Barack Obama, President of the United States, in the recent State of the Union Speech has declared that he wants to cut Social Security COLA. He states that this cut will be beneficial but most do not agree with this statement. The cuts to social security will affect current retirees, retirement age of future retirees, and their children. People who have retired already will be affected by the cut because their earnings will go done significantly each year. Retirement age will go up because most will not be able to afford to retire with the money they are saving right now. Twenty-first century children will not be able to retire in the future as the earnings from the cut will continue to go down each year, resulting in a very small amount of money given to them in the future when they are ready to retire. Cutting social security is not beneficial to the future and current retirees.
First, thousands of people who are currently retired, disabled, or a veteran will be affected by the cuts to social security as their earnings will go down thousands each year. The NY Times calculated just how much the cut would affect an average woman, “So take a woman with an initial benefit of $1,100 a month, or $13,200 a year, which is the median benefit of a woman 65 or older, according to the National Woman’s Law Center. By the time she is 75, her benefits would be $41 less a month, or nearly $500 a year less than under the current program.” This cut will affect any current retiree and force many to get a part-time job as they can’t afford to live off retirement.
Next, because of the inconsistency of the earnings every year for future retirees the retirement age will go up. Under the current program, the average age to retire is 65 but this will go down significantly as year’s progress. In Barack Obama’s State of the Union 2011 speech he paints a false image of perfect benefits for the current and future retirees, “To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. We must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.” Barack Obama has been known to be able to “talk the talk but not walk the walk.” He is definitely doing just that when it comes to cutting social security; he has made it sound like a magnificent idea but under all the gilding, the plan is disastrous.
Finally, for future generations retirement is not viable. Because the cuts will be so drastic each year, by the time children who are only age six in the year 2014 will not be able to retire. The benefit of retiring could be completely dissolved by the time twenty-first children are at the eligible age to retire. Barack Obama’s plan is not going to “strengthen social security for future generations” as he stated, but rather terminate it for good. This benefit has been one that is something one looks forward to their entire life, and now children will not have that ability when they are older and it is not fair. The poverty rate for children has increased greatly over the years and will continue to skyrocket for this generation if this cut is put into action.
Barack Obama’s cuts are not beneficial or secure for current or future generations. All retirees will be affected by these social security cuts. Current retirees will be forced to obtain a part time job in order to make ends meet in daily life. The retirement age will skyrocket from these cuts as there won’t be any money to use to retire. Children of the current generation and on will no longer be able to retire and the social security cut will completely dissipate. Cutting social security is going to result in thousands to not be able to make ends meet and the poverty level will increase. Barack Obama needs to reconsider these cuts with America’s common people in mind.
