GeneS Loc: Glendale,AZ

The GOP's new tax bill gives everyone some sort of tax relief, Or so I'm told.
What about us seniors on Social Security?
The last two years we received a cost of living raise in our checks !!!!!!!!, did we?
Last year and again this year my wife got a raise in her Social Security, Then received
an increase in what they with hold for Medicare of exactly what the raise is.
That's a cost of living raise?
Last year I received a cost of living raise.
Last year my raise was exactly what my increase in Medicare was. I made out this
year. Another cost of living raise, But the Medicare payment is raised all but $2.00
of what my raise is.
They only give seniors about a 2% raise if the cost of living is up 3% anyway.
Gee is this why more and more seniors can't pay for food and meds the same month?
Now coming up on the agenda is saving on the Social Security cost.
Making Seniors pay tax on their S.S. benefits, and cutting the raise in benefits
HELP.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

I agree with you. The same happened to me and my wife. Welcome to the GOP era.

Don

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

It's a tax reform bill. It's for people who pay taxes.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

You got to be kidding. GOP.. Do you really think it wouldn't happen if the dumb dems were in charge. This country is in debt to the tune of over 20 trillion. And we are still sending billions over seas. We have a fox guarding the hen house.

foodie65

Not to worry. Trump is taking care of us.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Many of us already pay sizable taxes on our SS benefits - the result of working longer, (until 70 for me) waiting longer to draw benefits and paying more into SS which raises our benefit and makes more of it taxable 😩.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

Who drew up the plan .. wasn't Dems. Lol

GeneS Loc: Glendale,AZ

All I can say is don't blame any president, he doesn't make these changes, congress is responsible.
S.S. is based on what I've paid in over the years to S.S.
Some think we are not tax payers I paid taxes on this money already for years.
Here is another 1.4 trillion in debt.
I pay on my income also but not what is coming
Earlier in the year Social Security reported we would get a cost of living
increase without a raise in Medicare. Gee S.S. do you remember that?

Bar Loc: da 'YouPee', eh!

Something for us old geezers to think about, I'm sure it will bring back some memories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxman

toxdoc42

Historically, a republican administration comes into power and "lowers taxes." This leads to greater deficits, and often a recession which leads to a democratic administration coming into power and needing to raise taxes, and the spiral continues.

This time the tax cut also will end up "blowing up" "health care system," and they also decided not to fund the Special Children's Health Plan. These two combined will through tens of thousands out of their health insurance coverage.

At the same time the top 20 percent of earners will receive 80 percent of the advantages of the new plan!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Social Security and Income Tax are two different systems, and run by two different departments. And almost all of them are long term civil servants who have been around through several administrations and different party's control of Congress. They sort of do what they please and they write most of the regs and bills concerning their own departments that go to Congress.

When SS was passed during the Depression it was an emergency aid for seniors whose former employers/pension funds had gone bust. It was meant as an augmentation to savings or pensions for most, not their only retirement income.
People were/are expected to either work for companies that paid pensions or save for retirement (401ks etc).

My wife was/is an RN and worked for several different hospitals at one time or another. She is 62 and has not yet claimed her 401ks or SS, she is waiting until she reaches 66 to max out her payments. In the mean time we are living on my pensions and SS, I am 72. I have my teacher's pension (32+ years service credit in over 34 years on the job-only months school is in session count and I did a lot of summer school/intersession teaching to get to 32 years credit in only a bit less than 35 years), a minimum pension from the retail grocery industry (13 years time credited while in college then weekends and summers for several years after I started teaching), a partial disability pension from VA (2 years in Nam-can you say Agent Orange and Tropical Fungus Infections) and this year I just got my last two payments from a couple of Tax Sheltered Annuities I had paid into while teaching and then elected to get over a 10 year period after I retired (they are what paid part of my daughter's way through Pre-Med), $369 a month SS from working several different jobs for various periods as well as the 13 years with the Retail Clerks (teaching didn't count, we paid into the CA State Pension Fund instead of SS-paid in 8%, only the CHP pay in more at 8.5%). And of course I paid CA state income tax, US income tax and the other fees, like unemployment etc.

Everyone needs to make sure their kids and friends/relatives understand that SS was never meant to be your only retirement income.
It was meant to be a safety net for those without savings or pensions and a supplement to those with savings and pensions. You need to save (TSAs and 401ks etc) and hopefully go for a profession where you can earn a pension. I did both.
Did I enjoy living on less while I paid into those TSAs and pension funds? Not really, but I did it. Many buy new cars every few years, I kept every car I bought new for 10-15 years but one and it got totaled when 6 years old, the replacement I kept for 15 years, the next for 14 and my present car will be 17 years old in Jan. My wife's car is 19 years old.

toxdoc42

Dear robertjeri

I don't really like to get into these arguments, and, luckily, while I worked I put away as much as I could in 401K, 403b and another state tax deferral programs. Social Security is often called an entitlement, incorrectly. We all pay a tax to support SS, it is an investment, not an entitlement. The government has been borrowing from the Social Security trust fund for years, so the government owes itself actually. There is a very easy fix to the "problem," that is, lift the salary cap and have workers even at high incomes continue to pay that tax. The fact that many companies have decided that it costs them less to convert from a defined benefit to a defined contribution and have the worker faced with the possibility of losing his/her funds through market variation adds to the potential problem of fewer seniors being covered by adequate retirement funds.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

Republican member of Congress: Trump said he would go after Social Security 'the first day of his second term'

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-social-security-medicare-changes-second-term-2017-12

Top Republicans are already talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security next

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/18/16741730/gop-agenda-medicare-social-security

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If they do, I predict it will cost them the next election - a high percentage of baby boomers vote, and there are a lot of us who have just retired or are facing retirement.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

These low educated followers willing to cut thier own throat.