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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsExactly how big a blunt instrument is needed to kill off chained-CPI, anyway?
I thought that carcass was buried late last year. Now it is back, like the phoenix. I called every member of my delegation AND the White House last go-around in expressed in the most poignant terms possible my feelings on the matter. I told the White House that I considered it outright theft of money that doesn't belong to those who would cut. I am soooo over this nonsense. Yesterday I got an email from somebody (can't remember who) asking me sign a petition, which I did. I will gladly sign my name to all such petitions. I think one I saw today was an "I will primary you" type of campaign. Good idea. I am very sick, and on disability. But I swear to you, I am so tempted. Even if I would lose, it would be worth it. You see, it wouldn't be about me. It would be about how I feel, though. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. In this case, Right is wrong, and so is Left apparently. I spent all last fall cheerleading in my private life and online as well for this President. I spent election day on Twitter and Facebook rallying voters. I spent the late hours tweeting for people to STAY IN LINE. For what? I thought this past election was the stake in the heart of the Blue Dogs. Someone, please, help me out.
randome
(34,845 posts)Republicans still control the House. That must not be allowed to continue. The only reason Obama is even TALKING about Chained CPI is because if he doesn't, nothing will get done for two more years.
At least this is a negotiating point to get those lazy-ass Republicans back to doing something to earn their salaries. I don't think it will work but Obama has made what I hope to be a final offer. If Boehner has rejected it, and that stands, then we have a dysfunctional government for two more years.
No matter what is agreed to in the House, there will need to be a House/Senate committee to work out the differences and I doubt Chained CPI will survive that.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)Sounds reasonable, I just had no idea we could string this along for two more years.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)in the next two years"? Correct me if I got that wrong. I say draw the line at cutting SS and Medicare and if nothing gets done, so be it.
You either want to cut SS or not. Which side are you on?
golfguru
(4,987 posts)In the Last 3 years social security recipients received about 3.5% raise.
Groceries, gasoline, health services, rents, etc.....things which seniors rarely need (/S) have gone up 3 to 4 times their raise in 3 years.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)Lugnut
(9,791 posts)In 2009 and 2010 there were no COLA increases. It was financially devastating for a lot of SS recipients.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Actually they got an even bigger raise than normal because there was actually deflation but the checks didn't go down.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)And every time I have visited the pet food store, the same product has gone up about $1.00 a week, for the last three weeks. A number of things have risen substantially in price. The few things that have not, are smaller or the content has been cut.
Sam
Recursion
(56,582 posts)And most prices fell during that time.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Nope. All those are figured into the COLA (there's this myth going around that food, energy, and housing aren't factored in when the COLA is calculated; they are).
golfguru
(4,987 posts)Gasoline has doubled in 4 years.
My health insurance went from $245 to $370 a month.
I can't think of a single NECESSITY for seniors which has not gone up at least 15% in last 4 years.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Nationwide, gas is pretty much exactly where it was 2 years ago
http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=food-price-index&months=60
So is food.
You seem to live in an area that has significantly more price increases than the nation as a whole. Unfortunately, as long as we do nationwide calculations, there will always be some cases of that.
Health insurance I'll grant you, but that's why we passed ACA to bend that the other way, which it's starting to do.
golfguru
(4,987 posts)I was talking about 4 years, not 2 years.
Anyways, I really do not need to study official statistics. My wallet is
telling me the story loud and clear.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)SS didn't reduce payments despite the fact that prices for everything had collapsed. Now prices are back up to where they were in 2007. You haven't lost ground since then. Just look at the charts. In effect, you got two years of overpayment on deflated prices for free, and now it feels like a pinch to be back where we were before the crisis.
Response to Recursion (Reply #24)
silvershadow This message was self-deleted by its author.
Response to golfguru (Reply #20)
Recursion This message was self-deleted by its author.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)They've been quite open about. Nothing is or was going to get done for the next two years anyway. We needed to win the house in the last election and didn't make enough if an effort to do so. Hope dems do take the house in 2014 but offering cuts to ss is not the way to do it. Such an offer damages democrats more than republicans. Most are already clued in on the obstructionism from the right. No one needed the President to appear to sell out SS to further illustrate that.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Here's what you are saying now:
My head is spinning with all the different excuses I am reading for this disastrous proposal.
What I have been told over and over again is that he proposed the Chained CPI because he knows NOTHING WILL GET DONE because they won't accept it so we shouldn't worry.
Now you're saying he proposed it because he WANTED SOMETHING TO GET DONE. Because if he didn't give them the Chained CPI, nothing would get done. So he expected them to accept it.
So, which is it?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)take on AARP. I assume AARP is opposed to this, but heck, who knows?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)(with the caveat that I am not a lawyer). But my understanding of the disability law is that when you turn 65 (or whatever the age is now), you switch from disability payment to regular Social Security? So, chained CPI would affect you, even though you are on SS now. I am still in my 40's. I would get a screwing.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)You should have put a third of what you made all the way back to your first paper route into a retirement account that pays 0% interest.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)funds for 50 years. Its a big hassle having to find places to stash the money, find ways to make interest on it, and find pockets to line with it for decades.
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)Yet.
And no... I don't want it to...
dawg
(10,610 posts)The power elite in both parties think it's necessary.
It isn't necessary, of course. If the less pessimistic estimates prove more accurate, and they have tended to do so in the past, Social Security may be good for another 75 years with no changes. If not, raising the cap would do wonders. Or, you could levy a small tax on unearned income to make up the shortfall. There are a thousand ways to bring the system into balance without cutting benefits.
But all the Very Serious People think benefits must be cut. It's one of those things they all just *know*.
bhikkhu
(10,708 posts)I think its a mistake for Obama to even bring it up as a bargaining tool, but it has little support in either party. The one faction of republicans who would have supported it got trounced in the last election.
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)Preferably one with a very blunt way of telling the Republicans to keep their filthy, gnarled, grubby, waxy, yellowed, pus filled, bony, leathery, greedy ass fingers OFF Social Security...AND THEN FOLLOWING THROUGH with a veto if they do try to touch Social Security in any way.