Free Republic

Social Security benefits are the major source of income for most people over age 65, according to the Social Security Administration. That means living standards in later life can depend heavily on how well retired workers and spouses understand the program. Unfortunately, misunderstandings are all too common. A recent survey from Nationwide Retirement Institute found that 44% of adults were unaware that, upon the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse would inherit the bigger Social Security benefit. Social Security old-age and survivor benefits is a broad term that includes two subcategories: retired-worker benefits, and benefits for spouses and other...

“I’d describe it as catastrophic.” So said Food and Drug Administration commissioner Robert Califf in a recent series of tweets about a troubling but ignored problem: the major decline in life expectancy among young, working age people. In fact, the number of “unexpected or, ‘excess,’ deaths, which claimed 158,000 more Americans in the first nine months of 2023 than in the same period in 2019 … exceeds America’s combined losses from every war since Vietnam,” wrote The Hill last week. Some people want this problem to remain ignored, too. Just consider that “America’s chief health manager, the Centers for Disease...

These days, workers who refuse to get vaccinated against covid-19 may face financial repercussions, from higher health insurance premiums to loss of their jobs. Now, the financial fallout might follow workers beyond the grave. If they die of covid and weren’t vaccinated, their families may not get death benefits they would otherwise have received. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority no longer pays a $500,000 death benefit to the families of subway, bus and commuter rail workers who die of covid if the workers were unvaccinated at the time of death. “It strikes me as needlessly cruel,” said Mark DeBofsky, a...

Radio Lefty Bill Press Calls Paying Soldiers’ Families Death Benefits ‘Big Mistake’ Just hours before the Senate voted to approve a measure that was passed by the House on Wednesday in a 425-0 vote to restore the death benefits paid to the families of fallen soldiers, liberal radio talk show host Bill Press showed his true colors when he said it would be a “big mistake” for the government to do that because “once the government starts making special exceptions, it allows the shutdown to continue.”

Here is where we’re at: The Republican establishment — the guys who told us that for a trillion dollars and several thousand American casualties, we could build “Islamic democracies” that would be reliable U.S. allies in the War on Terror — say it is Ted Cruz who is “delusional” and the effort to stave off Obamacare that is “unattainable.” These self-appointed sages are, of course, the same guys who told us the way to “stabilize” and “democratize” Libya was to help jihadists topple and kill the resident dictator — who, at the time, was a U.S. ally, providing intelligence about...

Disgraceful Secretary of Defense Hagel was following orders from the “Spite” House to make a shutdown just as painful as possible to the American public and to Military families especially. Unlawful furloughs and cutting off military benefits has been the Administration’s plan since day one. Hagel, instead of being a patriot, sided with the progressive extremists and shuttered as much of the military as he could in an act of political calculation. It was Obama and Hegel’s decision to halt death benefits for the families of troops killed in action. This is disgraceful and was done for purely political reasons....

- Rep. Duncan Hunter was on with Megyn Kelly again tonight to discuss the fact that Obama and Harry Reid had a change of heart and tonight Obama signed a bill to ensure military families get the death benefits they so deserve. Megyn Kelly made a great point during this, that if it was really a concern for the DoD that death benefits weren't going to be paid out to military families, that they would have come back to Congress 9 days ago and said fix it. But they never did, according to Hunter, who says that someone made a...

President Obama opposed passage of funding for veterans' death benefits because the Fisher House Foundation has agreed to cover the costs, according to his spokesman.

The MSM and the conservative media are treating the scandal very differently. To read about the story in the MSM, the Pentagon had no choice about withholding payment of the death benefit from the grieving families and denying them a plane ride to Dover AFB to meet the bodies of the soldiers killed in battle. It seems that some unknown entity we'll call "Mr. Government Closer" found a rule that said that death benefits can't be paid, but that the Pentagon can keep the military golf course open so that President Obama can play. Of course nobody told Obama anything,...

<p>A "very disturbed" President Obama has ordered his top aides to restore death benefits today for families of military service members killed in action.</p> <p>"The president was very disturbed to learn of this problem," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The president expects this to be fixed today. He was not pleased."</p>

Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and...

Widow wants more from government for death of soldier husband A suburban Cincinnati woman says the death of her soldier husband during an Army training accident in Texas should be worth more than about 12-thousand dollars in military benefits. Shauna Moore may get some help from Congress. In January, the Bush administration proposed to increase the military death benefit of 12 thousand, 420 dollars to 100-thousand dollars, but only in cases where the service member died in a war zone designated by the secretary of defense. But some lawmakers and military officials say the increased death benefit should be offered...

As area families learned of the Pentagon's plan to increase payments by as much as $250,000 to $500,000, they said no amount of money can ease their grief. But many also said that the money would soften the financial aftershocks by making house payments, school tuition and other bills easier to face. The Pentagon announced the plan Monday, after members of Congress said the payments to families of the fallen were insultingly ungenerous. Under the plan, which would be made retroactive to service members killed in Afghanistan or Iraq since October 2001, life insurance coverage would grow from a limit...

If there is any common ground for agreement left between the warring political parties in Congress it should be in protecting the welfare of the loved ones of American soldiers who die in combat. At the moment, the nation's gratitude for those who have given their utmost is a paltry $12,420 — in many cases hardly enough to pay for funeral expenses. - - - - - - - - - Since established under Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 as a bonus for Civil War veterans, the gratuity, originally a few hundred dollars, has been increased several times but not by...

Only caught part of an Imus interview with Senator Rick Santorum on this morning's show. Santorum was telling Imus Congress had doubled the death benefit from $6,000 to $12,000. Imus told him that was, in effect, a disgraceful joke. Santorum tried to bolster Congress' alleged support for GIs by listing other survivor benefits, each of which Imus appropriately and accurately mocked. Santorum, seemingly defensive, then pledged to "try" to do more in next year's military appropriation bill. Might be helpful, if you agree with Imus, to fire off an email to your Congress people.