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In 2023, Social Security benefits got an 8.7% COLA, the largest cost-of-living adjustment since 1981. According to the United States Social Security Administration (SSA), "COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)." So, when inflation starts to cool, that means a lower cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients. Currently, inflation is at its lowest level in two years, dropping to a 12-month rate of 3.0% in June. This is down from 4.0% in May and 4.9% in April. David Payne, staff economist from the Kiplinger Letter, forecasts a 3% Social...

(NEXSTAR) – The next cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients is projected to be slightly better than previously estimated, but still the lowest in years, the Senior Citizen’s League predicts. The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, had estimated in mid-June that 2024’s COLA increase could be somewhere around 2.7% — a huge drop-off from 2023’s 8.7% increase. The group’s revised estimate, issued Thursday following the publication of the Labor Bureau’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W), now puts that number at 3%, they say. Three percent, however, would still amount to the lowest COLA...

“Ponzi Scheme” is a term that was coined about 100 years ago. It was named after an Italian immigrant, Charles Ponzi, who realized he could get investors by promising large returns for undefined, high-yield investments. His endeavor needed to make just enough money to keep attracting new investors, whose money, after Ponzi’s cut, was used to pay some of the earlier investors. In our modern day, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme resulted in losses in the billions of dollars when the stock market tanked during the Great Recession. Selling the Deal Americans are just beginning to see the tip of the...

President Donald Trump is making an anticipated appearance at the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women today, where he will double down on his strong stance to protect Medicare and Social Security for American seniors. The president will take a swing at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who has been slammed in the past for voting to raise the minimum ages for drawing Medicare and Social Security during his time in Congress. President Trump will declare: “Unlike Ron DeSanctimonious—who voted to gut Medicare and Social Security and voted 3 times to raise the retirement age to 70—I will ALWAYS protect...

There's something about statistics that gets me energized, even on a weekday! I particularly enjoy comparing myself to others and understanding how I measure up. It's only natural to want to know if you're average or above average. This knowledge helps you gauge your position and serves as a valuable reminder of what the future may hold. As a financial planner, understanding retirement averages like these can truly assist both you and me in planning for the future. So, let me share with you my thoughts on some intriguing figures I recently came across in a Wall Street Journal article...

The first round of June's three Social Security payments, worth up to $4,555, will be sent out in 11 days, according to the Social Security Administration's schedule.

President Biden on Thursday sought to reassure Americans that benefits for veterans and Social Security recipients would not be impacted by the looming threat of a default as negotiators struggle to come to a budget deal and raise the debt ceiling. “I’ve made clear time and again defaulting on our national debt is not an option,” Biden said in remarks from the Rose Garden where he was set to nominate the new Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The American people deserve to know that their Social Security payments will be there, that Veterans’ hospitals remain open and that economic progress will...

In the days ahead, it should be borne in mind that in 1923 the federal government, with the exception of war widows, did not pay the personal living expenses of non-federal persons and their families. People back then worked to get the things and services they desired, and America was the greatest nation on Earth thanks to their efforts. WHY WE MUST FIGHT I believe the Democrats did not raise the maximum debt authorization amount when they controlled the House, Senate and White House (and had the absolute ability to do so) because they wanted to play their previously succcessful...

(NEXSTAR) – Social Security recipients shouldn’t expect 2024’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to be as significant as 2023’s, despite warnings that beneficiaries are losing their purchasing power. “The 2024 COLA could be around 3.1%,” Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for the Senior Citizens League, said in a news release issued last week.

The Trump campaign took a sledgehammer to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s, R-Fla., voting record on retirement benefits, roasting the Florida leader as colluding with “globalist handlers,” according to Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.“DeSantis is colluding with his globalist handlers to go full Never Trump in order to gaslight the people into thinking that Medicare and Social Security should be ripped away from hard-working Americans,” Cheung said in an official statement. “President Trump has made it clear that he will always stand on the side of Americans, and protect benefits seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives.”Ron Desantis Wants to Rip...

