#chained cpi

[odinsblog]

Joe Biden has a very long and public history of going after Social Security.

Fair warning: IF Biden does somehow end up getting the Democratic nomination and winning the general election, I will be the very first person to say “REMEMBER? I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO” when inevitably, he ~*reaches across the aisle*~ to cut Social Security with Republicans. And as he rips off seniors and raises the retirement age, I promise you he’ll be saying something like, blah blah blah, austerity, blah blah, belt tightening, blah blah, bootstraps, blah blah, Obama, blah blah, back when I was a kid....

Link to tweets and videos:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1231721136884502529.html

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If there’s any field in which the Trump administration excels, it’s in coming up with more ways to disadvantage the already disadvantaged in American society. Undermining the healthcare system, tormenting immigrants, throwing people off Medicaid — the list is almost endless.

This week, the administration proposed to redefine “poverty” in a way that could deprive millions of low-income Americans of needed assistance.

The proposal was nestled within a filing Monday by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which seeks comment on whether to change the way inflation is indexed for the purpose of measuring poverty. Among the options, according to the OMB, is changing from the standard consumer price index (CPI) to something known as the chained consumer price index (C-CPI), which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has published only since 2002.

via Los Angeles Times.

We are keeping an eye on this issue and will update our community as time goes on.

You can stay updated as well by signing up for our free newsletter, Your Morning Read, by clicking here.

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Almost a year later, we look at the GOP tax scam and how it has added more and more to the national debt.

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via twitter.

Related Reading:

A truly bad idea is back again. The Trump administration wants to apply the Chained CPI to federal safety net programs.

Once the Chained CPI were adopted for safety net programs, it would be a slippery slope to the conservatives’ long-held goal of applying the chintzier inflation index to Social Security COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments). Annual COLAs are already fairly lean using the current inflation formula.

The Social Security Trustees estimate that the COLA for 2020 will be a scant 1.2 percent or $17 a month for the average beneficiary. At least half of that increase could be swallowed up by a projected $8.80 hike in Medicare Part B premiums. 

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The GOP likes to “redefine” benefit cuts:

❌ Premium Support ➡️ Vouchers ❌ Recalculating Poverty Formula ➡️ Chained CPI ❌ Personal Accounts ➡️ Privatization

Sign our petition by clicking here.

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Now the Chained CPI is back. Why is such a patently poor measure of inflation, which could cut benefits for society’s most vulnerable rearing its head again? I suspect that it’s because the programs conservatives want to slash — especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — are too overwhelmingly popular to cut outright.

Max Richtman via Unchain seniors from chained inflation index.

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Conservative groups propose outrageous cuts to vital programs for seniors and the working class.

Sign our petition by clicking here.

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The bill that has emerged from closed-door negotiations between House and Senate Republicans remains deeply harmful to the working class, the elderly, and the sick. The only good news is that the bill retains the medical expense deduction which so many older Americans rely upon. The rest is bad news.

Triggers an automatic $25 billion cut to Medicare.

Blows a $1.5 trillion hole in the federal debt, inviting future cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Zeroes-out the tax penalty for the Obamacare coverage mandate, which will cause an estimated 13 million Americans to lose insurance – and result in higher premiums for older adults (an average of $1,500 in 2019).

Uses the paltry “Chained CPI” inflation index to calculate adjustments to tax brackets and deductions, which will not only result in tax increases, but could ultimately result in lower Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).

More on this issue can be read here.