Off Topic: Say It Isn't So!

     A world wide shortage of bacon may be "unavoidable" next year.

Sanders Warns Of Post-Election "Grand Deal" To Switch To Chained CPI

     From Sam Stein writing at Huffington Post:

Concern is mounting among some Senate Democrats that President Barack Obama will make a deal with Senate Republicans during the lame-duck session that would result in changes to the benefit structure of Social Security....

[According to Senator Bernie Sanders] "unless we stop it, what will happen is there will be a quote-unquote grand bargain after the election in which the White House, some Democrats will sit down with Republicans, they will move to a chained CPI."

Chained CPI, or consumer price index, is an alternative measure of calculating inflation that would lessen the cost of living increases for Social Security payments. When the president and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) attempted to craft a deal on the debt ceiling last summer, Obama offered the chained CPI as a concession.

     Chained CPI sounds boringly technical but it would be a significant cut in Social Security benefits.

Means Testing With Romney

     From the 60 Minutes interview with Mitt Romney aired last night:

PELLEY:  How would you change Social Security? 

ROMNEY:  Well, again, no change in Social Security for -- for those that are in retirement or near retirement. What I'd do with Social Security is say this:  that again, people with higher incomes won't get the same high growth rate in their benefits as people of lower incomes. People who rely on Social Security should see the same kind of growth rate they've had in the past. But higher income folks would receive a little less.

PELLEY:  So that in the Romney administration, in the Romney plan, there would be means testing for Social Security and for Medicare? 

ROMNEY:  That's correct. Higher-income people won't get as much as lower-income people. And by virtue of doing that -- and again, that's for future retirees. For -- by virtue of doing that, you are able to save these programs on a permanent basis.

     I don't know what he means. If he is talking merely about reducing the cost of living adjustment for higher income recipients, this makes no sense. You can't possibly "save" Social Security that way. General means testing of Title II of the Social Security Act could do the trick but would be unpopular. The ambiguity suggests that he is talking about general means testing.

Still Good Advice

Paul Ryan On Social Security

     Paul Ryan, the Republican Vice-Presidental nominee, said in 2005 that Social Security in 2005 is "a collectivist system, it's a welfare transfer system." He talked jokingly about wanting to "personalize" the "socialist-based system" of Social Security.

     Ryan is now backing away from his 2005 comments on Social Security.

New Ruling

     Social Security has published a new Ruling today in the Federal Register on Determining Whether Work Performed in Self-Employment by Persons Who Are Blind Is Substantial Gainful Activity and Treatment of Income Resulting From the Randolph-Sheppard Act and Similar Programs.

Use Of Death Master File To Purge Voter Rolls In Texas Blocked

     A state court judge has blocked an effort to use Social Security's Death Master File to purge voter rolls in Texas in advance of the election.

Meaning That The Other 25 Democratic Senators Are Open To Cutting Social Security?

From The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and 28 other members of the 53-member Senate Democratic caucus have signed a letter opposing any cuts to Social Security as part of a deficit reduction package. 

The letter forms a significant marker as Congress looks toward a possible deficit bargain in the lame-duck session after the election. It says Social Security has problems down the road, but that they should be dealt with separately from any budget deal.