Save Social Security $Billions!

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To:  Our United States Congress

As citizens who are deeply concerned about the economic future of our country, we urge every member of Congress to support President Obama in his administration's commitment to go through federal spending "line by line" to eliminate waste.[1] To aid in this effort, we would like to draw your attention to an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars in the Social Security retirement program.

To eliminate it, all you have to do is pro-rate annual Social Security Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) at 1/12th for each month of eligibility during the previous year. This would bring it in line with the way COLAs are applied to Civil Service retirees, while still being more generous than the quarterly system utilized for the military. The average Social Security retiree is currently receiving approximately $1,153 per month.[2] With about 80 million "baby boomers" eligible to sign up for Social Security over the next two decades,[3] it's obvious that this simple, common sense change would save $billions. A more detailed explanation follows:

In January of each year, all those receiving federal retirement benefits are awarded a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to keep up with inflation. Unlike the Civil Service and military retirement systems, however, Social Security does not reduce its COLAs for those who retired during the previous 12 months. This not only results in huge first year COLA disparities between Social Security and the other two large federal retirement systems, but within the Social Security system itself. Here is how this year's 5.8\% COLA was applied to the monthly pay of recent retirees:

SOCIAL SECURITY - 5.8\% for everyone officially credited with retirement in 2008.
(www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/2009cola-pr.htm)

CIVIL SERVICE (CSRS) - Pro-rated by the month in which the annuity began.
(www.opm.gov/retire/annuity/cola/2009cola.asp#CSRS)

December 2007 - 5.8\%
January 2008 - 5.3\%
February 2008 - 4.8\%
March 2008 - 4.4\%
April 2008 - 3.9\%
May 2008 - 3.4\%
June 2008 - 2.9\%
July 2008 - 2.4\%
August 2008 - 1.9\%
September 2008 - 1.5\%
October 2008 - 1.0\%
November 2008 - 0.5\%

MILITARY - For those who first became a member of the uniformed services on or after September 8, 1980, pro-rated by the quarter in which the annuity began.
(www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/retired-pay/retired-cola)

January, February, March 2008 - 5.0\%
April, May, June 2008 - 3.8\%
July, August, September 2008 - 1.2\%
October, November, December 2008 - 0\%

This meant that an individual credited with only 1 month of Social Security retirement benefits in 2008 received just as big a COLA as those with at least 12 months, and a great deal more than those with only 1 month under the other two retirement systems:

5.8\% - Social Security
.5\% - Civil Service (CSRS)
0\% - Military

Such huge disparities are not only fundamentally unfair, but they are unnecessarily costing taxpayers $billions in a retirement program with $trillions of projected deficits.[4] Pro-rating Social Security COLAs is the obvious solution, and we believe the most reasonable method is the one currently being utilized for Civil Service retirees: 1/12th COLA for each month of eligibility.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] http://www.truthout.org/112508S
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-names-budget-director-vows-program-cuts-2008-11-25.html
[2] http://www.ssa.gov/cola/colafacts2009.htm
[3] http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/LifeStages/story?id=3732745
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/babyboomer-firstcheck-pr.htm
[4] http://perotcharts.com/category/social-security-charts/page/13/

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Save Social Security $Billions! Petition to Our United States Congress was created by and written by Tom Foreman (taforeman@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.