Projected Social Security Cost of living raises are expected to be the lowest since 2021. Supposedly, inflation is leveling off but it doesn’t show in food prices which have increased must faster than that. Food makes up a large portion of the expenses of many Seniors so they will take a serious loss this year. The economy isn’t improving, they are manipulating the figures to make it seem like the economy is improving because it is an election year. It indicates how little this administration thinks of Seniors. In their philosophy, you are only important if you contribute income and that excludes unborn babies, those who are seriously ill or injured, and the elderly. Seniors make up a large and increasing portion of voters so they are trying to impress them while not wanting to pour a lot of money into them.
Archive for the ‘Ministering to Elderly’ Category
Senior Citizen issues-G
While Democrats continue to declare that Republicans want to cut Social Security, they ignore the facts. It is the old story of accusing your opponent of doing what you are doing so people won’t notice you are doing it. President Biden has been providing Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants endangering the already threatened fund. In addition, he has cut Medicare reimbursements two times in the past two years. The only cuts to Social Security that Donald Trump wants to make is to remove illegal immigrants who did not pay into the fund and have not met the eligibility requirements. President Biden feels that supporting illegal immigrants is more important than supporting Seniors who paid into the fund their whole life. In addition, President Biden and Kamala Harris continue to push abortion which is robbing us of the future workers needed to pay into the Social Security fund to keep it solvent and available to Seniors who will continue to need the fund. Democrats drained the funds in the social Security fund to support welfare programs so it relies on funds supplied by those currently working, but abortion has killed one out of every three babies conceived and left us with too few workers to support the program. We might be helped by immigrants who come here to work, but Democrats are keeping the border open and flooding he country with illegal immigrants who are not paying into the system and forcing reduction in the number of legal immigrants that we can accept who would work and pay into the system. Unless we cut back the number of abortions and control illegal immigration, we will soon face a real crisis. Seniors need to support someone who will work to protect the Social Security fund so it will be there for Seniors when they need it. President Trump did what he could but President Biden has undone everything he did and did a great deal more damage to it.
Senior Citizens-F
The administration has also cut Medicare reimbursements resulting in doctors being increasingly reluctant to treat Seniors. In addition, as expenses mount, Medicare is rejecting procedures which they feel will cost more than its benefit. While that is common in all government funded medical care, it is especially true for Seniors since they are no longer working. Liberals value individuals only as long as they are productive and since many Seniors are no longer gainfully employed, they are considered a burden on society. As a result, the Senior continues paying copays for office visits while not getting relief. Many will die from conditions that could have been cured. Canada illustrates the end game of socialized medicine. Their death rate, especially among Seniors has risen sharply due to delaying or withholding treatment. In addition, they are pushing assisted suicide for those whose conditions are too expensive to be economically worthwhile. That includes a large percentage of Seniors. It is the natural conclusion of the belief that it is alright to terminate someone’s life, whether before birth or after, if they are going to be a burden or will get in the way of your happiness. Abortion was the easiest to start with because the baby is not seen, but their goal is to do away with all those who are a burden, including the critically ill, the severely disabled, the elderly, and those with mental deficiencies or disabilities, just as Hitler did. To avoid the cost of long term care, they simply push the individual to terminate their life. If the person refuses, the doctor may proceed to kill the individual without securing their approval. In the United States, we have been slow to accept abortion and so assisted suicide has not been pushed vigorously, however some States like Oregon have approved physician assisted suicide and other States are considering it.
Senior Citizens-E
President Biden’s administration has been hard on Seniors. President Biden’s massive spending has fueled increasing inflation like we have not seen for a long time. Seniors are hurt by it since they are on a fixed income. While they give Seniors a cost of living increase, it is only after the fact and does not return the loss. If the Social Security is considered adequate at the beginning of the year, and inflation increases costs 4% during the year, the Senior income buys 4% less at the end of the year. If they get a 4% increase, it brings them up to adequate but doesn’t reimburse them for the past year’s loss. That continues every year, but the Senior is never reimbursed. In addition, the cost of Medicare increases and is taken out of the Senior’s check so his income is not really being brought back up to adequate. Due to wasteful spending, the inflation rate has far exceeded 4%. Worse yet, the cost of living is based on across the board increases while increases in food, and fuel for heating and travel have increased far more than the estimated cost of living and make up the bulk of Senior expenses. Auto fuel alone has risen over 100%. It is requiring many Seniors to dip into their life savings at an increased rate and those savings will not be adequate given the increase in years Seniors now live. As a result, an increasing number of Seniors will reach the point where they can no longer afford to live in their own home and will be forced to move to government subsidized housing. Since many of their homes are paid for, it will be far more costly for the government.
