President Obama appears getting set to cave, again, to Republicans and sell-out a sizable portion of America’s population in an effort to strike a deal and avoid going over the “fiscal cliff.”
Although Mr. Obama campaigned and won re-election by asking those earning over $250,000 annually, to pay higher taxes and insisted there would be no cuts to Social Security and Medicare, earlier this week, according to news reports, he placed those two issues squarely on the table.
In the first instance, Mr. Obama has offered to allow Bush tax rates to expire for households making more than $400,000. In other words, continue tax cuts for people earning between $250,000 and $400,000.
The president has also proposed that, the traditional manner of calculating the cost of living adjustments for Social Security recipients be scrapped in favor of the so-called “chained-CPI.” This simply means lowering the cost of living increases for Social Security.
So, everyone receiving Social Security benefits – low income people, elderly women and men, veterans and the disabled, will be losers – if the switch is made to a “chained-CPI.” It is no small wonder that Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, AARP, AFL-CIO and others are screaming that Mr. Obama must not go down this path.
As Sanders explained, “The typical Social Security recipient who retires at age 65 would get $653 less a year at age 75 and would get $1,139 less a year at age 85 than under the current law.”
In addition, not only will disabled veterans be affected if there is a change to a “chained-CPI,” but the more than 55 million retirees, widows, orphans and disabled Americans who also receive Social Security benefits, Sanders adds.
It was only a few weeks ago that the White House indicated that Social Security was not part of the deficit-reduction talks. Oh, what a difference does three weeks make!
Mr. Obama, in his typical style of not fighting hard enough, appears ready to sell out a broad swath of the American people and go down in history as the first president to begin unraveling the nation’s social safety nets.
I didn’t work the numbers, but the slant on this article seems a little bogus. The story sounds like a retiree will receive smaller amount of money each month than they are now receiving, and that is not true. The retiree will receive a smaller increase than he would have. Also, politics is a negotiating game. Look at what happened to the repubs when they refused to negotiate.
You sound bogus. What a stupid, moronic comment. Can you read or not, you fucking moron.
WOW. moron hater, you have said nothing intelligent. Who is the moron here?