Deer in The Headlights

    Surrender? I don't think so.

Aren't we deer in the headlights, my friends? We've been saturated with months of political campaigning on all sides, lies, half-truths, obfuscation flying at us, like a storm of locusts or fruit bats. I prefer bats on the wing as an analogy, because of the level of batty posturing on all sides. At a certain point I considered voting for Satchel, a bull terrier, who was making a good deal of sense in some of his media postings.

Today's online baloney sandwich includes a layer of nonsense from the "Christian Science Monitor" about civility. I'll call it the cheese layer. Next is the nitrite, and preservative-laden baloney layer, which a media giant is touting as "every bit as nutritious" as it's organic equivalent. Of course, it isn't about nutrients and there is no equivalent product. Okay, so they're not lying, merely pandering, like pundits and politicians.

If you run on civility, do the civil thing, vote. If, like me, you do not always behave in a politically correct, mannerly, way, do the uncivil thing -- VOTE!
Feeling disenfranchised? Don't. You don't have the luxury! Nor does any one of us have the luxury of throwing away our vote on other than one of two parties. It is a two-party system, people, like it or not.

Mail it, go early, go often ... I don't care. Just know, when we think things for the elderly could not get worse, we find out they certainly can. Get out of your comfort zone. Let Mr. Obama know, just a surely as you let Mr. Romney know, the Boomers and their elders are here, we're in force, and we aren't surrendering.

Revolting

"What a revoltin'development dis is!" Jimmy Durante
 I admit to having been asleep at the switch yesterday, at least, in terms of the news. I missed the uproar, wait, wait ... don't tell me there was none! This just in. The National Women's Law Center reports the proposed 2013 cost of living increase for Social Security retirement beneficiaries is a walloping 1.7%. Disgusting, yes, but this is only the tip of an iceberg, waiting to crush retirement dreams and retirees in this country, while so many families and their elderly members are drowning in icy waters, as it is.
     One of the first blunders of the Obama Administration, of the President himself, was to use seniors, the disabled and active military members, as rhetorical pawns in the budget crisis. Oh, but that was years ago, so focusing on the now, we learned this morning from NWLC, on the table are cuts to Social Security benefits, very subtly designed to look far less devastating than they would actually be. The article on the NWLC site this morning explains that the Cost of Living increase has been based upon the CPI, the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. Proposed and under consideration is to base the COLA on a new CPI, the "Chained CPI."
     The NWLC concerns itself with the welfare of American women, because of the disproportionate number of elderly women, who live below the poverty line. However, of course, the proposal would affect elderly men, particularly those who are already struggling. Here is a link to the graphic, which shows the progression of cuts over years:

https://www.facebook.com/nationalwomenslawcenter

Read it and weep. This was, by the way, part of the Bowles-Simpson plan, to reduce the federal deficit, promoted by our Senate's beloved Gang of Six. 

     Why on earth would the Administration engage in considering this? Before you answer, please do not allude to how Social Security is or will be broke! That is a myth and a lie. Please, also, call the term entitlement program, as it relates to Social Security, a misrepresentation and a travesty. We paid into Social Security. The only reason Social Security was on the table, during the budget crisis was the federal government's "right" to borrow from the Social Security Trust. This is an election year, and President Obama wants to avoid the appearance of being characterized by the opposition as a spendthrift at a Macy's sale.
      What is the correct answer to the eventuality of a "broke" Social Security Trust (which wouldn't happen, in any case, until thirty years down the line.) There is an answer, a clean, straightforward, effective answer: Lift the current cap on the payroll tax. Why not, you may ask? It is simple. The power structure of think tankers, politicians, lobbyists and media pundits, whom I will refuse to call journalists are working and aging, just as are we, so this would affect them.
     Legislators who speak of increasing the retirement age won't be affected by
the increase, either, as they are among the few privileged to work, if they wish, in their highly salaried positions or in private law practices ... way beyond the time, when any of them can keep up a pretense of competence. So, in fact, this is the ultimate coward's answer.
      Well, I think were done here, except to ask, where are the big organizations like AARP in all of this? We know the President isn't going to stand up; we also know, by now, by voting for him, we are voting for the lesser of two evils. The entire nation needs to be involved in this dialogue. My children reach out to help me, when I stumble or fall financially. One daughter is over 50; the other children are pushing 50 and pushing 40. The grandchildren are entering, have entered, the workplace.
      I know I've violated Jimmy's rule ... I haven't left you laughin'. I hope I've left you mad enough to voice your objections.

Yours, from the Financial Ragged Edge,
Kathleen

Get Her a Shredder 
If you are an elder, or concerned with the well being of an elder, the importance of identity protection is not confined to the younger, nor more prosperous! A delay with an entity like Social Security or Medicare slams a girl into a recurrent bureaucratic nightmare. Have you bought your Mother a paper shredder?

Personally, although I can be excruciatingly detail-oriented, I've never been vigilant about my money, nor focused on the tons of paper on my desk. It is just not in my nature to check stuff, regardless of how many times life thumps me on the head for my failing.

To my astonishment, a letter arrived in the mail recently, stating the State Department of Labor and Employment had reported over $5500 in wages I'd allegedly earned, as the employee of a certain Limited Liability Company. As a result my state shut off my assistance with Medicare Part B premiums.

As I'd never heard of the company and did not earn the wages. I set about to find the employer -- not a chance, no listings in phone directories, no Internet presence. Next I contacted the people in my state, who help me pay my Medicare Part B premiums. I'm cut off, and must file a police report for "possible" identity theft, and send the state a copy. Trying to throw logic into the black hole of Human Services, I said I'd rather not involve the police, as I have not been harmed in any other way. "Besides, this could just be a clerical error." The Gong Show Gong (now I really am dating myself) is still deafening!

Now it appears Labor and Employment may be able to help, but, of course, with the speed of a fly trapped in syrup, pitching me back into calling the police department. I know some disgruntled cop will be delighted to spend his time talking about this. The idea of paying Social Security two months of Medicare premiums and losing my medical plan just stinks, so I'll be talking with those who protect and serve, sooner, rather than later.

Here's the thing. As unappealing a gift as a confetti paper shredder may be, it's a practical help, as is the cleaning out and shredding of all the stuff in all the bottom drawers and attic archives. If the task is daunting, hire the job done, but do it!

A Damnable Slow Death

Welcome, readers, to my new blog and the e-zine within. The look is the same, but I hope the content will be relevant, and will offer insights into issues of aging and the rights of elders.

We have seniors in our lives, who end each day and greet the dawn, grateful for life. Others soldier on, managing in spite of ... in spite of the pain, in spite of poverty, in spite of the neglect of loved ones. Still others have stopped living; these are people counting time.

One neighbor of mine in a senior high rise apartment complex said, "My friends and I came here to die." When I asked her how long she had lived there, she said, "Oh, I've been here, since the place opened twenty years ago!" "That's a damnable, slow death," I replied.

Neither group, the thrilled to be alive, nor the treading water 'til death, vary according to income or privilege. My hope is to walk in beauty. Here is part of a Native American prayer:

Let me walk in beauty

and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise, so that I may understand the things

you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lesson you have hidden

in every leaf and rock.