Tag: Social Security

‘That’s a Lie’: GOP Senator Presses Janet Yellen on Plan to Pay for Social Security

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana accused the Biden administration of lying about its commitment to working with Congress to protect seniors’ social security benefits at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday.

Cassidy asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was testifying about President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024, if the president was aware that “when [Social Security] goes broke in nine years” there would be a 24% cut in benefits for current recipients.

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Republicans Say Biden Lied About Their Position on Social Security, Medicare to Scare Seniors

Just the News

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t alone Tuesday night in openly arguing President Biden in his State of the Union address misstated House Republicans’ position on the future of Medicare and Social Security. “I think, because he lied, it was a frustration,” Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie told Just the News after Biden’s roughly 72-minute address.

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Commentary: Income Inequality in America Is an Engineered Myth

RealClearWire

The federal government significantly and intentionally misreports income distribution, sparking bad policies and political divisions.

That’s the argument former senator Phil Gramm and two other economists, Robert Ekelund and John Early, lay out in their compelling and essential new book, “The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate.”

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Social Security Now Allowing People to Choose Their Own Gender

Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Social Security Administration will allow people to self-select their sex on social security documents without providing legal or medical documents to verify their sex, according to a Wednesday announcement.

The agency will accept individuals’ self-identification regardless of whether it matches their other documents and will supply Social Security cards accordingly, the agency announced. The move comes amid a push from the Biden administration to facilitate gender transitions and help transgender people change their sex on government records more easily.

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Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment Gets Biggest Bump in Decades to Keep Up with Inflation

Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced the largest increase to the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in over three decades due to high inflation.

The SSA announced that supplemental income benefits, which are paid to beneficiaries in addition to their regular benefits to offset inflation and other unexpected costs, would increase by 8.7%. This would, on average, increase benefits by $140 per month for most beneficiaries, beginning in January of 2023.

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Arizona Rep. Schweikert’s House Speech on Fraud, Spending, and Running Out of Money Goes Viral

Rachel Alexander

Rep. David Schweikert (R-06-AZ), known as the wonky numbers member of Congress, gave a speech on the House floor a few days ago about runaway spending in Congress that has gone viral with over 1.2 million views. It’s on Social Security and Medicare running out of money and how the U.S. is headed for a dystopian future if it’s not fixed. He addressed several myths and offered solutions.

He began saying he’s about to say some things most people don’t want to hear, “We call it math.” The biggest threat over the next couple decades facing the country is demographics. “Getting older isn’t Democrat or Republican, it’s going to happen to everyone.” But he says he’s been booed for telling people the truth. “You don’t raise money telling people the truth about what’s going on.” Referring to Congress, he said, “We live in a financial fantasy world in this place … there’s a fraud around here.” 

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Rising Inflation Could Mean Largest Social Security Increase Since 1983

The Center Square
Person counting cash

Rising inflation and the price increases that come with it may lead to the highest raise for senior citizens in decades.

The Senior Citizens League predicted Thursday that the annual cost-of-living adjustment for 2022 Social Security payments could be the highest since 1983. The prediction comes as federal data this week showed two major signs of inflation, continuing a trend that has worsened this year.

“The estimate is significant because the COLA is based on the average of the July, August and September CPI data,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. “With one third of the data needed to calculate the COLA already in, it increasingly appears that the COLA for 2022 will be the highest paid since 1983 when it was 7.4%.”

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Some Latinos Worry Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine Will Affect Their Immigration Status, Poll Shows

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Three people wearing masks, one focused on center

Some Latino adults are concerned to get a COVID-19 vaccine because they might have to provide identification or are worried it could affect their immigration status, according to a poll released Thursday.

Of the total number of unvaccinated Latino adults who were polled, 39% said they were concerned about potential requirements to provide a government-issued ID or Social Security number to be vaccinated, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor poll. And 35% of respondents expressed concerns that receiving the vaccine could negatively impact their own or a relative’s immigration status.

“Among unvaccinated Hispanic adults, those who are potentially undocumented, those without health insurance, and those with lower household incomes are more likely to express potential access-related barriers or immigration-related concerns to vaccination,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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