9 'Chained CPI' Facts They Don't Want You to Know

[OhioChick]

Posted: 04/11/2013 12:58 pm

The "chained CPI" proposal in President Obama's budget continues to draw much-deserved fire, which is only likely to increase as more information about it becomes known.

Here are nine embarrassing facts about the chained CPI which the White House and its defenders would prefer to see overlooked:

1. Of course it's a benefit cut.

Chained-CPI defenders say it's not a benefit cut. It's just a slowdown in the rate of the benefit's planned increases. That's a silly semantic game unworthy of serious leaders or analysts. The Social Security benefit, as laid out on the Social Security Administration's website, includes adjustments designed to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

Those adjustments aren't a benefit increase. They're designed to prevent the benefit from being decreased as a result of inflation. If you lower that adjustment, you're cutting benefits. Period.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/9-chained-cpi-facts-they_b_3062228.html

[HiPointDem]

1. kr

[Faryn Balyncd]

2. 3. And it's a tax hike for everybody but the wealthy....

3. And it's a tax hike for everybody but the wealthy.

In fact, it's a tax hike on all but the highest levels of income. The richest earnings won't be affected because they're already in the highest tax bracket.

Got it? So it's a tax hike on everybody except the richest among us.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. This part of that article is right on:

The deficit is already shrinking -- and "rapidly," in the words of those radical lefties at Goldman Sachs.

The deficit isn't our most urgent economic problem. It's not even close. We desperately need jobs, real wage growth, consumer confidence, financial security for the elderly and disabled (which means increasing Social Security) ...

Sure, deficits need to be addressed after the economy's been righted, but right now they're nowhere near the top of the list.

In fact, there's an extremely good chance that the cuts in the president's budget will make the deficit worse, as austerity cuts have in Europe. The Republican budget would certainly have that effect, since its cuts are far more severe.

The bottom line? The chained CPI is the wrong answer to the wrong problem at the wrong time. It's time for the White House to recognize that and move on. In the meantime Democrats need to walk away from it fast, before they pay a high price for it at the polls.


Goddamn it. What a mess this is going to be.

[timdog44]

5. K & R. Great article.

It makes it even more embarrassing that our president is offering a chained CPI. Especially when the deficit is not what is a priority.

[demwing]

6. Take 2 indentical cars

The first goes 0 to 60 in 5 seconds.

The second is throttled back so that is goes 0 to 60 in 10 seconds.

Has the 2nd car experienced a cut in speed?

[avaistheone1]

7. 4. You could save much more money in other, better ways.

The White House has said the chained CPI will save $122 billion in benefits over ten years. Leaving aside the fact that Social Security doesn't affect the deficit (which we'll discuss shortly), here's what isn't being done:

Close capital gains loopholes: $174 billion.
End the Bush tax cuts at Obama's original $250,000 level, rather than the compromise $400,000 number: $183 billion.
Cut overseas military bases by 20 percent: $200billion.
Negotiate with drug companies: $220 billion.
Enact "Defense-friendly" Pentagon cuts: $519 billion.
End corporate tax loopholes (without being "revenue neutral," as the President's proposing): $1.24 trillion.
Enact a financial transaction tax on the folks who ruined our economy: $1.8 trillion.

Faced with those numbers, the chained-CPI benefit cut is... well, embarrassing. (Details, and additional alternate deficit reducers, here.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/9-chained-cpi-facts-they_b_3062228.html


Loving point#4 in this article