You probably didn’t forget that after three comes four, five and six, etc.
With what remains of your SS, you then must spend it on fuel for example, where the federal and state taxes you are paying, alone nearly doubles the price of your fuel.
The feds and most states tax fuel at a per/gallon rate, not on price. Some states do add a sales tax to the price which already includes the fuel tax, which is bogus, but that's the way it is. Therefore, at a fixed, per-gallon rate, the higher the price of fuel, the lower the relative taxes paid on it.