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End of Social Security checks has benefits
This February is not only memorable for Super Bowl fans, groundhogs and valentines, it’s also a crucial month for the more than 5 million consumers who still collect their Social Security payments by check.
In order to save taxpayers $1 billion over 10 years and mitigate Social Security fraud, the government has informed these participants that they need to sign up for direct deposit or the government-issued Direct Express debit card by March 1.
The Treasury Department will grant exceptions to the rule only in rare circumstances, according to the government. Automatic waivers are granted to people born on or before May 1, 1921. Check recipients living in remote areas without sufficient banking infrastructure may apply for a waiver, as well as check recipients for whom electronic payments would impose a hardship due to a mental impairment.
Although it’s hard for many people to change their ways, it’s important for them to know there are benefits by choosing either direct deposit or the government debit card.Â
Direct Deposit is a free service that automatically deposits recurring income received into any checking or savings account chosen by the customer.
The benefits include:
It’s convenient. Your money is deposited automatically into your checking or savings account, even when you are too busy to get to the bank.
It’s fast. You have same–day access to your money on the day of deposit.
It’s safe. Never worry about checks getting lost, delayed or stolen.
Checking accounts are also a great value for consumers. They offer convenience, and multiple ways to access/manage their money and security. In many cases, having direct deposit is one way to waive a monthly service fee on a checking account.
The government card is a prepaid debit-card payment option. Cardholders can make purchases, pay bills and get cash back at thousands of locations nationwide. There are no sign-up fees or monthly account fees. Consumers can use their cards to make purchases, pay bills, and get cash from an ATM or financial institution.
Switching from checks is fast, easy, convenient, safe and free. Consumers can obtain more information by going online to www.GoDirect.org, calling the U.S. Treasury Electronic Payment Solution Center’s toll-free helpline at 800-333-1795, or simply visiting with their local banker.
Lisa Riley
Wells Fargo’s regional president for New Mexico and Western Border
Fracking expertise no cause for attack
In his letter to the editor (North Edition, Jan. 30), Ron Wooten-Green huffs that in writing the article “Fracking Surrounded by Misinformation,” professor Alex Ritchie provided his own misinformation. The thrust of Ritchie’s article, which is essentially a review of the movie “Promised Land,” is that this movie’s ugly picture of the fracking process is “sensationalized fiction” that could have a deleterious effect on policy decisions.
Wooten-Green provides no evidence of misinformation in Ritchie’s article. Nor does he provide evidence to support his invidious suggestion that Ritchie had been paid by oil and gas interests to write his critique of “Promised Land.”
But it is not Ritchie’s purported transgressions that most outrage Wooten-Green. For him, the most serious problem associated with Ritchie’s article is “the Journal’s fracking the facts about background.” This background includes significant involvement in the legal issues associated with the oil-and-gas industry.
That the information about Ritchie’s background in readily available in the public domain (see http://lawschool.unm.edu/faculty/ritchie/index.php) suggests that Wooten-Green is overwrought where this matter is concerned.
Regarding the matter of Ritchie’s experience, this would seem to be a matter of the half-full, half-empty glass. Personally, I was impressed with Ritchie’s credentials, for they indicate considerable first-hand knowledge of the issues raised by fracking. For Wooten-Green, Ritchie’s experience is a major source of bias. If an expert tells you something you don’t want to hear, it’s easy to charge that the expert is biased and dismiss his arguments.
When we check Wooten-Green’s credentials on the Internet, we find nothing that suggests expertise where fracking is concerned. Wooten-Green has served as a hospice chaplain and has written extensively about facing death. These are both noble undertakings, but they do not make him an expert on fracking. Lacking the expertise to refute Ritchie’s points, Wooten-Green stoops an ad hominem attack.
Donald R. Baucom
El Prado, N.M.
Oil, gas industry Obama’s tax target
President Obama is of a one-track mind when it comes to his efforts to raise taxes. One of his favorite targets is the oil-and-gas sector. Look for bills to be submitted to Congress which, if enacted, will harm the energy industry and give foreign government-owned energy companies an edge over American companies here at home.
Since state-owned companies in places like Iran, Russia and Venezuela would not be subject to any number of these proposed taxes, the paradoxical effect of these tax increases will favor those hostile regimes and hand penalties to U.S. oil-and-gas companies.
The exact proposals by the Obama administration are to repeal applicability of Section 199 of the tax code to the U.S. major oil companies, and to “double-tax” those same companies which drill in other countries (as well as domestically).
These proposed taxes should be opposed by rational Americans, including all members of our congressional delegation.
Glen Schlueter
Albuquerque
