. "There's not going to be a small bargain. The only people who feel there shouldn't be more [tax money] coming in to the federal government from the rich people are the Republicans in the Congress. Everybody else, including the rich people, is willing to pay more. They want to pay more."

Via: Fox News Political

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Harry Reid: 'Everybody ... Willing to Pay More' Taxes

Senate majority leader Harry Reid says that "Everybody" is "willing to pay more" taxes. He said so in an interview with a Nevada Public Radio host.

“The only people who feel there shouldn’t be more coming in to the federal government from the rich people are the Republicans in the Congress,” Reid told the radio host, according to Roll Call. “Everybody else, including the rich people, are willing to pay more. They want to pay more.”

Reid rebuked the Nevada Public Radio host when he was asked what Republicans would have to concede to get Medicare and Social Security cuts on the table.

“You keep talking about Medicare and Social Security. Get something else in your brain. Stop talking about that. That is not going to happen this time. There is not going to be a grand bargain,” Reid said. “What we need to do is have Murray and her counterpart in the House, Ryan, work together to come up with something to get out of this senseless sequestration and start the budgeting process so that we can do normal appropriation bills.”

Reid said Republicans would have to agree to more tax revenue to get anywhere near a bigger deal.

“They have their mind set on doing nothing, nothing more on revenue, and until they get off that kick, there’s not going to be a grand bargain on — there’s not going to be a small bargain,” Reid said. “We’re just going to have to do something to work our way through sequestration.”

Via: Weekly Standard
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Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found.

Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement.

The imbalance is expanding even as policymakers are encouraging people to set aside more by offering generous tax breaks and automatically enrolling workers in retirement accounts that in some cases automatically escalate the amount of money over time.

Currently, workers with retirement savings accounts put aside more than 11 percent of their pay for retirement — 5 percent in their own accounts, and 6.2 percent in Social Security.

Despite that — and despite the $2.5 trillion the report says employers have poured into defined contribution accounts from 1992 to 2012 — the retirement readiness of most Americans has been slipping, according to the report by HelloWallet, a D.C. firm that offers technology-based financial advice to workers and conducts research of economic behavior.

“Policy has tunnel vision. It tends to tackle problems on a piecemeal basis. The impact of policy on consumer finances is a bit like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole,” said Matt Fellowes, founder and chief executive of HelloWallet and a former Brookings Institution scholar. “We raised the victory flag as people increased retirement contributions, but in reality the ability of people to retire is a function of lots of different variables, most important of which is what they are doing on the other side of the ledger.”

Via: Washington Post
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