FROM SEQUESTER TO CHAINED CPI…..WHAT!

FROM SEQUESTER TO CHAINED CPI…..WHAT!

(Washington Post, Aljazeera, Tom T, Frazer Chronicle)

 

First there was ‘sequester’, an almost innocent term, where people are placed away from everybody during the course of a jury trial. Now there’s a CPI, I don’t have a clue what that stands for, but I’m sure that a chained CPI is worse than a regular CPI, it has to be…..there’s more letters.

 

Us bloggers spend half our time reading about some of the stupid crap that our elected officials come up with on a daily basis. For me, if I don’t at least skim the headlines of at least 5 news outlets a day, I feel that I am unprepared to write and publish a blog. And that’s only the half of it, after I choose a subject, I feel compelled to get another view or two…..oh well, it’s for the glory and money.

 

When President Obama tried to reach a comprehensive bargain with Republicans to pay down the federal deficit in 2011, he floated the idea of changing the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits from the traditional consumer price index to something called a Chained Consumer Price Index, or CPI.

 

I say “something called” because what Obama said was double speak, jargon…..or the good old SPIN, you see it doesn’t matter which politician uses language to explain himself, if it’s bull----, it still smells the same whether a Democrat is shoveling it or a Republican.

 

I don’t know about you, but I listened to what Obama said during the run-up to the 2008 elections, and I’ll be the first to admit it, I got snowed by Barack Obama. When he was intimating what he would try and do if elected president, I was hopeful, very hopeful.

 

And even after 4 years with Obama at the helm of the nation, and all the misgivings that I had about his performance, I still voted for the son-of-a-gun in 2012, and prayed that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would only enter the White House and the President’s office as invited visitors.

 

Instead what we have gotten is some of the same Bush rhetoric, inclusion of some of the Bush doctrine, and even some of the reckless abandonment, militarily that Bush did. There is soon to be a battle throughout the halls of our government over the debt issue and a budget that somehow helps to ease deficit spending.

 

To me…..sequester was never meant to take away, at least my money, benefits, or social programs, I want the cuts elsewhere, like Defense. As I mentioned, “sequester was a term used on Perry Mason, or Law and Order,” I never dreamed it would involve me, or my money or benefits.

 

Now we have a chained CPI deal, again a method to take away, hey that would actually be a term that I could live with, take away, everybody know what that intimates, something you have that will soon be taken away.  Doesn’t matter how important it is…..whatever that thing that they are going to take away is, you just know it’s going to be gone.

 

A Chained CPI is an arcane detail, that’s right, a chained CPI needs special information before you can understand the term, and how it affects you. The thing, chained CPI is appealing to budget experts, some Republicans as well as Democrats, because it only slightly tweaks the inflation formula, while building significant savings over time, as much as $100 billion.

 

If you are retired, and say 78 years old, and your initial benefits were $1,435 a month, or $17,220 a year beginning in 2000, under the cost-of-living adjustment formula and 2012 inflation, that benefit would be up to $1,986 a month in 2013, or $23,832 a year. But if payouts were adjusted using the chaining CPI, the sum would be around $1,880 a month, or $22,560 a year…..a cut of more than 5% as the years go by.

 

ATTACK ON THE MIDDLE CLASS…..AGAIN

President Obama prefers it, Nancy Pelosi is willing to consider it, AARP, organized labor and progressive Democrats in and out of elected office are entirely opposed to it. It’s going to be the new favorite bit of jargon used by experts and politicians, it separates them from us.

 

The upper echelons couldn’t care less about chained CPI, in fact I’ll be you’d be hard pressed to get a knowledgeable answer from a collection of them at their (echel) coffee shops. Retirement benefits and the safety nets that the rest of us need in times of austerity, injury or illness are not coveted by the hoy-paloy; they already have their finances in place.

 

What this chained CPI is, is an austerity political ploy, pure and simple, whenever there is a threat of a 5% cut in middle America’s retirement income, a whole bunch of crap is being shoveled our way, and…..it stinks.

 

So like the man said, “buckle up and pucker up baby,” here comes another shot of good old American ingenuity this time dished out by our democratic president. Is there a difference?

 

HERE IS A SAMPLING OF DOUBLE SPEAK AND POLITICAL JARGON

a. How do you know when a politician is lying…..his lips are moving.

b. Why do politicians lie, because if they told the truth, nobody would vote for them.

c. Teachable moment, where a politician makes a mistake without admitting guilt.

d. Public servant…..fooled ya into voting for me.

e. Working class- people who work for a living are being exploited by the rich and need the government

    to step in a make it a little fairer.

f. Bailout, process of helping really big companies until the can make enough money to pay us back

g. Reform- government will further take charge of programs so that they can figure out the best way to cut

    them

 

Well that’s the lesson for today kiddies…..I can add but one thing,

 

Have a nice day!