2016/01/16 Getting real about Social Security and Medicare!

US Household Income. According to the Census ACS (American Community Survey), the median (midpoint of a frequency distribution of observed values) household income for the United States was $55,775 in 2015, the latest data available. 2016 Census ACS data (including 2016 national household income numbers) will be released in September of 2017.

The average Social Security benefit was $1,360.00 per month.

The maximum possible benefit for a worker retiring at age 66 is $2,366. But to get this amount, the worker would need to earn the maximum taxable amount, currently $106,800, each year after age 21.

Number of people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both, November 2016 (in thousands).

Type of beneficiary	Total	Social Security only	SSI only		Both Social Security and SSI
All beneficiaries	65,990	57,700		5,538	2,752
Aged 65 or older	45,323	43,125		975	1,223
Disabled, under age 65 a	14,065	7,973		4,563	1,529

Your Annual Income		2016 Premium Amount
Individual Tax Return	Joint Tax Return	You Pay
$85,000 or less	$170,000 or less	$121.80
$85,001 up to $107,000	$170,001 up to $214,000	$170.50
$107,001 up to $160,000	$214,001 up to $320,000	$243.60

Just over a third (34 percent) of retirees age 65 and older got 90 percent or more of their retirement income from Social Security. The majority of retirees age 65 and older (64 percent) get at least half of their retirement income in the form of a Social Security payment.

Medicare does kick in once you are 65, but there are costs for that coverage, too. And many retirees choose to buy so-called Medigap policies that provide coverage above and beyond what is offered through Medicare, or Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage.

2016 Medicare Part B premiums based on income.

Fidelity Investments, which has been tracking retiree health care costs for more than a decade, estimates that a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $240,000 to cover future medical costs. The average monthly health care expense for a couple at 65 is $583.

Average retired Social Security beneficiary to get measly $5 raise in 2017.

The high costs of the retirement Dream.

So this means that with couple earning an median Social Security of $1,360 per person they have a disposable income of $32, 640 of total household income.

The cost for a couple to live is $40,938; which means on person of the couple must work 22 hours a week at $7.25 to make up the $8,298 shortfall.

If Medicare is turned into a voucher system the second member of the retired couple must work 22 hours a week at $7.25 an hour to pay for health insurance.

So much for retirement for the average couple in the United States of America according to Republican plans for Social Security and Medicare.

01/02/2017 No Federal Funding of Road Tollways for Interstates, Bridges, Etc.

You're driving along an Interstate, perhaps I-95, minding your own business when suddenly, up ahead, there's a toll booth! 

And another one after that. And still more toll booths. Does the Federal Government know about this, you wonder?

Is the State trying to balance its budget by "taxing" out-of-State motorists?

Didn't you already pay for this road with your gas tax?

And so, you go home and write a letter to the President asking how in the world these States can be charging you for use of an Interstate highway that you already paid for.

In the 1939 report to Congress, Toll Roads and Free Roads, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) rejected the toll option for financing Interstate construction because most Interstate corridors would not generate enough toll revenue to retire the bonds that would be issued to finance them. In part, the report attributed this conclusion to "the traffic-repelling tendency of the proposed toll-road system." Although some corridors had enough traffic to support bond financing, the report predicted that motorists would stay on the parallel toll-free roads to a large extent.

After extensive debate, Congress decided in 1956 to authorize the BPR to incorporate toll facilities in the Interstate System to ensure connectivity without added expense. Section 113(a) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 stated:

Upon a finding by the Secretary of Commerce that such action will promote the development of an integrated Interstate System, the Secretary is authorized to approve as part of the Interstate System any toll road, bridge, or tunnel, now or hereafter constructed, which meets the standards adopted for the improvement of projects located on the Interstate System, whenever such toll road, bridge, or tunnel is located on a route heretofore or hereafter designated as a part of the Interstate System: 

Provided, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll road except to the extent hereafter permitted by law: 

Provided further, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll bridge or tunnel except to the extent now or hereafter permitted by law.

On August 21, 1957, the BPR announced that it had added 2,100 miles of toll roads in 15 States to the Interstate System. The inclusions had been recommended by the State highway departments and approved by the BPR. The additions included 1,837 miles in operation. A BPR press release explained:

Inclusion of the 2,102 miles of toll roads in the Interstate System will not affect their status as toll roads. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 permits this, although no Federal-aid funds may be used for their improvement.

There is a glaring error in Interstate Highway, etc. funding. It needs to be added that if a state wants a toll road it must be constructed totally, from its beginning, without federal funds compromised. In simpler words, it means existing roads constructed with federal funds cannot be converted to toll roads.