This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015

No COLA increase

It was announced by the Social Security Administration that seniors will not get any cost of living raise this coming year — at a time when seniors are facing more expensive housing and medical expenses — and that will squeeze seniors even further. We need to focus on protecting and expanding the Social Security benefits Americans have earned, not make it harder for seniors to make ends meet.

Not increasing the COLA also freezes the payroll tax cap, which should have increased to $122,700. Instead, Social Security will lose about $10 billion in revenue next year.

It was announced that there would be a 52 percent increase in Medicare. Thankfully the recent budget deal rescinded that raise. Two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for the majority of their income and for 15 million seniors, Social Security is the only thing standing between them and poverty.

Responding to my recent Viewpoints letter, Michael Harrell commented: "Why do you feel the need to write only half the story, ignoring the facts of the situation? No one that I know of has proposed cutting Social Security benefits to anyone already receiving benefits."

Here is the other half. Right now, Social Security is running a surplus, meaning it's taking in more money than it pays out. Sometime after 2018, it starts to pay out more than it takes in. If the shortfall in Social Security is not addressed, it has been reported that Social Security benefits could be cut, not only for future Social Security enrollees, but current recipients, to 70 percent. That attitude  — "I got mine, I do not care about yours" — needs to cease. Social Security benefits will be cut for everyone.

Republicans have been proposing raising the age limit; privatizing Social Security and creating private accounts. None of these proposals address the shortfall in Social Security. It's gobbledygook meant to mislead and deceive. They are opposed to reimbursing what the federal government owes the Social Security Trust Fund. To address the shortfall, the cap needs to be raised or simply done away with. And while they are at it, rescind the 1983 amendment that permits the federal government to use money in the trust fund for other expenditures, such as increasing the bloated military budget or giving billions of taxpayer dollars and subsidies to Wall Street, corporate America and the rich.

— Ronald L. Cain

Elko

The perfect president

For seven years America has been blessed with a mistake-free president. The poor economy was an inherited mess but Obama perfected it with quantitative easing. QE was so good he did it three times. He perfected American status among other world countries by bowing down and giving them everything they wanted, be it money, nuclear capabilities or looking the other way.

High unemployment wasn't his fault and he fixed it with shovel-ready jobs and streamlining the H-1B policy. He tweaked health care by replacing it with better coverage at affordable prices. He drew a perfect red line in the sand on Syrian terrorists and doubled down that success when he proclaimed they were contained and on the run. The president cured us of hate speech by changing how we once described illegals, Islamist terrorists and Merry Christmas. Many more examples can be listed but The Telegraph limits my space to do so.

President Obama will be handing to his successor a happy, productive nation with no problems or obstacles in their path to a fun filled future with security and jobs galore. Perhaps, when we're done with him, we will give him to the Middle East. They might find his brand of leadership useful.

Merry Christmas. Oops. Happy Holidays.

— Bob Norcott

Byron

Different strategy

As I sit here tonight and watch our spineless commander in grief try to alibi, without a spin-doctored speech and sans Teleprompter, for his total failure to wipe out ISIS and to control their "junior varsity" terrorist attacks on Paris, I think about the problem we face in fighting these insane savages. These ISIS Muslim jihadis cannot be reasoned with because they want to and expect to die while carrying out their Holy War. Just look at the Paris attackers who all wore explosive belts that they detonated before being killed.

This is a quote from a recent jihadist attacker, now dead, "when I look down the barrel of your gun I see paradise." Since they want to die, how do we strike fear in them? We can treat their dead bodies in such a way that will keep them from reaching their desired paradise and their virgins.

In the Muslim religion as in Judaism, pigs are considered unclean and are to be avoided at all cost. Knowing this, let's take a lesson from one of our famous long dead World War I generals, Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing.

It was reported that during Gen. Pershing's 1911 campaign in the Philippines against the Muslim Moros that he had his men rounded up some recent Muslim terrorists. He had them dig their own graves, then he tied them to posts firing squad style. Next he brought in some pigs which he then had slaughtered in front of the terrorists. The soldiers dipped their bullets in the pig blood and fat before shooting the terrorists. Then they threw the pig carcasses into the graves with the bodies of the dead Muslims.

One terrorist was allowed to escape and return to tell how his accomplices were treated. It is further reported that there was no terrorism in the Philippines for the next 50 years. What we are doing now isn't working so let's try this. I'll pay for the pigs.

— Charles T. Wolf Jr.

Highlands N.C.

Candidates similar

Our state Senate candidates are a mixed bag. They all want more jobs and better schools. They are all fiscal conservatives who want lower taxes and less government regulation. They all want more local control of education in the areas of testing and what they learn.

Most don't like Common Core and the federal government's role in education. They want federal funding but want to create their own standards. This really translates into lower standards and higher student grades. This leads to inaccurate test results and less readiness for graduates to get good jobs.

Larry Walker III wants a flatter tax code and less bureaucracy and regulation. He thus wants to shrink the size of local and state government in a libertarian way. Our progressive state income tax system is the fairest one that creates the most tax revenues. A flatter tax would raise less revenue and create more sales taxes that hurt our poorest citizens.

— Frank W. Gadbois

Warner Robins

Inclusion

In The Telegraph on Saturday, Nov. 21, the article about Georgia getting proactive on teen suicide appeared. The proactive measures include new state policies that require educators to train for prevention. Why have the middle and high school students been left out of the prevention plans? Surely, there are some students who would make excellent candidates to receive training to help prevent their peers from committing suicide. Bonds of trust and friendship would probably result in reducing the emotional solitude that leads to some suicides. Let's remember to include the intellectual resources that reside in our teenagers today.

— Alice Wolmack

Warner Robins

Do black lives matter?

If black lives matter, why are abortions performed at a rate of five to one with blacks killing themselves. Black-on-black crime in 2012 showed police (black and white) killed 200 blacks (most determined essential) while blacks killed 6,000 of their own race.

Incarceration rates of blacks is soaring. Blacks raping white woman, while rarely does a white rape a black. Drug use and sales are skyrocketing. Our prisons are so full they are now allowing early releases, which has already proven a disaster. A theme I have pushed for decades to radically alter incarceration from country club to extremely difficult conditions are laughed at.

Until the taxpayers demand law enforcement and the legal system corral the big drug dealers (those hiding in plain sight) all of us face extremely bad times. Who in our area has the money to fund millions of dollars in drugs? All of our lives are in jeopardy and when my Beretta was stolen, the wheels of justice fell off the wagon.

— Joe Hubbard

Macon

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 9:44 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015 ."