Andrew Biggs, former Deputy Commissioner of Social Security and long time warrior in the (losing) battle to privatize Social Security, has a surprising blog post. He opposes chained CPI, describing it as "bad policy that both liberals and conservatives may come to regret." His post is brief and directs readers to a longer piece he wrote for the National Review but the link he gives is bad. Probably, it's just a technical glitch but an argument against chained CPI probably isn't the sort of thing that the editors at National Review would enjoy publishing.
Biggs views may be evolving. About a year ago, he wrote an article suggesting that privatizing Social Security might be unconstitutional.
Biggs views may be evolving. About a year ago, he wrote an article suggesting that privatizing Social Security might be unconstitutional.
The link is working now (although the first page does not display correctly, it is readable). I agree with Biggs here: "A better policy would peg COLAs to wage growth", but not here: "coupled with a lower initial retirement-benefit level..."
ReplyDeleteOn the second page of the article, Biggs complains about the chained CPI's effect on income taxes, which increases them because brackets and deductions are pegged to CPI. Some Republicans might want the chained CPI applied to Social Security (because they want it cut), but they don't want to apply it to taxes.