Two footnotes to the item about Chris Christie's camouflaged attack on Social Security:One is that CPI and Chained-CPI are not the only measures of inflation the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses in producing inflation figures.
Another is the CPI-E, "E" for "elderly." It's intended to reflect the fact that us old folks tend to spend relatively less of our income than younger folks do on things like clothing, recreation, transportation, and food and more on housing and health care. So CPI-E weights its measure of inflation based on that difference, so it's a better measure of the inflation rate experienced by seniors - which means, for the most past, folks on Social Security.
Here's what's important: CPI-E usually shows a higher inflation rate than the standard CPI does. Which means that, contrary to those who say we should cut the cost of living increases for seniors, the facts say that those increases are already too low.
Despite the ranting and raving of the reactionary budget hawks and their Dimcrat echoers and enablers that the old geezers have it too soft, it is more likely that we have been short-changing them for years.
The other thing, and it's important to remember this, that President Hopey-Changey has on more than one occasion directly offered to approve two of Chris Christie's proposals, two proposals to cut Social Security benefits - raising the Medicare eligibility age and switching to Chained-CPI - in previous budget negotiations with the right-wingers in Congress.
These people are not on your side. Unless you are of the elite, unless you are of the comfortable, they are not on your side. Noblesse oblige is not support, it is not being on your side.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.ncpssm.org/PublicPolicy/SocialSecurity/Documents/ArticleID/1159/The-CPI-E-%E2%80%93-A-Better-Option-for-Calculating-Social-Security-COLAs
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/07/footnote-to-preceding.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/07/sealing-our-fates-part-two.html
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