If you haven’t received your letter from Social Security yet, about your raise in benefits for 2018, be prepared. I got mine. Let me tell you about it:

I knew I was getting a 2.2 percent increase. So, beforehand, I figured I’d get an extra $20.70. Not really a lot, but a lot more than the last four or five years.

The letter from Social Security informed me of the amount I’d be getting, starting in January 2018 – $2.70 more than what I have been receiving. I knew that was not a 2.2 percent raise. So I called the local Social Security office.

I was informed that the premium on my Medicare had been raised by $18. So that amount was deducted from my $20.70 raise. Thus, instead of a $20.70 raise, I got a $2.70 raise.

This is not the fault of Social Security. This is the Republican Congress in action.

Thanks to all the Republican voters out there who sent these idiots to Washington, D.C.

Harold Boothby

South Portland