I get $ 620 a month on disability....

I have been getting the same since 2009. My "bump" conveniently amounted to the increase in my Medicare Insurance.

It looks as if I will get the same thru 2012 minus, of course, the increase in Medicare Insurance that I am sure will be coming.

I could probably live without it, but to tell you the truth, the money really helps us out.

Now there is the talk about altering the CPI to reflect somehow the true inflation.

True inflation for whom?

I got news for you, the inflation rate for those of us on disability or Social Security is a lot higher than that of the normal person because the most volatile portion of our cost of living is medical related.

Who here thinks that medical costs will ever decrease? Yea and bats will fly out of my butt.

What guiles me the most is that the people at the top of the heap continue to rake in billions of dollars while people like me are asked to "sacrifice" so that we can fight wars, extend tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and watch as more and more people just plain fall through the cracks...?

The sad part is my brother and sister both make money that places them firmly in that upper echelon and they do little to help me out financially. Sure, they are there when I need them most, but I am struggling just to make it and they blissfully ignore my condition or perhaps worse, blame me for the situation where I now find myself.

Maybe it is because I get the SSI that they don’t feel the need. Who knows?

But the trickle-down theory goes that by keeping their taxes low they, and people in their same income bracket, will do what is right and help out their fellow man. Shit they can't even lend a hand to a blood relative, what makes anyone think that in this narcissistic land of ours enough people will donate to fill the void just because...

I am not ragging on my sibs. I am just pointing out that if a family can see suffering and do little to nothing to alleviate the situation, what makes anyone thing people not connected by family will be willing to lend a hand.

Ad that fucking myth about being too proud to take help and you get the perfect world envisioned by the robber barons of old.

Thank god, there are people out there who do end a hand, people that give because they know it is the right thing to do. But can we really count on kindness of strangers to help all of us in our time of need....

I posted a version of this in another thread and feel that this should be out so more people can read it. I am not whining or bitching, I am just pointing out how tattered our social safety net has become.

We are perched on top of a defining moment for our country. I am, quite frankly, not optimistic about the future. Shining city on a hill, what fucking nonsense when that city will be off limits to 95% of us.

countries with less wealth than ours have been dealing with these problems and preventing poverty among most of their citizens based on health or disability.

we can do it here --we have more wealth to work with, although we spend a lot of it on needless wars.

the idea that these problems are too complicated to solve and too expensive to deal with is wrong --our peer nations do it though they are less wealthy and they often do it through programs that can be replicated here...in many respects their approaches are used in many nations, not just one.

what they have that we don't is the *will* to assure that disability and health problems will never be a ticket to poverty in those societies.

and we do not.

best nation in the world? well, then you have to explain away this aspect of it.

to stabilize the world so that international trade can take place. We are literally subsidizing the world's wealthiest people...

We do that in a lot of small and large ways. Laws, enforcement, roads, military protection, no-bid contracts, low to no taxes on the wealthy...

Without a lot of these small and large free handouts to them, they couldn't be nearly as wealthy and powerful as they are, and in turn they twist the system more to their advantage.

Simply put, there's no such thing as a "self made man"...but there are plenty who take and put nothing back in.

When I was receiving Social Security Disability,I BARELY made enough to pay rent,utiliries...and insurance.

These are the things that "the other side" wants to cut.
Now,I find out I am on the side that wants to cut disability...or "means-test"
When one become disabled, their "means" goes out the window.


As usual,the meekest and weakest are the punished ones.

the back and say how they are so great. I know mine would. I am not on SSI, but I have been on assistance before. And have sat here and listened to my family rail against those lazy welfare people who sit at home and collect their welfare checks. They go on and on. Then I make sure to let them know they are talking about me. Then they blink. And stutter. And you see the wheels in their brain as they try to turn their ideas in to a pretzel to somehow make it ok for me yet still have their views be valid. I want there to be a face to their hypocrisy. I want them to know what they are saying. And who they are saying it to. It's easy to say it about someone in NYC or in Buffalo. But say it to my face. Come on!

The funnies thing is that my sister and her husband watch faux and talk about the government and how awful it is and taxes.... and they work for the IRS!!! my brother in law is a debt collector for the IRS!!! irony. oh sweet irony. I have five sisters and a brother. two of my siblings are fox viewers and spout the bs. one other one is married to one and likes to talk like it too. uggh.

Hubby and I are in a similar boat. One income - his - and he had no raise for two years(even though his boss retired and he was promoted, and now doing BOTH their jobs). He got a 3% raise this past year, which, of course, means nothing since his health insurance went up more than that in ONE year. Not to mention the cost of living increases. We have one car that's a few years old - that is scary as hell. On top of all that, I have health and severe dental problems with no insurance. We are BARELY getting by. This morning (with the SS, Medicare and Medicaid news) was certainly a defining moment for me - I suddenly realized with certainty, that I will be dead before seeing this country turn around.

I wish I had consoling words for you. The only thing consoling me right now is a gift from a friend that's going to be taken out of the fridge in a few hours - VODKA.

:hug:

Keep your vodka in the freezer for goodness' sake!

:)

I'm moving it right now! :)

And you are right, if you cannot find a relative that gives a damn enough to help you when you are down and out, who the hell is going to help you?

The answer is simple: NO ONE is my experience.

I was in the hospital and almost died. No one even bothered to come and see me much less send me a get well card. Being no one could come to pick me up, I was sent home in a taxi cab at midnight so as to save another day's cost in the hospital.

