Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Mr. President, a word. You keep offering the Tea-Publican economic terrorists chained CPI for calculating the cost of living adjustment (COLA) to Social Security. This has the cumulative effect of reducing benefits over time.
Mr. President, this proposal presents no political advantage or benefit to you or to the Democratic Party, the champion of Social Security. Seniors hate chained CPI, no seriously, they really hate chained CPI, Mr. President. So please, just stop it.
I know you are Desperately Seeking “Serious” Approval of the Beltway media, but they are all puppets of Pete Peterson's war on Social Security and Medicare, they are not the people from whom you need approval. That would be the voters to whom you promised to protect Social Security, and who voted for you based upon that promise. It's time for you to be the people's champion.
Joan McCarter reports, AARP poll: Seniors loathe chained CPI proposal:
The AARP has completed a new poll stating the really obvious: seniors, all seniors regardless of party, really hate the idea of a chained CPI.
The AARP reveals that 70 percent of voters age 50-plus oppose the use of the chained CPI to cut benefits, and two-thirds
of them—including 60 percent of Republicans—say they would be
“considerably less likely” to support a congressional candidate if he or
she backed a new way of calculating consumer prices. And 84 percent of voters over 50 say Social Security has no place in budget-deficit discussions, since it is self-financed. […]
“The chained CPI reduction snowballs over time and would increase
taxes for most taxpayers — at the same time that it cuts benefits for
children, veterans, widows, retirees, and people with disabilities,”
said AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond in a statement. “As
this survey shows, older Americans oppose the chained CPI and they’ve
historically made their opinions known to their elected officials.”
[emphasis added]
You can expect seniors to continue to make their opinions know to their
elected officials, now that the chained CPI is officially ensconced in
the president's budget. More than 100 House Democrats have told the
president that they are opposed to the proposal, which makes sense since they are the ones getting most of those calls.
So far, a handful of senators have expressed their opposition. Sen. Bernie Sander says he will do "everything in my power" to block the proposal. Sens. Tom Harkin and Jeff Merkley have also publicly stated their opposition.
* * *
[T]he Republican House budget doesn't contain the chained CPI. The Senate
rejected it. The most vocal elected Democrats are opposed to it, perhaps
with the exception of Nancy Pelosi. Right now, the President is pretty
much on his own with this proposal, without a constituency. Speaker
Boehner has already rejected it and the people who will be hurt by it hate it. So why is it going to be in his budget, again?
Bonus: Joan McCarter explains, Chained CPI: The wrong solution to a problem that doesn't exist.