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Who is left after CPI Social Security Cuts supported by Gene Sperling and friends?
We are all inside that circle. If they had thought through the implications of what they planned to do with the Chained-CPI-Social Security cuts and cuts to medical care, they would have realized that everyone is affected in the end. In the final analysis we are all connected (from StrengthenSocialSecurity):
”Some policymakers are considering accepting a grand bargain that includes the chained CPI for Social Security. This is no minor technical change – it is a benefit cut that compounds to become very large over time. The chained CPI would cut the annual benefit of the average earner (someone making $43,518) by $658 at age 75, $1,147 at age 85, and $1,622 at age 95.1 The cumulative cut for that individual would be $4,631 – more than three months of benefits – by age 75; $13,910 – nearly a year of benefits – by age 85; and $28,004 – more than a year and a half of benefits – by age 95.2 “
Policymakers (Gene Sperling) promise to exclude “vulnerable groups”. Three groups are most vulnerable: Veterans. The Poor. The Eldest Elderly. In 2011, Social Security paid almost half of its benefits to these groups.
$58.3 billion to people who are poor or near-poor (excluding those aged 85 and older);15
$131 billion to those who are aged 85 or above (including veterans);16 and
$176.4 billion to veterans and their families17 (net of the above two groups).18
This means that if a chained CPI is put into place which leaves out those groups, it can only affect a 50% smaller group. What is the point of making these cuts?
There are two other groups identified in the piece which have not been identified as vulnerable but which are vulnerable. The disabled and those over 55. Include those two groups and you have completely removed the purpose of making cuts through a chained CPI. There’s no one left.
You can read the fact sheet HERE.
Photo by Financial Times released under a Creative Commons license.
22 Comments
The point of the exercise isn’t objective reality, proven economics, simple logic or any form of compassion…
… the point is for Obama to become the Democratic President Who Cut SS Benefits.
It’s all about his Legacy.
I’m not sure it matters anymore. If they can’t pass chained CPI, they’ll just dick around with the inflation numbers, accomplishing with lies what they can’t get with laws.
I’ve been reading about the silliness of the chained CPI for 3 decades. It’s survival is testimony that they have a 30 year plan and we focus on what happened yesterday.
The CPI, fwiw, is chained in the sense that new products are added and old or obsolete are dropped.
There could be a responsible, informed debate on both sides about whether BLS method is appropriate, but as both sides use issue as political football, with righties having the scurrilous political agenda, the subject will be all heat & no light.
Those current exclusions total $365.7 billion. If I remember correctly, the revenue from going after offshore bank accounts was around $400 billion, which the right said would only be a drop in the bucket against the national debt. I’m sure it’s a coincidence these numbers are so close, and I certainly wouldn’t want to expose myself as one of the leftist crazies Mika and Mocha cite as false equivalence the the CPAC “wacko birds”.
This means that if a chained CPI is put into place which leaves out those groups, it can only affect a 50% smaller group. What is the point of making these cuts?
Twofold:
The rich shall not be taxed. The tiered 90 percent tax rate under Eisenhower, shall never return. The rich have consolidated (monopolized) the Media. There will be no discussion of taxing the rich IN ANY FORM. No Securities Trading Tax, Nada. The rich are (Hand) Job Creators.
Social Security Cuts lead to Privatization. Privatization leads to Wall Street. Wall Street leads to Pump and Dump.
Where’s the next bubble? Could be Social Security Privatization.
All about Greed and Control. The fruits of Capitalism and Institutionalized Corruption run amok.
Income inequality needs to be discussed by our legislators who are considering the chained CPI. Implementing the CPI change will make income inequality much worse in the US. That’s ENOUGH reason to abandon the plan.
I never thought I would ,live to the day the Democratic Party and its President would propose something, anything at all, that would take a paid benefit away from the very people who elected them. And I damn sure know what my own parents,aunts and uncles would say about this. Traitors.
The cost of transportation, i.e., potential energy? America wastes over a billion dollars a day, driving! Since all goods and services require transportation, might be a good starting point, to emancipate Americans from oil whores engaged in monopoly. I ask older Americans what the cost of potential energy has done to the purchasing power of dollars while on fixed income or how the cost of living has been effected by the cost of fuel and inherent waste when utilized. “RAPE”
Politician and oil whores don’t want this conversation. Just as slave state property owners did not want to discuss abolition. “Servitude”
I’ve had friends who say that they “have enough” for retirement, so they are “ok” with Soc Sec & Medicare being cut. Not kidding.
