Social Security Fairness Act isn't all that fair

Here’s a question for our politicians in D.C. — if a senior couple is living near poverty, kept afloat thanks only to two monthly Social Security checks, and one of them dies, husband or wife, how is the remaining spouse supposed to pay all the bills on only one check instead of two?

To normal people, the answer is — they won’t be able to pay the bills, you moron. How can they?

For D.C. politicians, from say the early 1970s on, including some after whom government buildings have been named, Social Security widowhood doesn’t fly close to the radar because the victims are usually too weak to raise a ruckus.

AARP, as far as I can tell, doesn’t care about this topic because, well, the people affected most likely don’t pay a membership.

Widow’s Woes

A buddy of mine died last year, just past his 75th birthday. He had a side business, which paid him a pittance, plus his Social Security check.

He and his wife lived together in a small wooden-frame house that they owned in Mission. A “humble abode” would be putting it mildly, but like my buddy said, at least it was theirs.

One day he was healthy, the next, in early 2024, he wasn’t. Within approximately four weeks he was dead. An aggressive cancer to say the least.

So now his wife has to pay for everything — the relatively small mortgage payment, groceries, utilities, insurance, a car loan, car insurance, and money set aside for when things break, just off her one Social Security check.

My buddy’s Social Security check died when he did.

Needless to say, his widow has fallen behind paying for most things, and if not for the help of some friends, she’d still be living without electricity.

Besides SS, she gets approximately $97 per month for groceries, courtesy of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), AKA, federal food stamps administered through the states.

A literal windfall — $97 per month. Steak every night. That sort of thing.

She worked for most of her career as an RN. Then after she could no longer work as a nurse, she did some substitute teaching, but now her legs are bad/weak, so she falls, and she has no advance warning when one or both of her legs is about to give out.

So there goes the substitute teaching gig.

Congress Out for Its Own

Our politicians in D.C. did do something earlier this year to change Social Security and actually help people.

Really? How exciting. What, pray tell, did the benighted sods do?

Congress passed the Social Security Fairness Act.

Really?

So it will help people like the widow mentioned in this column who is now this close to being homeless?

No, not at all. It helped the people who need it the least, relatively speaking.

The Act, signed into law Jan. 5, 2025, ended the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.

Which means that those two provisions, which reduced or eliminated SS benefits for more than 2.8 million people who receive a work-based pension, are now no mas.

In other words, for example, a retired federal employee who gets a Class A pension for work not covered by SS because he or she didn’t pay into it, will increase the SS payments they are already getting.

This Act also includes teachers and first responders in many states. Not sure about Texas, and don’t feel like expending the time to look up the topic.

All I know is, once again, the people who need help the most, like the widow mentioned in this story, get no relief from government.

Which makes me wonder, how many seniors like her are there living now with no hope in sight?

In the case of this widow, her family is as worthless as Bernie Sanders with a private jet. Three sisters, one of whom is a physician, and they help her out not at all.

A son is in prison, again, for drug possession and burglary.

Her daughter is useless. She loved daddy, who would pamper her and give her anything, but does nothing for her mother during this most difficult of times, even though she served as the family’s main bread winner.

Meanwhile, she’s a good church goer, but screw that "Honor your father and your mother" business. This is a transactional world, mama. You ain’t got nothing to give me, I ain’t got nothing to give you.

When my buddy was alive, when the daughter and her husband needed a free babysitter, the daughter would call my buddy and say that the granddaughter was just dying to see them. Could they drive up to central Texas to see them, and, oh, by the way, could they babysit for the weekend?

Now, the same grandma who used to babysit is completely shut out of the picture.

Congress, Do Something

If Congress wanted to do something useful, besides taking off work for the next 12 months, they would do something for the tens of millions (just a guess) of people like this poor widow lady.

Or a widower, for that matter. Again, not to be redundant, but how do the politicians expect a senior couple to escape homelessness if they’re just getting by on two Social Security checks, while the cost of most things continues to escalate, and suddenly, with the death of one spouse, there goes close to half the money?

We have the money, though, for almost everyone, everything else, except for so many Americans who have worked hard their entire adult lives, paid into the system, but now need help as their final years pass by.

If I sound annoyed, sorry, but I am.