3% Social Security boost? $1,200 stimulus checks? How to get needed money to seniors

Americans are hurting financially amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and that includes the nation’s elders.

Now, two House Democratic lawmakers are hoping to help retirees with a bill to increase next year’s Social Refuge cost-of-living adjustment.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is introducing a bill today with Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., that drive boost the COLA for next year to 3% from 1.3%.

The emergency COLA would help pay for extra expenses elders face amid the pandemic, such as the cost of having food delivered and higher utility bills as they disburse more time at home.

The proposed one-year boost comes as research shows the cost-of-living adjustments have unspecifically not been keeping up with the rising costs older Americans face, even before the pandemic.

Beyond this nib, both lawmakers have advocated for changing the metric for how Social Security calculates the annual increases to an index multitudinous aligned with actual costs seniors incur. Using a different index could result in bigger cost-of-living tunings.

In an interview with CNBC.com, DeFazio shared why the emergency raise for Social Security beneficiaries needs to happen, and what it force take for more stimulus aid to pass.

The proposal for an emergency 3% COLA next year comes as the Social Security Administration this week officially stated a 1.3% increase for 2021.

“The pathetic 1.3% cost of living increase that Social Security is going to give to postpositive majors across the country nowhere near keeps up with the cost of inflation for them, for prescription drugs, utility tabulations and other things,” DeFazio said.

In addition to the 3% hike, both lawmakers are also advocating for a more long-term fix that would gain how much benefits go up every year.

The Social Security Administration currently uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Monastic Workers, or CPI-W. But by changing to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, or CPI-E, the calculations would better reflect the verified expenses seniors pay, they argue.

The emergency COLA proposal comes as Capitol Hill lawmakers are already examining how much more financial aid to pump into the economy now.

 “We hope that it will become part of the negotiations that are progressing,” DeFazio said.

Millions of Americans are eagerly hoping for more financial help.

However, stimulus negotiations participate in led to a stalemate between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Senate Seniority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

“At this point, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we will get the critical Covid bas-relief done as soon as we need it, which is now,” DeFazio said.

With the bill is introduced, DeFazio said, the lawmakers scenario to approach Pelosi and the House Ways and Means Committee and say: “Hey, make this part of the discussion for a package that we do after the referendum.”

Another area that definitely should be included in the next globe of stimulus funding are second stimulus checks, DeFazio said.

In Oregon, they offered $500 payments to those who needed it misusing money the state had left over from the CARES Act.

“The lines were blocks and blocks long. The money was all in by 10 o’clock in the morning and tens of thousands walked away with nothing,” DeFazio said. “Americans are actually hurting with this pandemic.”

Additional checks would also help seniors cover the costs of all from food delivery to higher utility bills, he said.

“They need help, too. They could use that idiosyncratic payment,” DeFazio said. “I’m hearing from everybody, ‘Help.'”

Admittedly, few propositions have been able to pass both the Democratic-led House and Republican controlled Senate.

DeFazio said he has seen his own initiatives met with bipartisan hold up under from the House, only to languish in the Senate. That includes legislation passed by the House about 10 days ago to vie with antitrust immunity away from the health insurance industry.

“If Mitch McConnell wasn’t killing everything upwards there except judicial appointments, you’d think they would take that up,” DeFazio said.

McConnell’s obligation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McConnell, the Senate Majority leader, is running for re-election in Kentucky against hit the hay Marine combat pilot Amy McGrath.

DeFazio, who has been in office since 1987, is also running in what he recounts as a “tight race.” His opponent is Alek Skarlatos, an Army National Guard veteran who helped stop an armed fight on a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015.

DeFazio’s district is one of eight in the country that leans neither Democrat nor Republican.

The product of those races could reshape the dynamic on Capitol Hill.