Joe Biden is America’s oldest President, but his inflationary policies are decidedly anti-senior citizen. The threat to the financial viability of older Americans is both manifest and deeply substantial.
The stunning hike in inflation, from about 1.3% under President Trump to the current 7.7% after barely two years of Democrat control of the federal government, is destroying the solvency of older Americans.
An Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) analysis revealed that “President Biden’s anti-energy, pro-tax and spend policies, supported by congressional Democrats, are destroying seniors’ lifetime savings, pensions, 401k, SEP, equity, and cash holdings. Seniors struggled with more mandates and bureaucracy, less accountability. They pay high taxes, higher prices for rent and medicine, work longer, retire later, socialize less. Their views – love of country, character, faith, and history are disparaged. This is Biden’s legacy, a war on seniors.”
Numerous studies have outlined how the inflationary policies of the Biden Administration harm the elderly. Despite some pretensions to address the issue, including so-called “anti-inflationary” legislation that actually hikes the spiral of increasing government spending, the problem will continue to worsen unless there is a complete change in policy. Unfortunately, in recent comments, both Biden and his allies in the Senate have signaled no such change in course.
That so-called “anti-inflation” legislation disproportionately burdens seniors while doing nothing substantial to cut rising costs. Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson have found that it will lead to benefit cuts and premium increases for seniors. They explain that Medicare’s popular drug-coverage program is headed for a painful amputation.
A Kiplinger Study notes that “Retirees’ sources of income tend to be vulnerable to large inflation spikes. Employees can at least make the case for inflation-based raises, but retirees don’t have that option. If you’re a retiree, most of your income is likely either tied to markets or is in fixed income, two sources that are highly affected by inflation. Pensions are a mainstay of retirement income for many. But this source of income is struggling to match pace with inflation. Most private pensions don’t offer cost of living adjustments, or COLAs, which means that if you’re a retiree relying on pension income, you’ll receive the same payments regardless of their diminishing value.”
The problem is multi-faceted. Many key Democrat influencers are now advocating forcing their woke political views on pension plans, a concept known as “ESG”, which stands for environmental, social, and governance. The Center for Retirement Research notes that the evidence suggests that these types of investments yield lower returns.
Continued inaction in rescuing Social Security’s solvency is a looming threat. A Heritage study explains that “Social Security’s future is not secure. The program is running out of time and money, and recent increases in debt and spending have crowded out options for reform. Democrats’ plan for Social Security would hasten insolvency and exacerbate shortfalls. A financial examination of the concept makes it clear that it would hasten Social Security’s insolvency by two years (to 2032) and increase the program’s already massive shortfalls by an additional 21%”.
All of those dollars taken from paychecks for Social Security are not in special account reserved for future payments. They go into the general treasury. When massive new spending programs, such as President Biden’s decision to forgive student loan debt, or to provide benefits to illegal aliens, this places a strain on that treasury, and thus endanger social security’s ability to guarantee future payments.
Biden has sought to deflect attention from these issues by falsely claiming credit for recent social security increases, which address inflation. In reality, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments occur automatically, based on a formula tied to inflation. Seniors have received increases almost every year for the past decade.
Photo: Pixabay