{"id":114851,"date":"2025-01-05T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/letter-social-security-law-restores-payments-congress-took-from-public-workers\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T07:30:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T16:30:42","slug":"letter-social-security-law-restores-payments-congress-took-from-public-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/01\/05\/letter-social-security-law-restores-payments-congress-took-from-public-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Social Security law restores payments Congress took from public workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The news media has been wrongly depicting the social security fix to the Wage Equalization Program (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) as increasing Social Security for those of us who served in the public sector: state employees, federal employees, municipal employees and teachers. The legislation President Biden signed is returning benefits that those of us who served in the public sector, paid in for and earned. Congress reduced our benefits 40 years ago. GPO reduced the Social Security that I paid for by many thousands of dollars over the 19 years that I have been retired. The legislation is just fixing the wrongs Congress imposed on us.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Miller<\/p>\n<p>Juneau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The news media has been wrongly depicting the social security fix to the Wage Equalization Program (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) as increasing Social Security for those of us who served in the public sector: state employees, federal employees, municipal employees and teachers. The legislation President Biden signed is returning benefits that those of us who served in the public sector, paid in for and earned. Congress reduced our benefits 40 years ago. GPO reduced the Social Security that I paid for by many thousands of dollars over the 19 years that I have been retired. The legislation is just fixing the wrongs Congress imposed on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":114852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[97,106],"class_list":["post-114851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Letter: Social Security law restores payments Congress took from public workers - Juneau Empire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/01\/05\/letter-social-security-law-restores-payments-congress-took-from-public-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letter: Social Security law restores payments Congress took from public workers - Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The news media has been wrongly depicting the social security fix to the Wage Equalization Program (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) as increasing Social Security for those of us who served in the public sector: state employees, federal employees, municipal employees and teachers. 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