February 2, 2015
News Release
“We’re glad to see President Obama respond to the GOP majority’s Social Security hostage-taking by including language in his 2016 budget allowing the routine rebalancing of the Trust Funds. Threatening people with disabilities with a 20% benefit cut unless there are broader Social Security benefit cuts plays politics with the livelihoods of 11 million Americans and their families rather than resolving this imminent funding issue. We applaud the President for taking a stand against this Social Security ploy. The President also included increased funding for the Social Security Administration which is desperately needed by an agency that’s been forced to reduce local office hours, cut back on consumer services, and increase the wait time for disability hearings. We urge Congress to approve this Social Security Administration budget.
While the President’s budget thankfully no longer includes cuts to Social Security, through the Chained-CPI proposal, his 2016 plan unfortunately still targets seniors by shifting more costs to Medicare beneficiaries through increased means-testing, premium hikes and co-pays. While some tout increasing means testing in Medicare as a way to insure ‘rich’ seniors pay their share, the truth is, the middle-class will take this hit as well.
Medicare has been means-tested since 2007 and the number of beneficiaries subject to higher premiums has been increasing. If passed, the President’s means testing proposal will hurt middle-class individuals and flies in the face of his budget theme of ‘middle-class’ economics. The economic realities facing America’s middle-class retirees are ignored by these provisions which shift even more costs onto seniors and exacerbate the retirement deficit gap millions of Americans face now and into the future. These Medicare proposals are especially worrisome given the fact that with the new GOP majority in Congress, passage of these cost-shifting plans can happen with a simple majority vote in the Senate posing a serious threat to millions of American seniors.” …Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
###
The National Committee, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization acts in the interests of its membership through advocacy, education, services, grassroots efforts and the leadership of the Board of Directors and professional staff. The work of the National Committee is directed toward developing better-informed citizens and voters.
Media Inquiries to:
Pamela Causey 202-216-8378/202-236-2123
Kim Wright 202-216-8414