Thursday, November 7, 2013

Social Security: Like Walking Up a Down Escalator

Government Cost-of-Living (COLA) Increase is an "inflation deception," say Experts in New Book

Are you aware that President Obama is Shortchanging Americans on Social Security? Social Security benefits for nearly 58 million people will increase by only 1.5 percent next year, says the Associated Press. "The increase is among the smallest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Social Security pays retired workers an average of $1,272 a month. A 1.5 percent raise comes to about $19." AP continues, "Some advocates for older Americans complain that the COLA sometimes falls short, especially for people with high medical costs."

Authors Craig R. Smith and Lowell Ponte see COLA index as pure deception. "The U.S. government is expropriating Social Security recipients by claiming inflation now runs 1.5 percent when ShadowStats.com pegs it at between 7 and 11 percent," says Craig R. Smith in his widely-discussed new book THE GREAT WITHDRAWAL. Smith is a monetary expert frequently interviewed by Fox's Neil Cavuto and other prominent business journalists.

"This artificial (diet) COLA index also rips off taxpayers and investors - even those who pay a premium for TIPS bonds which are supposedly protected against inflation. It robs taxpayers, because the IRS supposedly adjusts its tax tables to offset inflation - yet uses these deceptively low inflation numbers to do so," adds Lowell Ponte, co-author and a former think tank futurist.  "It harms everyone who relies on Cost-of-Living increases to keep their head above water." [more...]

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