Then they say: oh but “they” won’t cut Soc Sec & Medicare for those currently over 65. I say: how do you know? Are you sure?
Then I get blather about how, well really Soc Sec & Medicare should be “means tested,” so that people who don’t “really need it,” will get less or nothing. So then I point out that what they’re suggesting is socialism, meaning that someone richer gets less or nothing, while someone poorer gets more. I say: that *Might* be “ok” from your perspective, but guess what?? There’s a huge number of citizens who Will. Not. Like. That.
Besides that then becomes a slippery slope of calling Soc Sec & Medicare “Welfare” (which is would become, more or less), and then the rich would use it as an excuse to stop the program altogether bc of the lazy slacker moochers who are too lazy to work blah blah blah…
Most citizens, even those who are well-educated, are clueless about this kind of stuff. Some are more well-intentioned; some, not so much. But clueless. And generally not interested enough to pay attention, esp if they believe that it “won’t matter,” or “it won’t happen here,” or, in this case, “they won’t screw over the really elderly and the really poor.”
sigh…
You may be right. Don’t think it’s no coincidence that all these banks/traders/mutual funds now have “wealth Management” divisions to take a cut.
“All about Greed and Control. The fruits of Capitalism and Institutionalized Corruption run amok.”
Why not call it Natural Selection? Where the top tier of humans/corporations control the cost of potential energy, housing, food and water. Creating scarcities where none really exist by fiat crisis. Basically decimating liberty and opportunity while utilizing tyranny and intimidation to protect monopolistic, business models as the King of England did for his corporate cohorts, enriching a corporate Aristocracy and himself, at the expense of colonists? Yes, our forefathers! This austerity is in reality called protect America’s domestic corporate mercantile system, exploiting Americans and emerging markets, in the deal with Mammon.
The cost of a gallon of gas was .28 cents and minimum wage @ $1.90, soon to be 2.10 per hour in early 70′s Today Minimum wage @ $7.50 and gallon of gasoline better part of four bucks a gallon. To ignore the inherent economic waste driving, the cost increase on all goods and services requiring transportation, and recognizing that the cost of fuel per gallon is @ 50 % of minimum wage today, is a losing proposition. Same old bullshit, generation after generation and instead of Detroit meeting the needs of the nation, like building tanks for war, we get to bail out the auto industry which refused to adapt, and still drag feet today by truly revolutionizing cost saving efficiency in transportation instead, protecting waste and inefficiency. My Volvo got 42 mpg. It was a 4 cylinder 73 142E Fuel injection four speed with OD on column. Today a Ford Focus gets 25 mpg? You want to secure SS and Medicare, control energy costs and reduce the trillions of dollars America has wasted driving.
Congress sucks…….
good comments, Onitgoes
you are channeling Kurt here, may he RIP — that being the sober realization that most of our countrymen can’t figure out basic human problems enough to even articulate the problem. Add into the current scenario the total manipulation of the population by the machine’s well-oiled propaganda operation, and you see even smart people scratching their heads, which didn’t always used to be the case. Really, the only people who get it, it seems, are either the people posting comments on sites like this, or the people who are busy devising a new way to steal your money.
as one soon to get my first earned benefit check from SS, I know I have skin in the game, like everyone does. As for the elites, who are determined to reduce those earned benefits I’m scheduled to receive, to protect their pampered tax status, I see them almost everyday at my health club, which is located in between Ohio’s two wealthiest zip codes.
On any given weekday you will see the thirty-somethings hanging around, talking, playing tennis, checking the status of their trust funds, and generally killing time, I’m guessing their wives and kids think they’re at some office somewhere.
One activity that I recommend to relieve the frustration of getting no logical response from your friends is to try to engage elites in political discussions of topics like taxation, social security, criminal bankers, etc. One of my favorite things to do is sit down next to some of the trust fund babies watching Fox News in the lounge, and when there’s a break in the action, saying something like “Isn’t this channel the biggest bunch of lies and distortions you’ve ever seen ?” I almost induced a heart attack on some old rich idiot one day.
