Don’t touch my COLA

As a federal retiree who worked for the Postal Service for 30 years, I am deeply concerned with a provision in President Trump's budget, which would eliminate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for current and future federal retirees. I ask that my representative, Tom Rice, and our senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, oppose any proposals that would reduce COLAs for federal retirees.

The annual COLA provides protections against inflation, but even the current calculation is inadequate because it understates the impact of health care spending, yielding lower annual COLAs. Reducing or eliminating my and other federal retirees’ COLA further threatens my health and financial security.

This proposal would diminish the value of my hard-earned annuity by allowing inflation to erode the benefit over the course of my retirement. With the cost of goods and medical care on the rise, I will not sit back and allow this attack to gain a foothold.

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Don’t touch my COLA."