Hmmm. Not a whole lot of interest here.

So, for my two cents worth: SS should have NOT had their backup spent by the US government. 2) they should have been raising the age of retirement to keep pace with the life expectancy. 3) Those who are in need because of their own stupidity should not be able to draw on their claim. 4) SS should ONLY be available for those who pay in and make it to retirement.

NO ONE ELSE.

Before people get testy, I got money and so did my daughter when my husband committed suicide. Did it help? Yes. Could I have done without it? Possibly. What did I do? We lived off of it until I got a job and as soon as it ran out, I had a problem with more outgo. I made cuts and eventually came out of it.

True SS benefits are one thing but getting all of the programs that people feel are their entitlements is something else altogether. With the exception of Medicaid which is funded from the Medicare program, all of the others like Unemployment Comp., SSDI, Food Stamps, or whatever it is called now, are drawn directly from the SS funds which Congress has stolen and replaced with IOUs from the Treasury Dept and you gotta know how good their word is, so all of these give aways are in jeopardy.

By the way, 3.6% is a heck of a lot better than we have seen in the past 2 years but having said that when you take into consideration the cost of Medicare which continues to soar and which they deduct from our SS checks and couple that with regular stuff that we still have to pay for and we are still looking for a bridge to move under because we are fighting a losing income vs cost of living battle!