The Nation Why Obama’s Chained-CPI “Protections” Aren’t Good Enough

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173843/why-obamas-chained-cpi-protections-arent-good-enough

As we touched on last week, these protections fall short in several ways. Obama proposes exempting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from readjustment by Chained-CPI, but there are 9.4 million poor or near-poor on Social Security who are not on SSI, and another 2.8 million “dual eligibles” who draw from both.

All means-tested veterans’ pensions, as well as any Montgomery GI Bill or post-9/11 GI Bill, are also exempt from Chained CPI, which is good, but one in every five Social Security recipients is a veteran—so they’re still going to get squeezed some. (Incidentally, if Chained-CPI is truly a “more accurate” measure of inflation—that is, just taking away an existing windfall, as proponents argue—why do veterans need protecting?)

Another way the administration proposes to help seniors hurt by Chained-CPI is to provide a bump in benefits at age 76, or after 15 years of disability payments. The Simpson-Bowles plan and several others that include Chained-CPI have had similar provisions with some variations—each restore some of the lost benefits, but still amount to a net benefit cut.

Alas, the same is true with Obama’s proposal. The folks at Social Security Works have crunched the specific numbers the White House has proposed and kindly shared them with The Nation. As you can see, seniors still have their benefits cut rather dramatically under Chained-CPI.

[Summer Hathaway]

1. There's nothing like reading endless analyses

of the impact of a proposal that everyone knew was never going to be accepted in the first place.

[eridani]

3. That remains to be seen

Regardless of possible adoption, the Democratic Party brand has sustained major damage.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. .

.

[neverforget]

4. and it has nothing to do with the deficit but it's all cool because

it's not going to pass, Obama doesn't believe in it and the Republicans are against it or something.

Chess, ...., profit