This year's Social Security bump won't come close to cutting it

Yet far too many seniors impacted by all this will remain part of the Trump cult. But we don’t need all that many to just stay home, to help contribute to a couple of blue wave elections along the lines of 2006 and 2008.

The Social Security Administration on Friday announced a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment for beneficiaries, a small increase that advocates said would be mostly or entirely offset by surging healthcare premiums and other price hikes fueled by President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff policies and Republican legislation passed earlier this year.

The 2.8% raise—the second-smallest since 2021—will amount to just over $50 extra per month for the average Social Security recipient. The projected 11.6% increase in Medicare Part B premiums next year would wipe out around 40% of the COLA increase for seniors…

“ACA premiums are projected to skyrocket next year, with those over 50 hit hardest,” (Nancy Altman, president of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works) said. “For many of these beneficiaries, the COLA increase won’t come close to covering their increased healthcare premiums.”

Another factor that could eat into the Social Security COLA is the impact of Trump’s tariffs on prescription drug prices, which are already far higher in the US than in other wealthy nations. - Common Dreams