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AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement with regards to this possible cut:

Republicans are once again demanding benefit cuts to pay for tax cuts, and threatening to harm the economy unless they get their way.Ai?? House Speaker John Boehnerai??i??s recent ai???Plan Bai??? proposal would extend tax cuts for people earning between $250,000 and $1 million, at a cost of $400 billion. At the same time, Republicans are demanding to cut Social Security COLAs through the so-called ai???Chained CPI.ai??? We call on Congress to reject House Speaker Boehnerai??i??s proposal to extend tax cuts for people earning up to $1 million and support President Obamaai??i??s demand for at least $1.2 trillion in additional tax revenues. We further call on Congress to reject Republican hostage-taking and reject any cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, or Medicare benefits, regardless of who proposes them.

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today.Ai??Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose this bad deal.

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? Today, several major progressive organizations denounced this proposed deal and announced their strong opposition to it.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee:

“This proposed deal will cut Social Security benefits. Any deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits is unacceptable — and progressive organizations join with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose it.”Ai??— Stephanie Taylor, Co-Founder, PCCC

MoveOn.org:

“MoveOn members overwhelmingly oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, and they’ve made clear that they would see any fiscal agreement that cuts such benefits as a betrayal that sells out working and middle class families — whether the cuts come via a chained CPI, increased Medicare eligibility age, or in some other form. If such a deal were proposed by the President and Speaker, MoveOn members would expect every Senate and House DemocratAi??to do everything in their power to block it. Senate Majority Leader Reid would play a crucial role, as MoveOn members would count on him and other senators to remain true to their repeated promises to keep Social Security benefitsAi??off the table.” — MoveOn.org Executive Director Justin Ruben

Social Security Works:

“Almost every elected official just spent an entire election season saying they wouldn’t cut the benefits of those 55 and older. The truth is the chained CPI hits everyone’s benefits on day one. It hits the oldest of the old and disabled veterans the hardest. If it wasn’t being bandied about as being ‘on the table,’ I would guess that it was created as an office joke to see who could create the most noxious and offensive policy possible.” — Social Security Works Executive Director Alex Lawson

Credo Action:

“It would be a massive betrayal if the White House …

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? Today, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) spoke out against a plan like Obama’s that would offer only a tiny increase in taxes for the wealthy in exchange for cuts to Social Security benefits:

SCHAKOWSKY:Ai??Ai??Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today because I justAi??don’t get this discussion aboutAi??the fiscal cliff. Republicans are saying that inAi??order to raise taxes on theAi??very wealthiest Americans andAi??actually buy historically smallAi??– by historically smallAi??amount, that the price that hasAi??to be paid is to ask theAi??poorest adult Americans to payAi??more. That is to reduce socialAi??security and medicare benefits. I don’t get the equivalencyAi??that is being asked for. The richest to pay a bit moreAi??and the price to be that theAi??poor, the poorest have to payAi??more. Seniors in this country have aAi??median income of just $22,000 aAi??year. That means half of all seniorsAi??are below that. They also spend an averageAi??right now of $4,500 a year onAi??health care costs out of theirAi??own pockets. And so I think that we have toAi??change the debate here andAi??there’s a parable in the BibleAi??that makes this point.Ai??when you ask a person with oneAi??coat to give up that coat, it’sAi??not the same as asking someoneAi??with 10 coats to donate one toAi??the cause. I yield back.

Watch it:

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today. Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose this bad deal.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? Today, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), rejected the deal, saying that it’s “unacceptable” to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits:

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today. Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose this bad deal.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? Today,Ai??Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ai??the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued a statement saying he would “never support” the chained CPI, which is the cornerstone of the Obama deal’s changes to Social Security. Hereai??i??s his full statement:

ai???Federal law has always prohibited Social Security from contributing to the deficit. Any talk of shrinking the program to ai???save moneyai??i?? is flawed from the start because Social Security is not part of the national budget in the same way as military spending ai??i?? itai??i??s paid for through a dedicated payroll tax separate from general budgeting.

ai???Some have suggested that Social Security benefits should be based on a chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), which assumes that when the price of one item rises, people buy something else ai??i?? no matter how popular or necessary that original item might be. If this change goes into effect, Social Security benefits would stop reflecting the rising prices of popular goods.

ai???The average Social Security recipient rakes in a whopping $13,000 a year. If we pass chained CPI, projected annual cuts for a typical retiree would be about $560 a year by age 75, $984 a year by age 85 and $1,400 a year by age 95.

ai???The less money our Social Security recipients ai??i?? including 9 million veterans ai??i?? are able to spend, the less money goes to the businesses that create jobs.Ai??Chained CPI makes life harder for millions of retirees, weakens Social Security and doesnai??i??t reduce the deficit by a penny. Itai??i??s a Beltway fig leaf that I will never support, and I call on my colleagues to make their feelings known as soon as possible before this becomes yet another piece …

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called ai???chained CPI.ai??? Today,Ai??Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Ai??issued a statement calling this an ai???irresponsibleai??? cut to the program and to benefits, and vowed to “oppose” any deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. Here’s his full statement:

ai???Everyone has a grandparent, a friend or a neighbor who relies on the Social Security benefits they earned to pay for medical care, food and housing. A move towards chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) would be a long-term benefit cut for every single person who receives a Social Security check.

ai???The current average earned benefit for a 65 year old on Social Security is $17,134. Using chained CPI will result in a $6,000 loss for retirees in the first fifteen years of retirement and adds up to a $16,000 loss over twenty-five years. This change would be devastating to beneficiaries, especially widowed women, more than a third of whom rely on the program for 90% of their income and use every single dollar of the Social Security checks they’ve earned. This would require the most vulnerable Americans to dig further into their savings to fill the hole left by unnecessary and irresponsible cuts to Social Security.

ai???Reducing cost of living adjustments is a Social Security benefit cut. Any deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits is unacceptable and I will oppose it.ai???

