Frustrated with Gregg’s cost of living vote

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

To the EditorL

This is a letter to U.S. Sne. Judd Gregg.

Dear Honorable Judd Gregg:

Your quote on Wednesday (March 3, 2010) that: “The law says it shouldn’t be given” after pointing out that the (amendment to give 57 million elderly people, veterans and persons with disabilities a $250 check due to no 2010 Cost of Living Adjustment in the pending job-creation) bill would defeat the purpose of indexing Social Security payments to inflation is wholly and completely incorrect because, indeed, there was plenty of inflation numbers last year (2009) that a 2010 CoLA could have been based on.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7 in 2009, but overall prices fell from July to September 2009 compared with the same months in 2008 – the period the government uses to determine Social Security adjustments.

Medical costs rose by 3.4 percent in 2009.

The premium for Medicare Part B went up 14.5 percent in 2010.

Premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010 and increased by 5.2 percent in 2009.

College tuition costs jumped by 6 percent in 2009.

I believe you are being totally disingenuous to say that the 57 million American recipients of Social Security benefits should not receive an extra $250 check in 2010 because the yearly CoLA is indexed to inflation. There was no CoLA for Social Security recipients in 2010, but only because the metric used three months of 2009 instead of the entire year of 2009. Had Social Security indexed the 2010 CoLA to the entire year, the increase in benefits would have been by at least 2.7 percent.

You are a phony pol of the highest order. You supported trillions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street’s corruption, trillions more to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, billions of dollars in Bush 2 era tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans and corporations, but you draw the line in spending an extra $13 billion when it comes to helping the most vulnerable Americans citizens and disabled veterans!

You did a disservice to the people of our nation by defeating the measure to provide an extra $250 this year to the 57 million recipients of Social Security who received no 2010 CoLA despite the many increases in inflation both in 2009 and now in 2010!

JONATHAN MELLE

Amherst