{"id":2736,"date":"2017-07-21T13:45:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T13:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcountydemocrats.org\/?p=2736"},"modified":"2017-07-21T13:45:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T13:45:44","slug":"cumulative-loss-10-1-1-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/?p=2736","title":{"rendered":"“Cumulative Loss”: 10 \u2013 1 \u20131 \u20132 = 0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Glenn Koenen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It\u2019s only a couple of hundred dollars,\u2019 or, \u2018we can cut the Circuit Breaker or we can cut in-home care for seniors.\u2019<\/p>\n

Remember those arguments from the last legislative session? By the middle of May, thanks to State Representative Deb Lavender (D \u2013 Kirkwood) and friends, a way to have both the tax credit for senior citizen renters and home health care passed in both ends of the Capitol \u2013 only to have Governor Eric Greitens gleefully wield his Veto pen.<\/p>\n

Alas, it\u2019s a lousy time to be a senior in Missouri. Besides the Circuit Breaker, other special help for our older neighbors is under attack in Jefferson City and Washington.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at Grandma Jane, a hypothetical but friendly women in her 70\u2019s living with a bunch of health problems. She has a modest but cute apartment in an area suburb. She worked a bit after raising her kids but her Social Security payment, like many widows, is based on the survivor formula on her late husband\u2019s account. She gets $900 a month, $10,800 per year. That\u2019s a bit above average for surviving spouses [ https:\/\/www.ssa.gov\/policy\/docs\/quickfacts\/stat_snapshot\/ ], yet, not enough for her to sit pretty. That\u2019s not a surprise since the Poverty Level for a single person is $12,060 a year or $1,005 a month.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, she qualifies for several programs\u2026<\/p>\n

$ 500 Missouri Circuit Breaker a tax credit to lower-income seniors to help offset property taxes<\/p>\n

$ 1,200 Missouri Rx Program help paying for her many prescriptions beyond Medicare\u2019s coverage<\/p>\n

$ 1,716 Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) Medicaid payment towards her share of Medicare<\/p>\n

$ 2,160 Food Stamps $180 per month, or, around $1.94 per meal<\/p>\n

$250 Heating Assistance Grant a state pass-through of a federal allocation to Missouri<\/p>\n

Wow! Grandma Jane gets $ 5,826 in special help each year! This targeted aid gives her a standard of living of about $16,600. Not golden toilet living like Donald Trump, but a lot better than Social Security alone.<\/p>\n

Uh-oh!<\/p>\n

Remember, the Circuit Breaker for renters got SEALed. The legislature also cut back on the Missouri Rx program, meaning that $100 a month will become $50 or $0. Proposed federal cuts to Medicaid (MO HealthNet) will target that QMB.<\/p>\n

And, the Trump administration and friends plan to trim food stamps by 25%, and, give states a 10% to 25% co-pay\u2026Maybe Grandma Jane will get $20 or $50 a month when the dust clears.<\/p>\n

That heating grant? Trump has targeted the Low-Income Heat Assistance Program (LiHEAP) for complete elimination.<\/p>\n

In other words, a series of trims and cuts which don\u2019t sound that big each on their own wind up taking $3,000 a year or more out of Grandma Jane\u2019s standard of living. Poverty\u2019s sting grows sharper.<\/p>\n

Of course, we\u2019re told these inefficient and wasteful programs must be slashed. Missouri and America must \u201cpay for\u201d tax cuts for wealthy \u2018job creators.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sorry grandma.<\/p>\n

Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Missouri Circuit Breaker http:\/\/dor.mo.gov\/forms\/MO-PTC%20Instructions_2016.pdf<\/p>\n

Missouri Rx Program http:\/\/dss.mo.gov\/mhd\/faq\/pages\/faqmo_rx.htm<\/p>\n

QMB http:\/\/www.medicareadvocacy.org\/old-site\/InfoByTopic\/MedicareSavingsPrograms\/MedicareSavingsProgsMain.htm & http:\/\/dss.mo.gov\/re\/pdf\/fsd_mhdmr\/1705-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf Table 23<\/p>\n

Food Stamps http:\/\/www.gettingfoodstamps.org\/snapcalculator.php & May 2017 Monthly Management Report shown above<\/p>\n

LiHEAP http:\/\/www.reformer.com\/stories\/trump-budget-could-literally-freeze-the-poor-to-death,513024 & https:\/\/dss.mo.gov\/fsd\/energy-assistance\/<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s only a couple of hundred dollars,\u2019 or, \u2018we can cut the Circuit Breaker or we can cut in-home care for seniors.\u2019 Remember those arguments from the last legislative session? By the middle of May, thanks to State Representative Deb Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZWUT-I8","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2738,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions\/2738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}