Q: I recently read that the GPO/WEP repeal issue was tabled for 2010 and somehow attached to the health care bill. Do you have any current information on this?
A: No action has been taken on that bill. And no, it didn’t get attached to the health care bill.
3 Comments
Senate bill 484 (Feinstein) and House bill 235 (Berman) are both currently sitting in committee: Senate Committee on Finance; House Ways and Means Committee. They could sit there until they die (like they have for 27 years) unless citizens write the committees, phone and write their Congresspeople, and let everyone know what is going on, and have THEM write and phone their politicians. It won’t change until we create a critical mass, submit petitions, and make a lot of noise. Go to http://www.ssfairness.com/, get involved, be the change you want to see!
We need to pay Social Security recipients what they rightfully earned instead of cheating them out of their benefits. It’s estimated that if we repeal WEP and GPO, it would cost only $60 billion for a ten year period to do the right thing. This is peanuts compared to the 25 billion + per year we hand out in annual foreign aid. Let’s start thinking of American citizens first. Repeal WEP & GPO now!!!
Please move this bill favorably to a vote. Seven years ago, my husband of 40 years died very suddenly. He was 64. He began working on tobacco when he was 14. He was self-employed for 30 years, and paid into Social Security at the 15% rate. Without his spousal benefits, I was unable to maintain our family home. As a retired teacher, who worked for 32 years, and helped pay my husband’s social security taxes when he was without clients, I am being penalized for paying what we had to pay.
The unfairness of this penalty is hurting those who chose public service over private jobs because we believed in what we were doing to support our families, our communities and the nation.
Please stop and look at the numbers. Those paying into Social Security are doing so at a higher rate than ever before in our country. Do what you can to help those who depended upon this pension to support us as we age.