The chained CPI is really just a stealth 10% cut in SS benefits. It is a lie, and it is wrong.

[reformist2]

I don't care that Obama and the Dems haven't agreed to it yet, they have a moral obligation to CONDEMN this proposal. NOW.

[HiPointDem]

1. it's more than a 10% cut, it's continuing cuts from scheduled benefits that get larger with

each passing year. so the older you get, the less purchasing power you have.

what a great set-up for privatizing social security. "it's failing! we have to do something!!"

[badgolfer]

2. Democrats

They all indicated hands off social security when running for office during this last election. If they want to be thumped big time in 2014, just continue down this path.

The Democrats had better stand by their words.

Pelosi seems to be changing with the wind after she was against changes to these programs.

[vi5]

3. Stop being a naive, radical leftist...

You obviously don't know how government and negotiations work. I mean really what was Obama supposed to do. Also too, something about unemployment.

[Selatius]

4. The impetus to "fixing" the inflation rate began after SS was reformed to have a trust fund.

Prior to the reform, Social Security worked on a pay-as-you-go system. Taxes collected through payroll would be used to cover current retirees. If projections showed that pay-outs were going to be higher than revenue, then Congress would step in from time to time and adjust the rates.

The Greenspan commission came up with the idea of a trust fund made up of non-marketable securities that excess revenue could be placed. The revenue would be exchanged for the securities, and the revenue itself would then go into the General Fund.

The problem is that now Congress and the White House (regardless of who sits in the White House and who runs Congress) have a systemic incentive to try to curb pay-outs to retirees because of the excess revenue going into the General Fund, and the best way to curb the pay-outs is to change the way inflation is recorded.

Another incentive to under-reporting inflation is that if the inflation rate were lowered, each year the tax brackets, being under-adjusted for rising inflation, would act like a phantom tax increase without an official tax rate hike.