Plus: El Niño's causing more problems, another deadly Israeli strike, and more
April 3, 2024 [View in browser]( Good morning! Today the host of The Weeds podcast Jonquilyn Hill is here to highlight an insidious policy oversight.
âCaroline Houck, senior editor of news [a savings bank] David Williams/Bloomberg via Getty Images An awful catch-22 Saving is hard. Whether for emergencies, special occasions, or retirement, a lot of us fall short. In fact, [almost half of Americans donât have three months worth of expenses saved](. And for some, itâs partly because they arenât allowed to. Imagine you have to stop working for whatever reason, but legally youâve only been allowed to build up $2,000 in savings. Could you make it through one month â let alone more? First, you have rent. Letâs say it runs you $1,109 (thatâs [an average monthly rent for Michigan](, one of the cheaper states in the US). That leaves you with $891. After utilities and internet and groceries and any other bills, thereâs not much left for day-to-day life or unexpected emergencies. And rent the next month would be impossible. But this isnât a pretend âletâs learn personal financeâ moment. This is a real financial barrier that millions of Americans have to live with. Americans like Tyler Lima-Roope, [a popular TikToker]( from California who raises awareness about living with a disability and who receives Supplemental Security Income, or SSI. [[ratio] ]( SSI is a program that supports low-income adults and children with disabilities. So why does a program thatâs supposed to help Americans who have nowhere else to turn, instead ⦠trap them in poverty? How SSI traps people in poverty, explained To get an answer to that question on a recent episode of The Weeds, I reached out to Kathleen Romig, the director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. According to her, when the program was founded in 1972, it was â and still is â considered a last resort: You receive it after applying for all the other social safety nets you qualify for. Qualifying requires specific medical and vocational criteria, meaning that in order to receive the benefit, you not only need to be living with a disability, but the disability must also prevent you from earning $1,500 a month. SSI is about more than just a stipend, though; health care access comes along with it. In some states, receiving SSI means youâre automatically eligible for Medicaid, and Medicaid covers whatâs known as âhome and community-based services.â That means people with disabilities can receive care in their homes rather than in institutional settings. But in order to qualify for SSI, individual beneficiaries canât have assets worth over $2,000 and couples canât have assets over $3,000. And thatâs not just checking accounts: it takes things like mutual funds, retirement, and even car values into account. If you go over that limit, you lose that monthâs check. The asset cap hasnât been updated since the 1980s â and not for any particular reason. When it was created, it wasnât enacted to be automatically adjusted for inflation; if it had been, the SSI cap would be about six times what it is right now. SSI has fallen by the policy wayside, leaving the 7.5 million Americans who rely on the program between a rock and hard place: lose health care and other benefits, or forgo opportunities like saving for the future and getting married. [US capitol building] Kent Nishimura/Getty Images Is there any way out? Given that not much has changed for SSI in the past 40 years, the obvious answer is raising the asset cap. But that canât happen short of an act of Congress. The good news? Thereâs bipartisan [legislation]( proposed in the House and Senate that would raise the limit to $10,000 per individual and $20,000 per couple. This would allow individuals to save more and also rids the program of its marriage penalty. The less than good news? Neither bill has yet come up for a floor vote. And in our current era of hyperpolarization, Congress is moving especially slow, even on legislation that keeps the country running, let alone updating outdated caps for social safety net programs. Romig says the lack of change regarding SSI isnât really a political issue â she has yet to come across anyone on either side of the aisle who thinks raising the asset limit is a bad idea. Itâs an attention issue; many people who donât interact with SSI on a day-to-day basis arenât aware of the low asset cap. The better news is that there is a possible workaround: ABLE accounts. These are state-run tax-advantaged accounts, similar to 529 accounts that parents use to save for a childâs education. ABLE account limits can be as high as $550,000, depending on the state, and donât count toward the asset limit. At its inception, it was for people who had a disability before the age of 26, but a new provision in the 2020 appropriations bill raised the qualification age by 20 years, [starting in 2026](. But once again, thereâs a gap in awareness: less than 1 percent of people who qualify for ABLE accounts have one. Hereâs hoping this newsletter â and my full conversation with Romig on the latest episode of The Weeds â are one tiny step toward changing that. â[Jonquilyn Hill, Weeds host]( [Listen]( The fight for control of Disneyâs kingdom CEO Bob Iger is fighting off activist investor Nelson Peltz, who argues the company spends too much on message-based âwokeâ programming and is campaigning for seats on the Disney board. [Listen now]( AROUND THE WORLD - Will Israel let aid workers in Gaza do their jobs?: Digging into the broader picture behind what happened with Israelâs airstrike on World Central Kitchen workers. [[Vox](]
- A rare chuckle in this section: Courtesy of a wanted Irish narco kingpin who revealed his own whereabouts by posting Google Reviews. [[Bellingcat](] [A vendor sells a sack of corn grain to a customer at a market in the Mbare district of Harare, Zimbabwe] Cynthia R Matonhodze/Bloomberg via Getty Images CLIMATE - How to sabotage your climate goals: A deep dive into how Americaâs regulatory system could endanger a third â yes, a third â of the expected emissions reductions from Bidenâs landmark climate bill. [[CEPR](]
- How El Niño is wreaking deadly havoc in Africa: Millions of people are hungry because of extreme drought. [[AP](] ALSO IN THE NEWS - Taylor Swift joins the billionaire class: She is the first musical artist to do so âsolely based on her songs and performances.â [[Forbes](]
- Biden is doing everything to reach Latinos. Trump is barely trying: But will it matter? [[Vox](] Ad
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[Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The eclipse chaser Solar storms can wreak havoc on power grids, satellites, and even astronauts, but scientists still struggle to predict them. One possible way forward? Chasing eclipses. [Listen now]( Are you enjoying the Today, Explained newsletter? Forward it to a friend; they can [sign up for it right here](. And as always, we want to know what you think. We recently changed the format of this newsletter. Any questions, comments, or ideas? We're all ears. Specifically: If there is a topic you want us to explain or a story youâre curious to learn more about, let us know [by filling out this form]( or just replying to this email. Today's edition was edited and produced by Caroline Houck. We'll see you tomorrow! Ad
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