Did You Ever Notice the Asterisk on Your Social Security Statement?

While engaging in the mundane task of gathering financial statements for a “secure retirement” meeting with my husband’s and my adviser, this Baby Boomer stumbled upon documented proof that our nation does not have the guts to confront one of its most serious economic problems. The realization came when I pulled from my files a document statement innocently titled, “Your Social Security Statement.”

At first glance, the statement did not appear menacing. I was told I could expect to receive a benefit of “about $2,136 a month” upon reaching age 70 — which certainly seems like good news. But immediately I thought of a parallel of President Obama’s infamous Obamacare promise: “If you like your Social Security, you can keep your Social Security.”  Then, as if on cue, I saw an asterisk with the following message:  The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2033, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 77 percent of scheduled benefits. My full form: I could not believe I was seeing the equivalent of what I was just thinking, but with a new twist, “If I like my Social Security, I can keep 77 percent of it.”

I could not believe I was seeing the equivalent of what I was just thinking, but with a new twist, “If I like my Social Security, I can keep 77 percent of it.” With an asterisk, my beloved government was informing me that they will be unable to fulfill their part of a financial arrangement into which, as their statement attested, I had been making mandatory contributions starting in 1971 at age 16.   RELATED: Marco Rubio on Saving Social Security and Medicare This impending “benefit rationing,” reducing my future financial “security” by $492 a month, may, in fact, not be the worst of it. Sitting in the back of my Social Security file was an earlier statement dated March 10, 2009. Again, followed by an asterisk was a sentence that read exactly like my 2015 statement except for two major differences (emphasis added): The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2041, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 78 percent of your scheduled benefits.

Via: National Review

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Shutdown outrage: Military death benefits denied to families of fallen troops

At least five families of U.S. military members killed during in Afghanistan over the weekend were given a double-whammy by federal officials: Not only have your loved ones died, but due to the government shutdown, you won’t receive a death benefit.

The benefit is $100,000 and is wired to family members of the killed military member within 36 hours of the death. The so-called “death gratuity” is aimed at paying for funeral costs and to help with those living expenses normally covered by the soldier’s paycheck.

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They serve as a transition pay benefit until the military’s survivor benefits begin.

The $100,000 also helps military families fly to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, while the coffins carrying their loved ones are being unloaded

The Pentagon revealed the elimination of funeral pay, along with other impacts of the shutdown, in a press release.

“The department does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities for the survivors of service members killed in action – typically a cash payment of $100,000 paid within three days of the death of a service member,” the release read.

Via: Washington Times

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Corporations Switching to Healthcare Exchanges to Cover Retirees

More companies are beginning to use private healthcare-exchange programs, similar to those being set up under Obamacare, to cover their retirees and to give participants more choices of plans at fixed costs, The Wall Street Journal Reports.

Time Warner Inc. is the latest corporation to announce the change, that will take effect Jan. 1, according to the Journal. It joins IBM, which also announced recently it would move 110,000 retirees off of its company-sponsored plan to an established private Medicare insurance exchange. 

Time Warner said in a memo the change to a healthcare exchange would give its former employees more insurance choices, while creating more stability for the company to predict costs. 

For its part, IBM says the current retirees benefit plan has become increasingly more expensive and that the change will cut costs. The company will use Extend Health, an exchange created in 2004 that already includes 300 companies, including 50 that are Fortune 500 companies.

"There are still quite a few others coming," said Bryce Williams, managing director of Towers Watson Exchange Solutions, the parent company of Extend Health.
"We are at the front end of the wave.

Under the new exchange system, retirees will get an annual payment through a health retirement account to purchase Medicare Advantage plans, supplemental Medicare polices, and pay for other medical expenses.

Williams said the change would understandably cause some initial concern for seniors.

"This starts out being scary for most people," he said.

However, Ariel Gonzalez, director of federal health and family government affairs for AARP, said his advocacy group and others see the exchanges as a positive development so long as benefits are not cut and costs remain low.