Anyway, it’s fun to engage the elites, they know exactly what’s going on, and they’ll never throw a punch at you, not sure why, but I think it’s because most of them never had to ever fight for anything, so they’re kind of unfamiliar with how that works.
just a suggestion to kind of fill that non-response void you may be experiencing.
Anyway, good to read your comments, keep ‘em coming, do it for Kurt, may he RIP.
Warning to everyone: Since the chained-CPI will also be used to adjust every years starting benefit, the hit is much worse. You lose so much at age 75 etc. if you start taking benefits when the chained-CPI first goes into effect. But if you are 65 years afterward, what you initially get has also been adjusted DOWN.
Example: If someone is 55 when the C-CPI first kicks in, his annual benefit has been adjusted downward for 10 years when he first gets it at age 65. So his hit at age 75 is actually $658 + $658 = $1,147, etc.
What about someone who is 45 when the C-CPI first kicks in? His annual benefit has been adjusted downward by $1,147 at age 65. He loses $1705 by age 85.
Basically, the younger you are today, the more this will hurt you.
Thanks, Obumbler. No one believes me, but Obombem hates the middle class. No other explanation possible for his desire to destroy the social programs that have given us a middle class. He wants to “protect” the benefit at the lowest levels (where the recipients already get more out on average than they pay in) but destroy the middle class.
And exactly WHY should “veterans and their families” be exempt from the pain?
Veterans have their own medical care system which gives them great medical care at no expense when they are old. Great.
Disabled veterans get money for life. OF COURSE.
But why, if the C-CPI is the fairest way to adjust for inflation, shouldn
t veterans be subject to it? Could it be that our law makers KNOW this is a rotten thing, an unfair thing, a ripoff so they never pay back all that money surplus that was shoveled their way?
GET MAD.
Fock all this folderol. REMOVE THE CAP. Why us this not in the lips of every progressive person and organization?
Why should my idiot boss who makes 200k a year get a free pass on over 80k of income when people like me and the rest of us teeming millions have to pay the full nut
Oh pardon me, I forgot in Obama’s world someone making $400k a year is middle class
I really think we are missing out on the simplicity of the “Raise the Cap” counter argument
GET MAD.
GET EVEN 99%- STOP THE CORPORATE TAX BREAKS. NYT article points out it is greater amount than SS or Medicare. Dishonest dialogue by Democrats and Leader.
CUT CORPORATE WELFARE.
I find it to be a gross refusal to accept responsibility for blaming Obama for trying to get something done based on voters demanding cuts to Social Security for the young while running up debt for higher benefits for the older Republicans.
Obama did not elect all the Republicans to Congress that are demanding cuts to entitlements.
Voters keep voting for Republicans and Republicans are totally honest in promising to cut entitlements.
If the voters do not want entitlements cut, then why are they voting Republican.
Democrats should put forward bills in the Senate that cut Social Security benefits NOW! to pay for the tax cuts that Republicans keep passing.
I suggest a cut to the Social Security payment that is increased in increments of 5% to pay off the debt from the tax cuts. If the 50 million people on Social Security don’t go out and make sure Democrats are elected to hike taxes, then they deserve to have their Social Security payments cut because they don’t need the money.
You really, really can’t accept that the 2010 losses was the direct result of public reaction to the Dem’s treachery and not a result of a love of GOP policies, can you?
Just like 2014 and 2016 will be the Dem’s fault if they go through with this current bit of insanity.
… or does a paycheck or two depend on your not accepting that simple fact?
Obama Told House Democrats to Look at Entitlement Changes:
Mulp, it is Obama who is the one pushing, pushing, pushing to make the Chained CPI cut to SocSec, NOT REPUBS!
Or did I misread your comment?
I’ve read that the Chained CPI will also be the only COLA standard, that tax brackets will be changed less often, resulting in tax increases for the lower middle class filers. It will also affect the COLA increases for government workers.
There’s a whole lot of pain coming down the pike for those not in the top earning quintile.
Thanks TomThumb and commenters.Rec’d
Do not forget,Obama’s hero Reagan once considered ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs for food assistance to the poor.
What a dick.
PEACE