Lawmakers are pushing a bill called the Social Security Fairness Act which would repeal (WEP) Windfall Elimination Provision and (GPO) Government Pension Offset. They allow Social Security to be reduced by the amount of their pension. They were designed to prevent double dipping for those who worked at jobs taking out Social Security and jobs that took out for government retirement benefits, such as police, fire fighters, and other government workers. WEP is for individuals who are eligible for the pensions and GPO is for spouses and survivors of pensioners. It would affect only two million receiving WEP and 800,000 receiving GPO and would not benefit the majority of Seniors. While they say it deprives Seniors of benefits they earned, repealing them would enable them to draw from both funds. People who worked two jobs paying into Social Security had their credits combined and the same should be done with those working government jobs. The government jobs are high end union jobs which pay well so they are receiving good benefits from their government pension. If both husband and wife worked at both kinds of jobs, they could draw four pensions, far above the average Senior. Repealing them would add about two billion dollars to cost of Social Security and strain an already stressed system. At times while I was out of work, I did substituting in the schools and I taught at a community college on the side for a while but didn’t have enough credits to draw a pension so I merged my school benefits in with my Social Security because they were so few. If they make any changes, they should require the two funds be merged so those eligible only drew from one fund. It is evident the Democrats want to appease government union workers who are becoming unhappy with the performance of the Democrats and abandoning them after a long history of supporting Democrats who in turn gave special benefits and privileges to government union workers through closed shop laws requiring that government workers had to belong to the union and pay union dues, as well as fighting right to work laws that allowed people to work in union shops without being forced to join the union. They also pushed through generous wage packages that provided government workers with wages and benefits well above the market average.
Archive for the ‘Senior Citizen Issues’ Category
Senior Citizen issues-I
While Democrats continue to declare that Republicans want to cut Medicare, they hide the fact that they are the true threat. This coming October, Medicare Advantage plans will change a lot. Recent cuts in payments by President Biden will result in drastic cuts in services available to Seniors. They will also result in more doctors refusing to accept Medicare Advantage plans. Many doctors are already beginning to refuse to accept Medicare Advantage plans as a result of last year’s cuts. My wife just got notice one of her medical providers no longer accepts Medicare Advantage coverage. Medicare Advantage plans are paid for with Medicare funds but are administered by private companies which have lower overhead and a lot less waste. As a result, they can offer clients a lot more services than traditional Medicare administered by the government for the same amount of money. Many Seniors prefer them because they can get more services without having to pay more, however, with cuts in government payments, those companies can not offer a lot of the benefits previously provided. The goal of Democrats is to return many Seniors to government plans where the government can weed out those requiring expensive services by denying them services resulting in an early death or directing them to lower cost maintenance plans where the symptoms are treated but they are not cured. Their goal is to eventually merge it with a universal health care plan where a government panel could cut off treatment to those no longer felt worth the expense. Republicans on the other hand want to cut benefits to illegal immigrants and others who did not pay into the system or meet eligibility requirements to preserve the fund for Seniors who paid into the program and deserve to receive it.