Social Security

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

... and the results, as usual, are ugly. Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) has made a name for himself by lowering the tenor of debate over Social Security with his intemperate and vulgar attacks on the program's advocates -- not to mention with his ignorant grasp of the subject. What makes him especially dangerous is the credibility he has gained as an author of the so-called Bowles-Simpson anti-deficit proposal. The charmless Simpson directed his most recent blast at the California Alliance for Retired Americans, an Oakland group that claims to represent 950,000 retirees as an umbrella organization for numerous advocacy groups.

Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady on Thursday rejected a proposal to reduce Medicare catastrophic health insurance premiums that congressional analysts expect will generate a bigger surplus than is needed. Brady, in a letter to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), said the insurance program "is literally in its first few months of life" and the Bush Administration wants to be sure it is not left with insufficient reserves. The new insurance program, approved by Congress last year, provides extended coverage for the costs of hospital and medical care and drug benefits.

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Alan Simpson has again unleashed his sharp tongue on critics, this time in the form of a scathing letter that accuses the California Alliance for Retired Americans of being “greedy geezers.” The Oakland-based retiree organization had protested the Republican's visit to the Bay Area earlier this year,  in which he promoted his deficit-cutting plan that would, among other things, raise the retirement age for Social...

Dear Liz: I am 661/2 and eligible to collect my full Social Security benefit now. I am in good health and assume I will live into my 80s. I am still working and don't need the extra money. Is it better to put off taking my benefit so that it will grow 8% with Uncle Sam, tax free and guaranteed, or should I take the money now, pay taxes on it and invest it? Politically speaking, I think I should take it, but my gut says let it grow. What do you think? Is there a program available to demonstrate the differences?

Re "Two views of Social Security," Postscript, April 28 I have a solution for Social Security: Why not let the Social Security deduction tax all wages, as the Medicare deduction does? What is the reasoning behind Social Security stopping at $110,100? This makes no sense to me. Why just penalize the average worker with this deduction and let the rich cease paying at this foolish number? This solution would fund the account for decades to come. Seems like a very simple solution.

It's easy to call anyone a liar, but let's look at President Reagan's record. He clearly stated time and again before November that Social Security had nothing to do with the federal deficit. Why then is he now agreeing to a reduction in the cost-of-living allowance as a means of reducing the federal deficit? Let's look at another campaign promise. The President proposed that the 1984 cost-of-living allowance would be paid even if the cost-of-living fell below the 3% rise necessary to trigger the cost-of-living allowance.

Three men were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing and selling false documents Thursday after an undercover police officer bought a phony Social Security card at an indoor Van Nuys swap meet, authorities said. A detective with Community Effort to Combat Auto Theft, a multi-agency task force, placed an order for a Social Security card at a booth at the Valley Downtown Swap Meet, near the intersection of Van Nuys and Victory boulevards, said Los Angeles Police Det. Robert Graybill.

On the desk in my husband's office sits a black-and-white photo of his grandparents' massive brood from sometime in the 1930s. One of their nine children is missing, dead of an infectious disease that medical science has long since vanquished. Today, the photo seems like a relic. Increased confidence that children will survive, along with better birth control and more women working, has led to much smaller families. The average number of babies born per American female now stands at about 2.1, barely above replacement level.

When Rick Santorum stood in front of voters at a yacht club in this small town and pledged to slash government spending, especially entitlement programs, Nancy Garvin knew she had found her candidate. Garvin, 54, said she was sick of seeing government squander money through agencies that don't do anything, and wants expenditures cut "in half. " "Washington is throwing money away through a lot of wasteful spending," she said, sitting at a picnic table beneath trees draped in graying Spanish moss.

WASHINGTON - A widow who conceived a baby from the sperm of her late husband is not automatically entitled to Social Security survivors benefits to help raise the child, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The 9-0 decision rejected the claim that a biological child of a married couple, even one born years after the father died, always qualifies as his survivor under the Social Security Act. Instead, the justices upheld the government's multi-part definition of who deserves survivors benefits.

Social Security has gone digital. The federal retirement program, which last year stopped mailing out estimated benefit statements to everyone who has paid into the system, launched an Internet tool this month that can be used to view several aspects of your personal status. Here's how to use the online tool. Sign up: Go to http://www.ssa.gov/mystatement to create your online account. You must have a Social Security number, email address and U.S. mailing address, and be at least 18. Create a user name and password (save them someplace safe)

Dear Liz: Our mother just turned 64, and our father is divorcing her. She hasn't worked in years because of significant physical and mental health issues. My sister and I have been trying to figure out how she's going to survive on $750 a month, which is the equivalent of half his Social Security. She has always had serious issues with money management, which is why there are no retirement savings or a house. We are now about to embark on the maze of social service benefits that an older woman below the poverty line can receive, partly so we can decide whether she's better off staying put where she is in Arkansas, moving to my sister's in Texas, moving to be near me in Maryland, or moving to her childhood home of Chicago, where most of her friends are. For a lot of complicated reasons (mostly related to the mental health issues)

Re "Don't rush for Social Security," Business, April 29 While it is true that delaying collecting your normal Social Security benefit beyond your full retirement age gives you an 8% annual increase, to get that 8% increase you give up 100% of the normal benefit you could be collecting. Here's an example: You can start collecting $1,000 a month at 66 or delay until age 70 (48 months), and get $1,320 a month (8% yearly increase for 4 years). To get that extra $320 a month you've given up $48,000 that you could have already collected, and you'll be over 82 before you finally catch up - if you live that long.

Re "Two views of Social Security," Postscript, April 28 I have a solution for Social Security: Why not let the Social Security deduction tax all wages, as the Medicare deduction does? What is the reasoning behind Social Security stopping at $110,100? This makes no sense to me. Why just penalize the average worker with this deduction and let the rich cease paying at this foolish number? This solution would fund the account for decades to come. Seems like a very simple solution.

Dear Liz: I am 661/2 and eligible to collect my full Social Security benefit now. I am in good health and assume I will live into my 80s. I am still working and don't need the extra money. Is it better to put off taking my benefit so that it will grow 8% with Uncle Sam, tax free and guaranteed, or should I take the money now, pay taxes on it and invest it? Politically speaking, I think I should take it, but my gut says let it grow. What do you think? Is there a program available to demonstrate the differences?

WASHINGTON - The nation's Social Security and Medicare programs are sliding closer to insolvency, the federal government warned in a new report underscoring the fiscal challenges facing the two mammoth retirement programs as baby boomers begin to retire. Medicare, which will provide health insurance to more than 50 million elderly and disabled Americans this year, is expected to start operating in the red in its largest fund in 2024, according to the annual assessment by the trustees charged with overseeing the programs.

A Times editorial on Wednesday called on Congress to shore up Social Security quickly, as its looming insolvency would only get more difficult to address as time dragged on. But Business columnist Michael Hiltzik, in a piece that ran the same day , wrote that Social Security benefits should be expanded. Hiltzik pointed out that the Social Security Trust Fund ran a large surplus last year. Noting the difference in outlook between the two articles, reader Bob Murtha of Santa Maria wrote: "Times editorial board members and Hiltzik need to get together to compare notes.