The weather has been kind of pissy to this gardener. Ambient temperatures have been all over the place during the last ten days. The soil for the garlic patch has been spaded yet is too wet for tilling and planting due to intermittent rains. It is raining as I write… and wait for spring to truly arrive.
I received notice my Medicare Supplemental Insurance premium is increasing by 11.7 percent beginning May 1. Making a big assumption — that Social Security will continue to pay out as previously — there should be enough money to cover the additional $28.73 for me and a similar amount for my spouse. May have to cut back elsewhere, but insurance is a top tier priority.
My Social Security payment arrived on time this month. Two for two for the new administration. The Washington Post has been following the turmoil since DOGE turned its sights on the agency upon which more than 70 million Americans rely.
“What’s going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it’s accelerating,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said in an interview with the Washington Post. “I have people approaching me all the time in their 70s and 80s, and they’re beside themselves. They don’t know what’s coming.”
Most of us fear what is coming. As the senator said, we don’t really know what’s coming, except that in fits and starts, the administration appears to be making random cuts and illogical accusations about the program with an endgame of privatizing or killing it. My fear is the billionaire class plans to rob the Social Security Trust Fund in its entirety. It’s almost $3 Trillion value won’t even begin to cover the tax cuts the president has proposed, and the Congress seems intent on legislating into law. That means more debt if it moves forward, in addition to poverty among many seniors, if it doesn’t kill them first. Republicans don’t seem concerned about bankrupting seniors, the government, or anyone but themselves.
Today’s news hits like a brick. I can deal with pissy weather and am reminded of this verse from Cristy Lane’s hit song One Day at a Time, which provides some resilience:
Do you remember, when you walked among men?
Well Jesus you know if you're looking below
It's worse now, than then.
Cheating and stealing, violence and crime
So for my sake, teach me to take
One day at a time.
Journey Home 
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