Senior Citizen Issues-D
Democrats say they want to help preserve the Social Security fund for Seniors but they seem to have other priorities. They have added a lot of illegal immigrants to Social Security even though they haven’t paid into it. That further endangers the fund. While they continue to cry that Social Security is running out of money and they may have to cut benefits, they continue to extend benefits for those who are receiving welfare, and have even extended welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. Seniors have paid into Social Security their whole life and should be able to expect to receive some benefit from their sacrifice. Many Seniors, especially low income Seniors could have used those funds when they were younger but allowed the government to take them with a promise that they would be available to help them in their old age. Those receiving welfare did not pay into a fund and have no right to expect help. The government helps them in the hope of helping them get back on their feet and return to productive work, however welfare rules discouraged them from working and we saw generational welfare families where they stayed on welfare indefinitely and the children followed their parents in welfare, until politicians got wise and finally put limits on welfare to prevent it. The taxes they paid when they were working, if they did, went into the general fund and their benefits are taken out of the general fund. Seniors also paid taxes which went into the general fund and were taken out for welfare. They have as much right to help from the general fund as welfare recipients, but no one is talking about protecting Social Security by replacing funds taken from the Social Security fund.
Senior Citizens-C
Now that we face the problem, we have to decide what to do about it. The Democrats feel we should tax the rich. That sounds good, they have lots of money. Income is taxed at a certain percentage based on income and there is currently a ceiling where income is no longer taxed. They propose to raise that limit so they can get more income, as well as raising taxes on income in general. The problem with raising the limit lies in the fact that very few make over the limit and those that do don’t make much over the limit. The amount raised would not be anywhere near enough to stabilize the fund. In addition, they want to raise benefits for Seniors which will further strain the fund, causing it to run out of funds even earlier than if nothing is done. While it sounds like they have good ideas to help, they are very short-sighted and the ideas only look good on paper. In fact, they will do more damage than good. It would result in the fund running out sooner than if nothing was done and hurt all those who depend on it. Republicans, on the other hand, are proposing to raise the age of retirement. That will hinder plans for those planning to retire at age 65, however many are healthy and could easily work another ten to twenty years, and it would not have to be very long. The last time they raised the age limit, they only raised it two years to age 67, but it bought us a lot more time because the most retirees are around age 65. The older people get, the more die so the number of retirees in the population declines as age increases. There are a lot of people aged 65 in the population but very few reach the age of 90 or 100. The result would be a lot more people working and fewer drawing benefits and the age increase would be so small, most people would not notice it. It would extend the fund and continue helping those who depend on it. For those who are not able to continue working until the new retirement age, there is Social Security Disability which helps those who are currently not able to work until retirement age, so no one would really be hurt by it.
