Obama: $250 to Seniors in Budget

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President's Budget Includes $250 Stimulus Payment for Social
Security Recipients

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President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposes a $250 payment to
Social Security recipients. The relief would come at a time when Social
Security beneficiaries will not be receiving a normal cost-of-living
adjustment (COLA) because of a formula that forbids adjustments during
times of negative inflation.

"Without a COLA, far too many of America's seniors will find it even
more difficult to purchase basic necessities, heat their homes and pay
for their medications," said Barbara J.Easterling, President of the
Alliance for Retired Americans. "We urge Congress to similarly work to
provide much-needed economic relief to older Americans who are
struggling to make ends meet during these difficult times," she
continued.  "The President's budget proposal will provide Social
Security beneficiaries with the equivalent of a 2% increase in benefits
and will help greatly to bolster their financial security."

As expected, the budget also calls for a Bipartisan Fiscal Commission
that will address the growth of entitlement spending, including Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. A plan to freeze non-security
discretionary spending for three years to address the budget deficit
would not affect those programs.

"We must watch this fiscal commission development carefully, so that
the budget is not balanced on the backs of seniors," said
Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.

Other items in the budget are aimed at supporting seniors. These include
$3.3-billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP);
funds to reduce Social Security backlogs; and money to help families
care for aging relatives at home. Retirement security initiatives
include establishing automatic workplace IRAs, with employees being able
to "opt-out" if they choose; doubling the credit for small employers
starting a retirement plan; and providing a 50-percent match on the
retirement savings of families that earn less than $85,000.

Guest Article - From Barbara O'Brien

Would Health Care Reform Help You?

Many obstacles and stumbling blocks remain in the way of health care reform. The House and Senate bills will have to be merged, and then the House and Senate both will vote on the final bill. We don’t yet know what will be in the final bill, or if the final bill will be passed into law. Passage will be especially difficult in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass. It is still possible that after all this angst, just one grandstanding senator could kill the whole thing.

But just for fun, let’s look at what conventional wisdom says will be in the final bill and see if there is anything in it that will be an immediate benefit to people with mesothelioma cancer and other asbestos-related disease.

It is likely that the final bill will provide additional funding for state high-risk insurance pools. Currently more than 30 states run such pools, which are nonprofit, state-sponsored health insurance plans for people who can’t buy insurance because of pre-existing conditions. The biggest problem with such pools is that, often, the insurance they offer is too expensive for many who might need it. Both the Senate and House bills provide $5 billion in subsidies for state high-risk pools to make the insurance more affordable.

Under the Senate bill, beginning in 2014, private companies would no longer be able to deny coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions, nor could they charge higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions. Until then, the state high-risk pools could provide some help.

Closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap — also called the “doughnut hole” — is another potential provision that could help some patients with asbestos-related disease. The “doughnut hole” is the gap between the coverage for yearly out-of-pocket expenses provided by Medicare Part D and Medicare’s “catastrophic coverage” threshold.

For example, in 2009 Medicare Part D paid at least 75 percent of what patients paid for prescription drugs up to $2,700. After that, patients must pay for all of their prescription medications until what they have paid exceeds $6,154. At that point, the catastrophic coverage takes over, and Medicare pays for all but 5 percent of the patient’s drug bills. The final health care reform bill probably will provide for paying at least 50 percent of out-of-pocket costs in the doughnut hole.

You may have heard the bills include budget cuts to the Medicare program, and this has been a big concern to many people. Proponents of the bill insist that savings can be found to pay for the cuts, and that people who depend on Medicare won’t face reduced services. But this is a complex issue that I want to address in a later post.

The long-term provisions probably will include many other provisions that would benefit patients with asbestos-related disease, including increased funding for medical research. Although there are many complaints about the bill coming from all parts of the political spectrum, on the whole it would be a huge benefit to many people.