A Trump-aligned super PAC is hitting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sticking his “dirty fingers” into entitlement programs for senior citizens — and allegedly using them to eat pudding as well, according to a stomach-churning ad released Friday. “Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong, and we’re not just talking about pudding,” the ad’s narrator says, referring to an alleged 2019 incident where the 44-year-old Florida governor ate chocolate pudding with three of his fingers while on a private plane ride to Washington, DC. “DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements like cutting Medicare, slashing...

Americans to Spend Billions on Biden’s Obamacare for DACA Illegal Aliens American taxpayers are likely to subsidize billions of dollars in Affordable Care Act benefits for illegal aliens enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program under a plan by President Joe Biden. On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced a plan to open the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and Medicaid rolls to hundreds of thousands of DACA illegal aliens. (Snip) “Migrant patients are receiving free care,” he continued. “They have no ability to pay. We have no ability to bill anyone. We don’t know their...

the federal social security system is a lie. you can find out about how it is bankrupt by 2030 any day of the week by just picking up a newspaper and reading the headlines. paying a vendor who has lied about his or her or its product is called STEALING. It is prohibited by social convention (such as the 8th commandment, the koran, verse 5:38, and furtum in Roman common law) and so broadly understood to be morally wrong. so why should people be required to stand by and allow their social security to be stolen from them in the...

The Republican for whom this issue could be extremely problematic is Governor Ron DeSantis...In his State of the Union address last week, President Joe Biden departed substantially from the print version of his speech to concede that virtually no one in the Republican Party is currently proposing cuts in either Social Security or Medicare. In the print version of his speech released prior to the address, Biden said "some Republicans" are proposing such cuts, but in the actual remarks that he made he conceded "I'm not saying it's the majority." Also adding, "Other Republicans say " I'm not saying it's...

The Social Security program’s annual report admits the economy has permanently shifted into a lower gear on President Biden’s watch.In its budget last month, the White House claimed that “the Administration is committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security.” But the recently released annual report from that program’s trustees portrays a different story.The report demonstrates how the slower economic growth and higher inflation of the Biden years have undermined Social Security’s foundation and accelerated its insolvency. If ever a document illustrated the failures of the Biden administration’s economic policies, and how those failures will harm seniors, this report does it.Slower...

So I just saw the Trump commercial re: Desantis. He accuses Desantis of wanting to cut Medicare funding among other things. All dark and foreboding in black and white (of course). And here's my favorite part: "Desantis even voted to raise the retirement age to 70"!! Anyone even halfway responsible who looks at the Social Security trust fund numbers knows the retirement age will have to be lifted. Americans are living longer. There's no other option. Well, there is one other option -- raising SS taxes and/or raising or eliminating the income cap. Both Democrat solutions. Of course Trump has...

Social Security will be insolvent even sooner than previously expected, with automatic benefit cuts now projected to occur in 2033, according to a new report released Friday by the program's trustees. The new projections underscore the limited time that's available for policy makers to deal with the fiscal problems that are quickly rotting away America's old-age entitlement program. The more quickly approaching insolvency date also draws a stark contrast with leaders of both major political parties—including President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.)—who have all, at times, promised not to touch Social Security during...

Reserves for Social Security’s largest trust fund are on track to run out as soon as 2033, a board of trustees of the program’s accounts said in a report on Friday. The estimate is one year sooner than previously projected for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays out Social Security benefits to retirees, in the trustees’ report from last year. If the reserves are depleted, the report projected income for the account would only cover 77 percent of scheduled benefits. By contrast, the board estimated the program’s smaller Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund would not become...

(WJW) — Some Social Security recipients can expect a second payment before the end of the week. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients have received two benefit disbursements so far this month: the first SSI disbursement on March 1 and the regular Social Security payment on the second, third or fourth Wednesday, depending on their birth date. There’s typically only one SSI payment each month, paid out on the first of the month. But if that day falls on a weekend or holiday, it arrives on the last business day before the end of the month. This year, April 1 is...

Brenton Smith ([email protected]) is a policy advisor with The Heartland Institute.Social Security reform has been largely dormant for 40 years as politicians from both parties have talked diligently about the program’s long-term outlook while assiduously avoiding taking any action to deal with it.The sad truth is the longer we wait, the harder it gets. Given the passage of time, a person turning 76 years old today expects, on average, to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. It only gets harder from here. That statistic should draw the attention of our elected officials, but it has done little...