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Dear Senator Boxer:
My husband died over the holidays. He was 78 years old and suffering from end stage renal disease. Yet, it was still sudden and unexpected. We had thought he would be able to survive a few more years.
Now that I am trying to put his affairs in order, I find myself with an immediate drop in income through Social Security of approximately $600 a month. My expenses have not gone down $600 with his demise. My rent, utilities and car payments and insurance remain the same. My income is just over the minimum to qualify for reduced utility discounts. The only expense cut was $146 a month for his medigap policy and $50 for Medicare and whatever personal needs he had for food, medication and clothing.
Except for the medication, his food and clothing needs were very modest. I did without medication for my Osteoporosis and Asthma that I could benefit from, so I could buy the medication he used that was crucial for his survival. I hope to be able to go back on my needed medications, so there is no savings there either. I, too, have lived modestly. I only buy clothes when I need them and I haven’t been to a beauty shop in over fifteen years.
You can imagine how the Bush administration’s tinkering with the senior citizen entitlements of Social Security and Medicare upsets an old woman like me. Social Security and Medicare shouldn’t be privatized by these robber barons. It’s really all we have.
My husband and I worked all our lives. Because he had a first family to support up until the death of this first wife, we put away what we could for our pensions, but relied very much on these entitlements, which we paid into, to enjoy a modest retirement. My parents benefited too. As a woman making sixty three cents to a man’s dollar back in the sixties and early seventies and since I was an only child, I would not have been able to support them without the help of these entitlements. It seems like a life of work that I am sure made a difference in other people’s lives today isn’t appreciated. Is it time to get rid of the old people because they have outlived their usefulness?
Now I fear that in the future we will be like Germany after WWI where runaway inflation made the German mark almost worthless. Germans found their life time savings could only buy a sack of potatoes in the end. I feel like this is what will happen to Americans. On top of it, not only is our Medicare and Social Security being diminished, they are costing more. Already purchasing Medicare, Part B has increased 40% as I just found out for myself. The prescription drug benefit doesn’t cover the cost of medications, which are pricier than ever, so even with the discount, there is more to be paid out of pocket than ever before.
I don’t understand what needs to be fixed? Mr. Bush with all his ill-gotten gains from oil, war and Saudi Arabia won’t have to worry about his retirement as an ex-President, unless enough Democratic leaders finally get the courage to have him tried for war crimes. The rest of us will have to rely on family or die in the streets, homeless and uncared for.
Since Social Security is regressive, the maximum contribution any American has to pay out of pocket for a year is 7.5% of the first $86,000 of their income, or $6,450 a year. Donald Trump and Bill Gates pay only $6,450 a year, so poor old people don’t have to die from lack of medical care, exposure and starvation and yet the Bush administration and GOP want to reduce benefits. This is criminal.
Please don’t let this happen. I swear, if I find that I must live the rest of my life in destitution, I will take it. I’m sure many other elderly will do the same and all legislators in Washington, who did this to us will have blood on their hands even more so than the blood from Bush’s war folly. I know you didn’t vote for that and I am grateful. However, I still think of the good that could have been accomplished in our country for children, the underprivileged and the environment with the budget surplus from Clinton and I weep.
Incidentally, Bill Thomas of the Means and Ways Committee is my Congressman. Please make sure he sees this letter. I haven’t written him personally because I heard from others that his staff only gives him mail from fellow Republicans. He needs to think very hard about this issue of privatizing and reducing social security in the future. We all know they are trying to destroy this program. Could your caucus try to influence him not to bring the “fixing Social Security” issue up ever?
Thanks for allowing me to pour my feelings out to you.
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