Raise the Social Security Withholding Cap

The comments below are what I posted on the Washington Post Blog today, but it fits here as part of my philosophy as well: 

I've been hearing that old saw "Social Security won't be there for you" since I was in my teens, I'm in my late 60's and it is still here and keeps a roof over my head. Do I wish I'd saved more for my retirement, "YES", but what part of my life would I have changed. 

Should I have stayed in the abusive marriage I got out of at age 40, even though my son and I would continue to suffer? Should I have not quit job in my late 50's and moved to another state to take care of my aging father, a WWII & Korean War Veteran,  which allowed him to stay in his home until he died at age 93?  When my father died, and I was 65 should I have gone back to work rather than to take care of my boyfriend, a Vietnam era veteran, who was dying of pancreatic cancer and had no one else to care for him. That pretty much took care of my life from age 40 - 67.  

There is an old saying about being a housewife, that applies here "It is not that what I do is not valuable, but that it is not valued".  What I did in my life was valuable to me, and to those I loved, but it did not build up a retirement fund and is not valued by the Republican, "Ayn Rand" ,  vision of society that sees need as weakness and giving as something to be despised. I want this "insurance plan" called Social Security to be there for my son, and for his son so that when life intervenes in unexpected ways it will provide a floor for their old age as it has for mine. There is every reason to keep this program intact, and to strengthen it .

Do not believe the Republican Tealiban lies when they tell you that Social Security won't be there for you when you reach old age. Also, when the Republicans talk about only doing away with Social Security for those below age 54, I wonder what makes them think we don't care about our children's future security.  We need to raise the Social Security Withholding Cap.  I think Senator Bernie Sanders plan to leave the Cap at $106,000, but then re-start the withholding when people reach income over $250,000 makes a lot of sense.   It balances out the fact that the lower income levels have had their wages stagnate over the past 20 years, while the top income groups have seen huge increases in income yet sharply dropping tax rates.

Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan

My son is out of work, very sick with pancreatitis,  and recently got on the new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP).  This insurance coverage is for people with pre-existing conditions who can't get coverage, or can't get affordable coverage.  It started with the 2nd part of the new health plan that the Dems and President Obama got passed, this 2nd part also allows children stay on their parents' coverage until age 26, and closes part of the Medicare donut hole for medications.  At 39 years old, it is costing my son $188 a month in Arizona, which he is paying from his $940 a month unemployment pay. We are so thankful to have this available for him.  It works like my Medicare, and is at least $900 a month cheaper than any other insurance he could have gotten, even if he had been accepted by any insurance company.  During the time he did not have insurance he was hospitalized twice.  The first time he still had insurance from work, but it ran out midway through his 15 day hospitalizations while he was still very sick and on stomach tube feed.  The second time was before we could get him on the PCIP and the hospital put him out after 3 days, still very sick, still in incredible pain and throwing up every morning when he woke and with every meal.  The first hospitalization has him $40K in debt, even though he had coverage for part of it.  The second one added another $18K to that debt.   Now in addition to being very sick, he also has worries about how he will ever pay these bills.   He has surgery scheduled now for removal of part or all of his pancreas; unknown how much until the surgeon gets in there and see what viable tissue is left.   He will have a bill from this surgery, but at least it will be have a Cap on the out of pocket so that he can see a light at the end of the tunnel  I am not sure if he will ever be well enough to go to work again, although he has plans to try.  At least he is likely not to die a miserable death for lack of insurance, and sincerely thank the President and the Democratic party for passing this bill against all the resistance they had to fight to do it.

Scattered thoughts

      Just got back from a Progressive Democrats America/Arizona Chapters Conference in Flagstaff     So much enthusiasm and so many ideas flowing from engaged and caring people.  I was so glad to be with people who are in the fray and raging against the Republican Teahaddist machine. If you are not suffering and can't see that others are suffering, then just go away and contemplate your own navel.  You aren't interested in my viewpoint and I am definitely not interested in yours.  I can't make you love your fellow man if you don't, and can't give you a heart if you have fouled the loving one that God gave you.  Go away and pray to your Golden Idol loudly in the stadiums and churches like the hypocrites that you are.

      Most of the people I know are holding on by their fingernails and scared to death. They hear about "trickle down" economics and know it is the yellow stuff that the Republicans are trickling down on them.  They have either lost their job or are in danger of losing it. They are losing their medical coverage, losing their retirement,  losing their houses, going to food banks, and going bankrupt because of medical bills.  They are scared and desperate and one step ahead of losing the roof over their heads. They can't tighten their belt because that belt was sold at a garage sale long ago to put food on the table after their unemployment benefits stopped. They have been told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they don't have any boots because those, too, have been sold to make a mortgage or rent payment.  They've been told that they are lazy and bad because they've lost their job. They've been told these things by people who are wearing Gucci loafers and living off capital gains or ill-gotten gains or trust funds and have outsourced these jobs and hidden the profits in tax shelter countries. 

     Speaking of garage sales, they are no fun anymore. Over the past year, I've noticed a definite change.  It's no longer a house cleaning exercise and fun way to pass some weekend time. It's now whatever is left that they can sell to put food on the table, and what's left is mostly pitiful and worn out and brings pennies at best.  There's no longer anything of value because anything good has been sold months ago.  I am not the Pharisee who can walk by on the other side and pretend not to notice, or be so insensitive that I really don't see the pain, fear, and anger out here in our real world.  I am sick to death of the false Christian rhetoric that blames the poor for their own hunger, and blames the sick for their own illness, and blames the unemployed for losing their jobs to China and corporate greed.  I am heartily sick of those who want the government out of their business but want it to control what happens in our bedrooms and control a woman's uterus.   Who want to force women to have babies against their will but who time and time again have shown that they only care for that baby from conception to birth.  They don't care if that same baby and/or mother starves, or is sick or dies after the baby is born.   Frankly, my new theory is that the rich and Teahaddists are the business of farming babies for profit. I think Republicans want to grow more babies to attend their "for profit" schools, to provide cheap labor, and then to put them in "for profit" prisons as a way to make more money for corporations and their investors.  I can see the corporations, Republicans, and fake Christians sucking the lifeblood and eating the heart out of the poor and middle class of this country.  We have become Soylent Green for the rich.   


     I expect the Arab Spring will become the American Fall because the anger is palpable out here on Main Street.