912 Super Seniors Newsletter:Survey Finds Steep Inflation

April 29, 2011

In This Issue

Baseball's greatest Play

Saving Medicare After All

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Greetings!

Thanks to the efforts of the 912 Super Seniors who are tracking food inflation in the COLA Project we have been able to provide Glenn Beck with ongoing data on the increase in prices. Glenn cited the COLA results on his TV and radio shows in the past two weeks.

The latest figures Glenn read to his radio audience from the survey were the alarming figures for the 17 weeks ended 4-19-2011. We emailed the results, as you see them on our site, to Glenn's screener because the inflation in just two weeks jumped from 7% to 12.3% for the items on our COLA grocery list which includes gasoline. Ironically, Glenn has long been criticized as exaggerating inflation possibilities!

At the same time the Consumer Price Index shows that food at home rose 3.6% over the 12 months ending 3-31-2011, gasoline rose by 27.5% and fuel oil increased by 34%.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

We were told by Ben Bernanke at the Feds' press conference today that some temporary inflation is expected...if Mr. Bernanke did his shopping each week as the rest of us Americans do, he would know how uninformed that sounds.

We now expect to see basic staples like cheese, cereal and flour taking more of our budget each week while we pay much more for the gasoline that gets us to the grocery store.

We Seniors are resourceful at making ends meet. My Father who remembers the depression years would describe how people survived:

Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do,

Or do without.

The depression generation struggled with shortages of food, clothing, medicine and all the things we have been able to earn in our prosperous America.

What changes will growing inflation enforce and how will our families be affected? Even with Federal spending skyrocketing and the national debt topping 14 trillion, our elected officials have been unable or unwilling to curb the spending. There are hard choices to be made and so many ways government can spend smarter...not spend more!

There is no more time for delay and for half measures. We Seniors know what is at stake here and can determine to use our influence and our votes to help elect statesmen who will follow our constitution and preserve the separation of powers built into our governance.

Through so many willing years of working and planning, sacrificing and saving we have helped our children and grandchildren have security in their lives. But our work is not finished...for them and for our country.

Ronald Reagan can advise us today. He said, "Families cannot prosper and keep America strong if government becomes a Goliath that preys upon their wealth, usurps their rights, and crushes their spirit."

The Greatest Play in Baseball

It was only 35 years ago. Do you remember?

Were you watching when Rick Monday. then an outfielder for the Cubs, prevented the burning of the American flag by two demonstrators during a game at Dodger field?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5UbcyCLnm0&feature=player_embedded

All these 35 years later Rick carries the memory and also the flag as he travels around the country raising money for charities.

Watching the clip of his actions that day and reading his comments are inspiring. It seems that in the instant he realized what was about to happen his instinct to respect and protect the flag under which he served propelled him across that field to snatch away the flag even as the match was put to it.

We know that many Americans would do the same thing today. And we see the respect for our flag and the appreciation of all it represents flourishing where citizens are determined to hold themselves to a high standard of patriotism and participation.

That worthy standard causes parents to educate themselves and their children about our country's founding and freedoms. It impels grandparents to teach by example sharing their life's experiences, knowledge and advice with the grandchildren to whom they will entrust their country's future.

We see Americans all across this country standing up to those who would diminish our freedoms and disrespect America's heritage. In small towns, large cities and in our nation's capital American citizens of all ages and races are taking a stand with the same reflex of pride and patriotism that 35 years ago compelled Rick Monday to snatch his and our American flag from the hands of those seeking to dishonor it.

Medicare As We've Known It Isn't an Option

Paul Ryan's premium support plan is preferable to Obama's rationing panel.

by Betsy McCaughey

The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama's health law. Yet if the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters, they may win back independents and registered Democrats who voted for Republicans in 2010.

The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood.

The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years and spends the money on other programs, including a vast expansion of Medicaid. In 2019, Medicare spending under the Obama health law is projected to be $14,731 per senior, instead of $16,162 if the law had not passed, according to Medicare actuaries (Health Affairs, October 2010).

Such cuts might be justifiable if the savings extended the financial life of Medicare. Mr. Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius frequently make that false claim. Indeed, even Medicare's mailings to seniors repeat the claim that reducing spending on Medicare will make it more financially secure for future years.

The fact is that Mr. Obama's law raids Medicare. Mr. Ryan's plan, on the other hand, stops the Medicare heist and puts the funds "saved" in this decade toward health care for another generation of retirees.

Beginning in 2022, the Ryan plan offers each new Medicare enrollee a choice of private health plans and a premium paid to the plan they choose. The key is that the premium will be equivalent to what Medicare is projected to spend under the Obama health law: $15,000 a year on average, more for the oldest enrollees, less for the youngest, all inflation adjusted.