WASHINGTON – A Senior Lives Matter rally is scheduled at the Villages retirement mega-community near Ocala, FL on Monday, May 16, the Association of Mature American Citizens announced last week.
AMAC president Dan Weber said it’s part of an ongoing effort “to get the message out that we want a one-time, retroactive cost of living for Social Security recipients and veterans. The legislation is in place in Congress.  The Seniors Act, H.R. 4140, will give recipients of Social Security and veterans’ benefits a special one-time retroactive payment to offset the lack of a Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment Increase this year. Now we need action in Congress and exhortations from America’s senior citizens and veterans who are urged to call on their lawmakers to move the bill.”
It’s only the third time in the last 40 years that nearly 70 million Americans will be denied a COLA in FY 2016. The government concluded in the fall that a flat year-to-year Consumer Price Index which, due to falling gasoline prices, fell sharply from 2014 to 2015, senior citizens and veterans should be denied a much-needed benefits increase.
Meanwhile, Weber noted, medical costs, food costs and to costs for heating and air conditioning and other necessities increased, forcing seniors on fixed incomes to make sacrifices.
“It’s unfair that federal employees got an increase in pay this year while elderly poor Americans on Social Security and veterans received nothing! We paid our money into Social Security; the government didn’t put in one cent.  Just because they mismanaged our money by only paying us 2% interest- is no excuse for us not to get a Cost of Living increase this year,” Weber declared.
While the Seniors Act will not overturn the no-COLA decision, it will provide senior citizens and veterans with a one-time, 1% payment equal to a 1% Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA). Its sponsors said that the cost of the one-time payment is estimated to be between $9 and $11 billion but will be offset by an equal amount of federal spending cuts.
The bi-partisan initiative is sponsored by Representatives Frank Guinta (R-NH) and Kyrsten Sinema, (D-AZ).
“One third of Social Security recipients rely on benefits for 90 percent of their total income. Our Seniors Act is a fiscally responsible solution to helping the elderly pay their bills. No senior should have to choose between rent and groceries,” according to Rep. Guinta.
Rep. Sinema noted that “seniors depend on Social Security to survive, and their budgets are stretched too thin. This bipartisan legislation is a commonsense, fiscally responsible solution that helps seniors keep up with the rising cost of food, energy, prescription drugs, and housing.”
Weber urged seniors and vets to “let their voices be heard. Congress is frozen like an ice cube when it comes to taking action on Social Security, and the only way we can get them to act by applying heat. We’ve made it easy; just go to www.amac.us to send a prepared email to your Congressman.  All you have to do is fill in your name and address and it will automatically be sent to your Representative.”
Republicans have us social security recipient’s and veteran’s just where they want us, this is just one step in during away with social security and further reneging on veteran’s pensions and benefits but they sure as hell will take care of themselves and their rich cronies, this is why I don’t understand why seniors and veterans vote for these people
It is so surprising how it appears these groups often seem to vote in a way that is not in their best interest.