I have two "blood relatives" left; a brother and his daughter who I have seen once in her lifetime (she is now 25 years old).

They could care less about me and I feel like they hope I will die soon so they can move in and collect what I have (that being an old house).

As for the CPI and manipulating it, they are already doing that anyway as it shows much lower figures than the reality of inflation as it eliminates critical things like food and energy from the "formula".

If they tweak this "formula" even more, that will effect certain savings bonds investments out there, something the rich won't like one bit!

I don't get much either but I worked a full-time job since the age of 19 before I became ill. I'm not getting any better at all and this kind of crap makes me much worse (reading/hearing about it) as stress activates my illness/disability.

I'm about to disconnect the teevee and am tempted to turn off the internet.

My husband is a veteran and is messed up (PTSD) from the Korean War. He gets a whopping $401.00 a month from SSA and nothing from the VA. He is going blind and nope, no help on that either. I asked a friend to drive him to his doctor's appt. when I was in the hospital. She acted like it was the biggest damn thing she'd ever done. The whole thing took 1-1/2 hrs. and I paid her on top of it!

Ain't America grand the way it treats their disabled, veterans and other elderly citizens that have indeed paid their dues?

That is the reality of it.

These are not "handouts". These are things that were paid into.

If you don't pay you don't get in most cases unless, may god help you, you happen to be on SSI, etc.

Damn them all and thanks for your post!

:kick: & recommend.

I'm glad you posted this as it's own thread. K & R

Shining Gilded city on the hill - off-limits to peasants like most of us.

Have you considered sending this message to the White House? Might not help. But wouldn't hurt. http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact. You could just copy/paste it from here. It's a great reality check for those who will never have to try to survive on what you do. Of course that doesn't account for whether or not there are many up there with consciences anymore.

and one that's being lived by more and more people every day. I now realize that my life will never be as good and secure as when I was in my 20's and 30's. I wish I had comforting words for you but words fail me. Hugs from Columbus, WC.

:hug:

for sharing your challenges. The MSM says nothing about how people are really hurting, and your story and the others in this thread need to be told over and over.

Just a side note about strangers helping in time of need. I've seen it happen A LOT, which is very cool, but volunteers in the form of individuals or charitable groups can't fill all the needs. A right wing caller told Nicole Sandler on the Randi Rhodes show a day or two ago that people don't need government help because charities and churches would step in. Sandler's response was to challenge the caller to explain how the medical needs of an older person - no, make that ALL older people - could be covered by charitable groups, to cover expenses like say, $100,000 hospital bills.

Even just listening to right wingers gives me the creeps.

But we can't, as a society, rely on that kind of support group.

but :hug: to you!

Not that it's much consolation, but there are more and more people finding themselves in your situation every day. You are not alone, nor are you to blame; the "system" is to blame.

thing in the world. Our lives revolve around it. Sucks.

And it makes me very sad.

To see the promise of our country fail before the right wing policies is horrifying.

Our social safety net is disappearing before our bewildered eyes...

My widowed mother struggled on SS. There was no outside help. Unless it came from family.

That's another problem in itself. It always amazed me having a brother sitting comfortably having worked for it and having good luck, having a sister that married wealth, knowing I was the "poor one" yet I had to be the one to approach them to get my mother's medication paid for. They knew she didn't have extra money. They weren't blind but still they did nothing until I asked them for it.

$20 a month wasn't going to hurt them. Hell, they could have offered to pay the monthly medication but they didn't. I don't know if they were wrapped up in their own lives or what but like I said, it always bothered me as to why they didn't just take care of that for her.

I understand we don't all read minds but when your mother says she can't afford blood pressure
medicine, you find a way to help.

There is no loyalty in families anymore. If there were, no matter what political leanings you have, things would be taken care of.

I have very little interactions with my brother and sister because of that situation. It makes me sad and mad.

I hope you enjoy the conversations here...

I'm sorry about your family's situation.

:hug:

For now it's settled. I think I'm adopted. :)

I am not like anyone in my family. It's the only explanation I can come up with.

one side of our family has helped us tremendously this past year, the other side not so much although they are very much aware of what has transpired. Hard to make any sense out of it. We certainly learned who is in our lifeboat and who is not.

:hug:

But when I get home and really need help, not so much...

people just do not understand unless they have "been there."

:hi:

and it doesn't sound like whining. There is a lot of truth in what you say. In a society that teaches competitiveness, people will not be as giving as we think they will. Below the surface, there are some personalities that don't want others to have what they have because having something other do not makes them feel "superior".

I live on 716 a month. Not only do family not help me, the ones that could don't talk to me anymore. Was in hospital in Oct/Nov last year. The word went through the family and they showed up. But I knew why, they all thought I was going to die and would have been embarased to show up in small town at funeral and hv to admit they had not seen or spoken to me in years.

If I had one wish; I could not be poor or could not have leukemia. I would keep the leukemia.
Living like this beats you down every min of every day.

I was just on the phone with the cleveland clinic and found out that my insurance stopped paying for a portion of my bills.

The clinic is getting ready to send me into collections because they billed the wrong insurance company.

I am already shelling out close to 20% of our income to cover insurance, prescriptions and doctor bills.

Just when you think you are getting a little bit ahead, that nightmare sequence in the American Dream starts to play once again...

Have been for 4 years now. But that's ok, I'd rather that inflation money go to someone who needs a new Mercedes for the week.