An effort co-sponsored by U.S Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to provide a $250 check to every U.S. senior citizen drawing Social Security was voted down by Senate Republicans late Wednesday.
Brown, in a news conference earlier in the day, told reporters that the payments provided by the Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act of 2010 would have helped offset the financial pain seniors are feeling because they did not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) again this year. Across-the-board inflation has been too low to trigger the increase. However, Brown said seniors have been hit hard by increases in health care costs, which have outpaced inflation in general.
“Too many Ohio seniors face higher costs and a stagnant income,” Brown said. “No senior should have to choose between prescription drugs or keeping the heat on.”
Brown said seniors spend up to 45 percent of their income on health-care and prescription drugs. Costs for these items are expected to rise by 4.2 percent next year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“They need a cost-of-living adjustment,” Brown said. “By failing to act, more seniors could fall into poverty. Social Security is one of our nation’s most successful anti-poverty programs. It’s not a handout; it’s an insurance mechanism.”
The payment would have been sent to every senior who receives Social Security, including wealthy seniors. Brown said that’s a “small number” of recipients and the median Social Security benefit for a retiree is just $14,000 annually.
“It matters to a whole lot of people,” he said of the proposed payment.
Social Security beneficiaries have not had a COLA since 2008, when they received a 5.8 percent increase, the largest since 1981. The $250 would represent an increase of 1.78 percent based upon the median retiree benefit.
Ashtabula County has just over 14,000 Social Security beneficiaries 65 and older, according to data released by Brown’s office.
Brown said the one-time payment would have cost taxpayers $13 billion. Democrats offered no offset in spending, and Brown said the money would be tacked onto the deficit. He compared the benefit to the extension of unemployment benefits, which would provide an immediate stimulus to the economy because people are likely to spend the money immediately.
The senator took up the Democrat’s mantra in pointing out that extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will tack $700 billion onto the federal deficit over the next decade. He said the wealthy Americans who continue to receive that tax break won’t spend the money and, thereby, stimulate the economy. The seniors, however, would have spent their checks immediately.
“With today’s vote, Senate Republicans have sent a clear message to Americans. They want to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires that already have plenty in their pockets, but they can’t be bothered to help senior citizens afford prescription drugs or pay their home heating bills,” Brown said in a press release after the vote. “Given that times continue to be so difficult for many middle-class American families, it seems like Republicans are living in some alternate universe where people aren’t having trouble making ends meet or finding it hard to put food on the table every night.”
The president is working with leadership of both parties to try to reach a compromise that will give the Republicans their tax cuts and the Democrats the extension of unemployment benefits they want.
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