The Catch-22 with Social Security COLA
One does not fare well when one is on so called “welfare.” Let’s consider Social Security. People mistake that for welfare but I paid payroll taxes all my working life; that makes it insurance, not welfare. So let’s say come Oct. 1 I get a cost-of-living increase (COLA) from $884 monthly to $899 monthly for the next year — a $15 monthly COLA, which is of course far less than the actual increase in the nation’s rise in its cost of living. That is my Social Security increase. It means I live on $10,788 annually — way under the federal poverty line. You may be poor but relatively speaking, I am broke.
But I am also a recipient of “welfare” that they give to poor folks. I get Section 8 housing assistance; my rent for a one bedroom apartment in North Kohala is $197 monthly. Plus, I get food stamps; my EBT is $159 monthly.
But because I got an income raise, my welfare went down. Starting Oct. 1, I have to pay $202 in rent (a $5 increase) and my EBT is reduced to $156 (a $3 drop). So on the one hand the Lord giveth me $15, and with the other hand the Lord taketh $8, leaving me with a COLA of $7 — not the $15, which even this el cheapo GOP Congress intended.
Meanwhile, the richest (most profitable) corporations in American get tax refunds of billions of dollars. I got to ask: What are tea party folks really upset about? Why not be mad at the right people, not at me.
Lanric Hyland
Kapaau