The new plan from House Speaker John Boehner and his extremist friends makes it clear they have no problem harming the economy to get their way. They want to extend tax cuts on income between $250,000 and $1 million a year—which would benefit millionaires as well. In fact, about half of the Boehner tax cut would go to millionaires.
And to make things worse, Boehner has been talking to President Obama about cutting Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs), which are especially important to keep inflation from eating away the benefits that seniors and people with disabilities depend on.
The Republicans' zealous support for making the rest of us pay for tax cuts for the richest 2% isn’t new—and neither are the benefit cuts proposed in Speaker Boehner’s plan.
The proposal by Boehner, Sen. Mitch McConnell and other extreme lawmakers to cut COLAs by changing the COLA formula would make it less accurate—an idea that more than 250 economists have said there is "no empirical basis" for doing.1
Unfortunately, this change isn’t just something we’d see on paper. It would have real consequences for working families, particularly for the oldest beneficiaries of Social Security. The older and more vulnerable you are, the worse your benefits will be cut under Boehner’s proposal. And it will hit those with disabilities even more.
For people who count on Social Security benefits for a large share of their income, it would mean less money for the prescriptions they need, for groceries, for their mortgages.
It's time for President Obama, your member of the House of Representatives Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Sen. Joe Manchin to hold firm against these out-of-whack policies.
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