Social Security Fairness Act clears Senate procedural hurdle, on path for final passage

[Petsyrah]

16. Someone who is affected by this

I've been lurking on DU for years. Never felt a need to join until just now. Have spent the last two months educating folks on social media about the Social Security Fairness Act and looks like there is some need for that here. This Act is basically a restoration of SS benefits to public service employees who are impacted by an outdated formula developed during the Reagan era. Without going into the details, I will just use myself as an example of how it impacts unjustly. I worked in employment that paid into SS for 28 years. I also worked in county employment for 12 years that paid into a pension in lieu of SS. The WEP reduces my SS earned benefits (for my 28 years of SS earnings) by $350 dollars a month because of my county pension. As for the GPO, my spouse paid into SS for 45 years. Normally the spousal benefit is = to 50% of Spouse's benefit. My spousal benefit is reduced by 2/3 of my county pension which is totally unrelated to my spouse's SS earnings. So when SS calculates my Spousal benefit, first they subtract my SS benefit (pre-WEP reduction), then they subtract 2/3 of my county pension, leaving me with a whopping $50 monthly spousal benefit. So anyone who says well you shouldn't get what you didn't pay into, I have no words.