Savings from Superlative CPI

[cthulu2016]

The chained CPI yields a lower estimation of the inflation rate than the method currently in use.

Folks will argue that the chained CPI is a better method of calculation, as a method of calculation and they are probably right. But that is irrelevant because it is not being considered for the mathematical beauty of the thing, but rather as a way to make future benefits checks smaller.

Changes made for the purpose of paying out smaller benefits checks are, or should be, called cuts.

(In a similar way, canceling work days is, when undertaken to reduce total wages paid, called furloughs, not vacations.)

But what if what you are cutting can be reframed as something that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place?

The "chained CPI" is not happy language anymore, so the new language is "savings from superlative CPI."

This is not superlative as in "the best, the most."

This is the second meaning of superlative — "excessive or exaggerated."

The current method of calculating inflation is considered excessive or exaggerated, and we can "save" by paying less than that excessive or exaggerated version of CPI.

So the only part being cut is the extra. It's the CPI equivalent of waste, fraud and abuse. The difference between chained CPI and current CPI is the fat... the excess.

We made a mistake calculating what you would get and we implied that you were getting some amount that was actually an error. We are merely correcting an excessive, exaggerated version of what you were going to get in benefits.

Who could object to cutting, sorry... reforming the waste and excess?

[Doctor_J]

1. Bernie on the chanied CPI

And yet all of these things will happen if Congress changes the way inflation is calculated by switching to a consumer price index (CPI) designed to lower cost-of-living adjustments.

The so-called “chained CPI” is Washington shorthand for one of the most-talked-about cuts favored by Republicans and some Democrats.

Unfortunately, few outside the Beltway understand its consequences. It is a devious and underhanded way to wage class warfare against working families.

Wall Street billionaires and other supporters claim that changing the consumer price index is a “minor tweak.” Tell that to the millions of senior citizens trying to survive on just $14,000 a year whose Social Security benefits would be cut overall by $112 billion during the next decade.

Average 65-year-olds would get $650 a year less in benefits when they turn 75 and see a $1,000 a year cut when they turn 85.

More

A load of horse shit still stinks, no matter what you call it

[Autumn]

2. You know republicans, the media and the republican

politicians and their minions in the medias have a real gift. They can re brand a steaming pile of bullshit as sweet perfume. I trust Bernie over anything they say.

[cthulu2016]

3. Sadly, the rebranding in this instance is directly from the White House

[Autumn]

4. Yes it is. That's the worst part.

If the republicans were asking for it, I would laugh it off. But Obama offered it.

The "chained CPI" is not happy language anymore, so the new language is "savings from superlative CPI." But it's still the same old cat food crap.