New study shows that Social Security pumps $2 into the economy for every $1 paid out in benefits.

Courtesy of AARP:  

A new report by the AARP Public Policy Institute, "Social Security's Impact on the National Economy," found that Social Security adds more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year. People who receive Social Security benefits are not saving that money for a rainy day. They're spending it on goods and services — pumping it back into the economy. We have to remember that the typical older American has an income of about $22,000 a year, and Social Security accounts for about half of a typical older family's income. 

Businesses use the income to purchase more goods and services, to realize profits and to hire more employees. Those employees, in turn, spend their wages on more goods and services, which creates more spending and income for more people. This creates a powerful multiplier effect that benefits the economy, businesses and workers. In fact, our report found that every dollar in Social Security benefits paid out generates about $2 of total output for the U.S. economy. 

In 2012, spending by Social Security beneficiaries, combined with the added spending by businesses, generated roughly $1.5 trillion in total economic output. 

This spending in turn supported more than 9 million jobs in the national economy. About 4 million of these jobs were created in just 10 industries. The largest impact was seen in the food services, real estate, health care and retail industries. 

Thanks to the benefits provided by Social Security, nearly 21.4 million Americans avoided poverty: 1.1 million children, 5.8 million adults under 65, and 14.5 million adults 65-plus.

 Of course despite this the Republicans party has been attempting to undermine Social Security since its very inception. And just like Medicare, and now the Affordable Care Act, these are programs that ultimately benefit not just the individual but also the country at large.

I look forward to the day when a report comes out detailing the incredibly positive benefits that Obamacare has had on the nation. Because eventually you KNOW it's coming.

Pentagon extends benefits to spouses of military members in same sex marriages.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

The Pentagon on Wednesday announced it would extend federal benefits to same-sex spouses of military personnel and civilian defense employees, following up on a Supreme Court decision that overturned a key portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. 

The benefits will be available to all legally married spouses regardless of sexual orientation beginning no later than Sept. 3, according to a Defense Department announcement. 

“The Department of Defense remains committed to ensuring that all men and women who serve in the U.S. military, and their families, are treated fairly and equally as the law directs,” the announcement said. 

The Pentagon also said it would allow leave for couples who are not stationed in jurisdictions that recognize same-sex marriage – including 13 states and the District of Columbia – so they can travel elsewhere to be married. 

Same-sex spouses will be eligible for entitlements such as military health benefits and housing allowances on a retroactive basis if they were legally married before the June 26 Supreme Court decision, according to the announcement. Entitlements will begin at the date of marriage for those who wed after the ruling.

I am constantly amazed at how fast the LGBT community is gaining acceptance, and how quickly their homophobic detractors are being shut down.

Have I told all of you how awesome it is to be living during this time in America?

Health insurers handing out rebate checks and lowering premiums. How do you like Obamacare now?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Americans who bought individual health plans in 2012 saved $2.1 billion thanks to Obamacare consumer protections that limit how much insurers can profit off of Americans’ premiums, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The vast majority of those savings stem from individual health plan providers lowering the premiums they charge Americans in an effort to comply with the reform law. 

The Kaiser study comes shortly after several major California insurers announced that they would have to pay back $36 million to small businesses and their employees after charging them too much. Obamacare mandates that insurers on the individual market spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they charge on actual medical services, or reimburse the amount they overspent to their customers. 

But insurers can avoid writing those checks after-the-fact if they just lower their premiums to begin with — and KFF’s study concludes that’s what many individual plan providers have been doing. KFF estimates that individual market insurers lowered their premiums by $856 million in 2011 and by $1.9 billion in 2012 to comply with the so-called “80/20 rule.” 

The combination of these premium savings and rebate checks meant that Americans who bought their own insurance spent 7.5 percent less on their coverage in 2012 than they would have without Obamacare’s consumer protections. 

Obamacare will also change that status quo soon enough. Once the law’s main provisions go live in 2014, individual and small group health plans sold on its statewide insurance marketplaces must offer ten “essential health benefits” to consumers, including for mental health care, prescription drug, and maternity services. Initial insurer bids for the marketplaces in several states have indicated that premiums will be affordable, and even lower than what many plans currently charge for far worse coverage.

You know every time I read information like this I cannot help but wonder just how much better the news would be if the Republicans were not trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act at every turn?

I think that by 2014 the benefits will be too obvious and they will have no choice but to walk away and find another issue to use in order to attack the President.

But then again perhaps I am underestimating their cognitive dissonance.