Senior Citizens-B
The biggest change was that Democrats saw the growing fund as a source of funds to develop new programs. The fund was growing rapidly because a lot of workers were paying in and very few were drawing on it, and they only drew on it a short time. Democrats felt that the surplus funds could be used to fund other programs. Therefore they looted the Social Security fund to develop other Social services. As a result, the money was no longer drawing interest and was in fact not available for future payments. As a result, the sole source of income for the fund was the payments received from those who were currently working. That was not a problem since a large number of baby boomers were working and jobs were plentiful so there was plenty being paid in to cover the expenses of those few who were retired and drawing benefits. However, they were very short-sighted. Like many liberal thinkers, they judged things by appearances and did not consider other changes that were occurring. The baby boomers were going to get older and as they did, they would eventually retire. At the same time, the prosperity had led many women to go to work and as a result, they had fewer babies because having children would hinder their ability to work. The result has been a large growth in the number retiring, and going from paying into the fund to drawing out of the fund, with very few children to grow up and replace them in the workforce. Previously, most people worked as long as possible and didn’t retire until they were no longer able to work. Most could not accumulate much in savings resulting in poor nutrition, nothing to occupy their time, and poor health care. As a result, most did not live long after retirement. The prosperity brought better nutrition and more health care enabling workers to reach retirement in much better health. With Social Security to provide a basic income, many Seniors now retire around age 62-65 when they are still healthy and with Medicare to provide decent health care, many live a long time after retirement. If they had not raided the fund and it had been allowed to gather interest, it might not have been a problem for a long time, however, as it is, the problem is facing us much sooner then it would have otherwise, so the Democrats have created the problem they are now warning us about.
Senior Citizens-A
President Biden and leading Democrats are accusing Republicans of trying to destroy Social Security. That is important because Senior Citizens are making up an increasing portion of the population, particularly those of voting age. It is also important because Social Security makes up a large portion of the income for a large number of Seniors. If it fails, then a large portion of the population will be impoverished. Liberal politicians and the media have increasingly been pushing the narrative that Social Security will run out of money. Such scare tactics are designed to scare Seniors into voting in Democrats to save their income. However, allowing fear to drive people to rash decisions is not helpful. We need to look at the facts to help us make rational decisions. Social Security was designed to be a savings plan to help Seniors in their old age. It would involve taking out money from their employment during their working years and investing it so they would have an adequate income during their retirement years. That was smart thinking. However, since then, society has changed and politicians have changed the program. Those changes have created the problems we have today. In the beginning, Seniors died shortly after retiring or were helped in other ways, either by their family, or by retirement homes and nursing homes. It was also felt that workers would also save toward their retirement to supplement their Social Security. At that time, Seniors made up a very small portion of the population and received help for a short time. In contrast, the majority of the population was of working age and were paying into the fund. As a result, the fund grew rapidly. That money was invested and drawing income which further fueled the growth of that fund. As designed, it looked like the fund would be adequately funded for the foreseeable future. However changes have occurred that threaten the fund.
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany-Feb 11
Reason For Living-The church today often fails to recognize that the elderly need a reason for living. Men who work their whole lives see their reason for living tied to their work. When they retire, they often lose that and need to find another. Without it, they often become depressed and die. The highest death rate for men is shortly after they retire because they often lose their will to live. The church needs the talents and abilities of those who retire, but often fails to utilize them. While women are more tied to family and not so tied to work and do not face the crisis at retirement that men do, they too often have talents and abilities the church could use. The church needs to consciously work to help those of all ages, but especially those who are retiring find areas for them to use their talents and abilities for God’s service and should have an ongoing committee dedicated to getting to know members and help them discover and use their talents for God.
Fifth Sunday of Epiphany-Feb 4
Transportation is often a problem with Senior Citizens. Many Senior Citizens drive long after they should stop because they have no other way to get around. I once was asked to visit a man in the country. As I drove up the farm lane and met an elderly man. I asked him if he was the one I sought but he replied that was his father who was throwing rocks up on the fence row that had been turned up by the plow, though he was 96 years old. I later visited a pastor in a nearby town and was telling him about the man. He stated he knew who I meant for the man went to his church. They had taken his car away because they didn’t feel it was safe for him to drive so he drove his tractor 8 miles to church every week. He was an exception for it is often no longer safe for many elderly people to drive or they are no longer able to. Once they can no longer drive, they are often confined to home and it is difficult to get food and other things they need. Many Senior citizens live in small towns where there is no bus or taxi system. Even where they are available, they are often expensive. While the government provides some transportation for Senior Citizens, many live beyond its reach. Neighbors going to the store can pick them up and take them along or pick up a few items for them while they shop. If the Senior Citizen enjoys children, mothers of young children may appreciate a Senior Citizen who looks after their kids while they go to the store and can pick up what the elderly person needs while they are there. (For more suggestions on ministering to the elderly, see video “Ministering to the Elderly” on You Tube