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today. Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your …

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called “chained CPI.” Today, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued a statement calling this an “irresponsible” cut to the program and to benefits, indicating that he stands against the deal:

ai???Everyone has a grandparent, a friend or a neighbor who relies on the Social Security benefits they earned to pay for medical care, food and housing. A move towards chained CPI would be a long-term benefit cut for every single person who receives a Social Security check.

ai???The current average earned benefit for a 65 year old on Social Security is $17,134. Using chained CPI will result in a $6,000 loss for retirees in the first fifteen years of retirement and adds up to a $16,000 loss over twenty-five years. This change would be devastating to beneficiaries, especially widowed women, more than a third of whom rely on the program for 90% of their income and use every single dollar of the Social Security checks they’ve earned. This would require the most vulnerable Americans to dig further into their savings to fill the hole left by unnecessary and irresponsible cuts to Social Security.

ai???I am committed to standing against any benefit cuts to programs Americans rely on and tying Social Security benefits to chained CPI is a benefit cut.”

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today. Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose …

(Photo credit: Fort Rucker)

As a part of fiscal negotiations, President Obama has offered to calculate both veterans and Social Security benefits with a “Chained CPI,” which would involve huge cuts to both programs.

Seventeen different veterans organizations wrote an open letter to Congress opposing this change last week, before Obama endorsed it. The full letter is below as well as the different organizations that have endorsed it:

As efforts to address our nationai??i??s debt continue, we are writing to express our opposition toAi??changing the formula used to calculate the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) because of
the harmful effects it will have on veterans and Social Security benefits.Ai??The Congressional Budget Office estimates that adopting the chained consumer price indexAi??(CPI) to calculate annual COLAs could save the government $208 billion over ten years byAi??reducing Social Security, disability, and other benefits, and by increasing revenues. More thanAi??half of this amount ai??i?? $112 billion ai??i?? would come from Social Security cuts, which veterans relyAi??on very heavily for both retirement and disability benefits. Another 11 percent of the savings ai??i??Ai??$24 billion ai??i?? would come from VA benefits, civilian pensions, and military retirement pay.Ai??We estimate that use of the chained CPI would have a significant effect on benefits that millionsAi??of veterans depend on in the following ways:Ai??Social Security Retirement Benefits: Social Security is one of our nationai??i??s most important
programs serving veterans and their dependents and survivors. It currently pays benefits to overAi??9 million veterans ai??i?? about 4 in 10. The average retirement benefit of a veteran receiving Social
Security was about $15,500 in 2010. Adopting the chained CPI would significantly reduceAi??those benefits, by changing the manner in which COLAs are determined. A veteran with
average earnings retiring at age 65 would get nearly a $600 benefit cut at age 75, …

There are now multiple press reports that President Obama will agree to a fiscal deal that enacts a so-called “Chained CPI” to calculate Social Security and veterans’ benefits. Under this plan, “a person age 75 in the future will get a yearly benefit thatai??i??s $653 lower after ten years of chained CPI than that person would get under the current formula. An 85-year-old will have $1,139 less to live on.” This represents a huge cut to benefits.

But during the presidential campaign, the Obama team swore up and down that it would not agree to slashing Social Security benefits. Here’s an October 6th statement:

President Obama will under no circumstances agree to put your retirement at risk by privatizing Social Security,Ai??and he will reject any plan that slashes Social Security benefits.

And his campaign web site said “no current beneficiaries should see their benefits reduced” and that the “administration will not accept an approach that slashes benefits for future generations”:

President Obama should keep his promise to the 61 million Americans who voted for him and back off of his proposal to cut Social Security benefits.

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today.Ai??Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click here to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click here to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose this bad deal.

(Photo credit: Flickr user Steve Rhodes)

Many Republicans and a few Democrats have suggested an idea corporate lobbyists love — raising the Medicare age and dumping millions of seniors into private insurance. This would cost seniors $11.4 billion annually.

Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman decided to look at how much doing this would reduce the deficit versus President Obama’s tax proposal of ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and returning the estate tax to 2009 levels (it was cut by President Bush as well). Here’s his conclusion:

So I thought Iai??i??d look at the dollars and cents ai??i?? and even I am somewhat shocked. Those tax hikes would raise $1.6 trillion over the next decade;Ai??according to the CBO, raising the Medicare age would save $113 billion in federal funds over the next decade.

So, the [tax] proposal would reduce the deficitAi??14 times as muchAi??as the [Medicare] proposal.

The choice seems clear. If you’re serious about tackling our long-term deficit, you should be for ending the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans, not harming benefits for America’s seniors.

Sign up here to pledge to hold bad Democrats who agree to cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits accountable.