Rep. John Lewis Applauds Cost-of-Living Increase in Social Security

Today, the Social Security Administration announced that it will finally grant a long-awaited 3.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment or COLA to beneficiaries of Social Security. The increase will take affect for 8 million people on December 30, 2011, and for another 55 million in January 2012. Rep. John Lewis, a senior member on the House Ways & Means Committee, made this statement upon hearing the news:

"This COLA is a relief. There is nothing that seniors in my district want to know more than when they will finally see the cost-of-living increase that was promised to them. If working people are struggling to make ends meet, seniors on fixed incomes are making desperate sacrifices--choosing between rent and medication, food and doctor visits. The elderly have been driven to eating canned pet food to survive. This should not happen in the richest nation in the world."

"That is why Social Security payments must keep pace with changes in our economy. Social Security is a necessary safety-net, an insurance program people have paid into to ensure that their most basic needs will be met in the last years of their lives. It is a promise, a sacred trust. And we must continue to make good on that promise."

Source