President Obama’s forthcoming budget will not include a provision to slow the inflation of Social Security payments, a left-leaning senator said Friday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told reporters that Obama has no plans to make “chained CPI” — a calculation method that suggests a lower inflation rate in the Consumer Price Index — part of his 2016 spending blueprint.
Obama used chained CPI in his 2013 budget request, but he dropped it from subsequent requests after it prompted a tremendous backlash from the Left.
Chained or “chain-weighted” CPI takes into account the effect of substitution, in which consumers respond to price fluctuations by buying fewer expensive items and more inexpensive items, and the formula is widely believed to give a more accurate reflection of cost-of-living increases. But it usually gives a rate of inflation about 0.25 percent lower than the traditional CPI basket, which in turn slightly shrinks the basis for Social Security annual cost-of-living adjustments.
“It is my understanding that the chained CPI will not be in the president’s budget,” Sanders told reporters Friday.
Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, is the minority party’s top member on the Senate Budget Committee. He said Democrats will rally key groups, including veterans, to protest budget-cutting efforts Republicans include in their spending bill, particularly when it comes to Social Security.
The office of Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, circulated a Wall Street Journal editorial published Friday calling for a reform of Social Security and, potentially, a reduction in disability payments for some.
“Reforming disability insurance needn’t mean slashing benefits,” the Journal editorial said. “It does require setting priorities that help the genuinely disabled while encouraging people who can work to remain on the job.”
Sanders, however, said Democrats oppose any move to reduce Social Security payments.
He called for closing tax loopholes on the rich, which he said could raise tens of billions of dollars to help the poor and close a widening income gap.
With no gavel, Sanders said the minority Democrats aren’t likely to produce their own budget.
Their job, Sanders said, “is to rally the American people” against the GOP proposals.
Sanders promised “to be extremely aggressive in social media” and to tap into senior and veteran organizations who are likely to oppose Social Security reductions.
