Social Security COLA figures for 2013 announced.

[dennishoddy]

Your utility prices are going up because obummer promised to bankrupt the coal industry, and is doing a fair job of it now. Obummers buddy, warren Buffet, bought major interest in BNSF railroad, and promptly increased transportation fees to the power plants.
He has put moratoriums on drilling, and the list goes on.

 

[Rabbitcreekok]

Awesome that COLA is so low this year. If we manage to pull this off year after year, eventually soc sec, and its corresponding debts, will be inflated away into nothingness and we can start to get out from under the debt that this ridiculous program has us all under

This "ridiculous program" debt would not exist if Congress had not taken all the extra money above that required to make the monthly SS payments out of the fund, left an IOU that can never be reclaimed, and spent it on pork so they can get re-elected each term.

Congress has done the same thing with other trust funds such as the Aviation Trust Fund, which receives the taxes paid on Jet A and Avgas. They just cannot stop their spending.

 

[ez bake]

Your utility prices are going up because obummer promised to bankrupt the coal industry, and is doing a fair job of it now. Obummers buddy, warren Buffet, bought major interest in BNSF railroad, and promptly increased transportation fees to the power plants.
He has put moratoriums on drilling, and the list goes on.

So, why did utility prices go up under Bush?

 

[Shadowrider]

So, why did utility prices go up under Bush?

Let me see. Oh yea, it was a screaming economy and huge demand that did it. Totally opposite dynamic we have now.

As for the whole energy thing Farmerbyron was right. It drives the ENTIRE economy. Not just here, but for the whole world.
Think about it, what do you buy that isn't produced and transported to market using electricity, gasoline, diesel or jet fuel? I'd bet there isn't a single item that anyone can name. I'm talking about something you can physically touch, not something like an insurance policy.

 

[Hobbes]

You 47 percenters act like you are entitled to a COLA.

Personally, I plan to take enough personal responsibility to have a nest egg I can draw from during retirement so that I'm not dependent on government for a COLA to match inflation.

 

[dennishoddy]

When I have to fork out $16,000 for fertilizer to put on my wheat in Febuary, and have no guarentee that it will not get flooded out, hailed out, or have it die prematurely because of drought, or green bugs, it sure makes me appreciate that hot roll I get at dinner.

Corn prices are driving beef, pork and chicken prices through the roof.

Its still ethenol, but the drought in the midwest has been a major contributor to corn prices.

 

[Rajder]

Your utility prices are going up because obummer promised to bankrupt the coal industry, and is doing a fair job of it now. Obummers buddy, warren Buffet, bought major interest in BNSF railroad, and promptly increased transportation fees to the power plants.
He has put moratoriums on drilling, and the list goes on.

The coal industry wants you to believe that it's Obama's fault that they are having to close coal fired power plants so they can blame someone for layoffs and plant closings. But the truth is that coal is just more expensive than Natural Gas right now and it is much cheaper to produce energy from natural gas than coal. In the future you may be right about Obama causing coal plants to close, but right now it is simply supply and demand with natural gas being the better alternative.

 

[Vamoose]

Personally, I plan to take enough personal responsibility to have a nest egg I can draw from during retirement so that I'm not dependent on government for a COLA to match inflation.

We did too. It was called Social Security and we contributed to it every paycheck.

 

[dennishoddy]

The coal industry wants you to believe that it's Obama's fault that they are having to close coal fired power plants so they can blame someone for layoffs and plant closings. But the truth is that coal is just more expensive than Natural Gas right now and it is much cheaper to produce energy from natural gas than coal. In the future you may be right about Obama causing coal plants to close, but right now it is simply supply and demand with natural gas being the better alternative.

Historically coal has been cheaper than Nat gas. Its not now, but where will it be in the future?

I work in the utility industry. Specifically in Power Generation. Our company has gas generating plants and coal burning plants. Guess what is currently making your electricity right now, at this very moment. Its coal. I just looked on the board, and only one of our gas plants is running. All of the coal units are perking right along.
What the current administration is doing to bankrupt the coal industry has many aspects to it. Jacking up transportation costs is one way, but the reason PSO, AEP, and some of the other utility industrys are fighting are the unrealistic EPA regulations that are being arbitrarily shoved down out throats. The coal plants that decided to go off line were because of the expense that is imposed by these regulations. Scrubbers specifically.
It costs just as much to retrofit scrubbers to existing, but older coal plants, as it does to build a new unit, be it coal or nat gas.

Okla just dodged a bullet last month. The EPA ruling about some of the more expensive regulations was thrown out of Federal court. The court ruling was that the EPA did not have the legal right to impose those regs. The administration is apealing this as we speak.

The alternative energy industry is in shambles. Solar is not feasable, wind generation doesn't work when the winds not blowing, and some of the wind farms have been derated. Were it not for government subsidies, the wind industry wouldn't exist.

 

[Hobbes]

I despise the 47% scum.

That's why I provided for myself several years ago.
Sunk my entire portfolio into Enron stock.
It's not doing so well now but by the time I retire I expect I'll be living on EZEE street.