No Social Security Increase In 2011

Being a Social Security recipient, but also a conservative and knowing the need for reigning in the growth of entitlements, it is hard for me to put up much of a stink about the lack of COLA increases. However, the SS fix has to be earlier in the cycle and not after recipients have become dependent on benefits that they paid into for a lifetime. After all, everyone knows that there is no SS Trust Fund and that Congress spent every dollar that they received. Congress spent $787 billion on the worthless stimulus boondoggle. SS payments are taxable and the Bush tax rates are ready to expire. Yes, seniors have every right to be angry.

Excerpt: As if voters don't have enough to be angry about this election year, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through another year without an increase in their monthly benefits.

It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.

"If you're the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election," said Andrew Biggs.

"I do think there's going to be political fallout," Sanders said. "Many seniors who are spending a lot of money on health care and prescription drugs really are going to find it hard to believe that there has been no inflationary costs to their purchasing needs."

Federal law requires the Social Security Administration to base annual payment increases on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which measures inflation. Officials compare inflation in the third quarter of each year — the months of July, August and September — with the same months in the previous year.

"Costs of living are inevitably going up, regardless of what that formula says," Pomeroy said. "Seniors in particular have items such as uncovered drug costs, medical costs, utility increases, and they're on fixed incomes."

Govt: No call for Social Security increase in 2011