middle class

Medicare Hike Could Also Hit Some in Middle Class

Posted on 04/15/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired as a city worker, Sheila Pugach lives in a modest home on a quiet street in Albuquerque, N.M., and drives an 18-year-old Subaru. Pugach doesn’t see herself as upper-income by any stretch, but President Barack Obama’s budget would raise her Medicare premiums and those of other comfortably retired seniors, adding to a surcharge that already costs some 2 million beneficiaries hundreds of dollars a year each. More importantly, due to the …

The Fiscal Crisis of Families

Posted on 02/28/2013 by | Public Policy | Comments

Money & SavingsWashington and the news media have long been focused on a series of budget deadlines and fiscal dramas. But a different headline stood out for me the other day, as I read a story in the Washington Post: “Fiscal Trouble Ahead for Most Future Retirees.” The story provided dramatic support for recent findings of AARP’s Public Policy Institute that the security of middle class Americans is under attack from all sides. AARP’s Middle Class Security Project and the Post article …

Pressure Rising to Avoid Cuts in Health Programs

Posted on 02/20/2013 by | Health | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Mary Agnes Carey, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News Pressure is mounting for Washington to find a way to avoid the automatic spending reductions set to begin March 1, with President Barack Obama Tuesday urging Congress to stop the “meat-cleaver approach” that he says will undermine U.S. military strength and “eviscerate job creating investments in education and energy and medical research.” But while both Democrats and Republicans say they don’t want the billions of dollars in cuts to kick in, there’s …

White House to GOP: Hands Off Medicaid

Posted on 02/5/2013 by | Washington Watch | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsAs politicians squabble in the coming months over which federal programs to cut, Medicaid will be protected by a sort of favorite son status. “Other than the most minimal, smart, efficiency-type of measure, Medicaid savings — Medicaid cuts — for this president, for this administration, are not on the table,” said Gene Sperling, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council. Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans, will be expanded in 2014 under the provisions of President …

7 Reasons Your Retirement Might Be in Jeopardy

Posted on 01/15/2013 by | Washington Watch | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | Politics | WorkFeeling uneasy about ever getting the middle-class retirement you planned on? Trust your instincts. The nation’s middle class is taking a beating, according to new reports by the AARP Public Policy Institute. Just how bad is it? “The decline of the middle class threatens our ability to fund health and retirement programs, to maintain a safety net for the most vulnerable and to invest in our future,” says AARP CEO A. Barry Rand. Most Americans consider themselves “middle class,” so …