Apr 12, 2013

One Republican Seems To Like Chained CPI

     From a House Ways and Means Committee press release (emphasis in original):
U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, today announced the first in a series of hearings on the President’s and other bipartisan entitlement reform proposals.  This hearing will focus on using the Chained Consumer Price Index to determine the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment.   This proposal was included in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the report by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and the report of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force.  The hearing will take place on Thursday, April 18, 2013, in B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ...

The President likes to say that if we agree on a policy, then we should act and not let our differences hold us up, and I agree.  This hearing will include a full discussion of a policy with bipartisan support – more accurately measuring inflation in order to strengthen the Social Security program.
     However, the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee said recently that chained CPI is an attempt "to balance this budget on the backs of seniors and I just think it's not the right way to go."

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