"If cost sharing becomes too burdensome for retirees, then that would definitely raise concerns," Gonzalez said.

Via: Newsmax

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Obama will fire 20,000 Marines so he can give $6 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to Muslims for ‘green’ energy

There are many things Obama hates, but only two things he really loves: Green energy and Muslims. And finally he’s found a way to put both together at the same time. And it will only cost U.S. taxpayers $6 billion dollars.

FrontPage Magazine  20,000 Marines are to be fired and the money is being used for Obama’s Green Energy companies and his Muslim empowerment program. 

Sure for that $6 billion, we might not have to fire those 20,000 Marines that Barry Hussein has decided to get of, and we wouldn’t have to cut their healthcare, the way his Center for American Progress has pushed him to do… but Muslims with Green Energy count more.

Now this U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Partnership for a Sustainable Energy Future is not supposed to be limited to just Muslims, but considering that it’s been announced with the leaders of two Muslim governments, one of them that of his favorite country, Indonesia, this looks like another expensive bout of Muslim pandering.

Via:  Bare Naked Islam

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USA TODAY: Red States' Income Growing Faster Than Blue States'

Income is growing much faster in Republican-leaning "red states" than in Democratic-tilting "blue states" or the pivotal swing states that will decide the 2012 presidential election, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Personal income in 23 red states has risen 4.6% since the recession began in December 2007, after adjusting for inflation. Income is up just 0.5% in 15 blue states and Washington, D.C., during that time. In the dozen swing states identified by USA TODAY that could vote either way Nov. 6, income has inched ahead 1.4% in 4 ½ years.

The big drivers of red state income growth: energy and government benefit payments such as food stamps.

By contrast, Democratic blue states are more affluent but were hit harder by the downturn. Connecticut, dependent on the financial industry, suffered the largest income drop except swing-state Nevada. Yet Connecticut residents still make $10,000 a year more on average than people in fast-growing North Dakota.

When averaged nationally, the robust gains in red states and meager gains in blue states produced a national growth rate remarkably similar to that in the swing states.

USA TODAY analyzed income data released this week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to compare how red, blue and swing states have fared through June 30. The difference in income gains is partly because blue states are richer and more populated than red states — 42% of the nation's income vs. 30% in red states. Also, the economic recovery since the recession officially ended in June 2009 has been distributed unequally around the country.

North Dakota, a red state, tops the nation in income growth thanks to an oil boom. Other major energy states — Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas — are solidly Republican, polls show. Poor, southern red states depend heavily on government transfers for income and benefited from increases in Medicaid and other federal programs.

Via: USA Today

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U.S. Poverty Rate At Record 15 Percent

U.S. Poverty Rate 15 Percent; Record Numbers Persist

WASHINGTON — The ranks of America’s poor remain stuck at a record 15 percent, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Roughly 46.2 million people remained below the poverty line in 2011, unchanged from 2010. The figure is the highest in more than a half-century.

And while joblessness is 

persistently high, the gap between rich and poor increased in the last year. The top 1 percent of wage earners had a 6 percent increase in income, while income at the bottom 40 percent of earners was basically unchanged, said David Johnson, the chief of the Census Bureau’s household economics division.

“A lot of the increase is driven by changes at the very top of the distribution,” Mr. Johnson said.

The report comes less than two months before the November presidential election, and the still-weak U.S. economy is the top issue for voters deciding between the leading candidates, President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

Experts earlier predicted a fourth straight annual rise in the poverty rate, but dwindling unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped to keep that from happening.

“This is good news and a surprise,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan economist who closely tracks poverty. He pointed to a continuing boost from new unemployment benefits passed in 2009 that gave workers up to 99 weeks of payments after layoffs and didn’t run out for many people until late 2011. Also, job gains in the private sector helped offset cuts in state and local government workers.

Via: The Washington Times

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