— Barbara O’Brien::

Barbara O'Brien is a well known liberal blogger whose book "Blogging American Political Discourse in a Digital Nation" takes on the left-right debate and how blogging influences and changes the dichotomy. She led the way in using blogging to oppose the Iraq War and giving citizens power in the media. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. She writes the blog Mahablog.

This was the first in what will be an ongoing effort to bring you the thoughts of other progressive writers, thinkers and activists.

Public Option - Very Much Alive

Hard-Hitting Progressive Representatives Tell Senate:
Use Reconciliation & House Will Pass It!

Armed with petitions signed by over 225,000 Americans from several progressive action groups, Freshman Representatives, Jared Polis (D-CO) and Alan Grayson (D-FL) delivered this message to Senator Harry Reid.

The Difference Between Liberals & Conservatives!

Liberal

Conservatives

The Deficit and Seniors

We are entering a period in which budget cutting and reducing the federal deficit will become the knee-jerk watch words of politicians of all stripes. Seniors, whose life experiences have taught them the dangers of careless budgeting, are very uncomfortable with our country's large deficits and do not want to leave behind such debt to burden our children and grandchildren.

At the same time, we know that the programs which provide safety-nets and safe and secure retirements for Older Americans did not create those deficits. Reckless, neo-liberal economics with their unconscionable tax breaks to the very wealthy and large, stateless corporations combined with two unfunded and unnecessary wars did that.

You can expect politicians mouthing the budget and deficit buzz words to utter in their next breath "entitlements" which freely translates to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Already the way is being paved with virtually daily dire warnings about Social Security and Medicare bankruptcy and collapse. Do not expect them to go after giant corporations with no national boundaries or loyalties beyond unrestrained and unregulated growth and profit. They will target the quick and simple and will promise that their cuts will not affect today's seniors, only coming generations whose very participation threaten to bring down these vital programs from their sheer number.

Seniors need to be aware of this and be prepared to once again fight for the welfare and protection of our children and grandchildren with exactly the same zeal with which we staved off Bush's coterie of liars, thieves, cut-purses and mendicants when they attempted to purloin Social Security and sneak off with it to give to Wall-Street speculators under the mantle of "privatization".

Right now, even with these programs, too many seniors struggle to get by and we do not want to see future generations of Americans loose these essential support systems.

Take, for example, the Social Security Trust Fund. Despite what you may have heard or read from conservatives, it is actually running a surplus, and would have an even greater surplus had not our government raided it for other purposes.

Medicare costs have risen and continue to rise because health care costs continue to spiral upward, virtually out of control, making even richer the massive insurance and drug companies which profit from our illnesses, conditions and accidents. The simple truth is that unscrupulous "for-profit" health care providers have exploited and cashed in on a program originally designed to keep America's seniors and retirees from economic catastrophe in their later years.

Today 50-million Americans receive monthly Social Security benefits and 90% of those are 65 and older. Tragically one-in-five of recipients have only that monthly benefit to look forward to in order to buy food, shelter, and medication.

These programs are the bedrock of income security for nearly all Americans, providing guaranteed benefits to retirees, those with disabilities, and the survivors (widows and children) of retired and deceased workers. They are essential to the well-being of our nation and must be honored for present and future generations of Americans.

Seniors should urge congress to strengthen--not weaken--retirement savings including private pensions and 401Ks while, at same time, protecting them from the predatory recklessness of Wall Street financiers. We, must also demand that congress pass a strong health reform bill ASAP to break the hold on health care by the insurance Tsars and drug oligarchs. We're living the results of their unchecked decade of greed!

We must also insist that serious action be taken to properly fund these life-support programs by properly taxing the wealthiest Americans who benefit the most from capitalism and we should demand an exploration of the ways to raise the wage cap on social security taxes. Right now, a millionaire pays no more in Social Security taxes than does a working family earning $106,000.

The message is really quite simple: Do not balance the budget on the backs of America's seniors!

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