Dear John: If the economy is booming, why is nothing being done for seniors? This group, solidly behind the president, is still suffering from shrinking Social Security benefits and rising food prices. S.W.
Dear S.W.: You might be happy to know that Social Security’s Cost of Living Adjustment, announced on Thursday, will be 2.8 percent, the biggest hike in seven years.
As for rising prices, what can anyone do about that except cause the economy to slow down? But then you wouldn’t get that big of a cost of living adjustment.
What else would you like Trump to do for seniors?
Personally, I’d like to see interest rates increase so that savers would stop getting screwed. But Trump isn’t in charge of that, the Federal Reserve is — sort of.
But when rates rise — as they are already doing — the economy slows.
My point? All of these parts of the economy move together. It’s hard for any president to do something positive for one group without hurting that group in a different way.