Courtesy of Pam Martens.
President Obama is expected to release his budget proposal this week and, as confirmed by his administration over the weekend, he is planning to cut Social Security benefits for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities by indexing payments to chained CPI.
Damon Silvers, Director of Policy for the AFL-CIO, sent an angry email alert to members over the weekend, saying the action was “unprecedented for a Democratic president” and that chained CPI is “a discredited way of calculating annual cost-of-living increases that does not keep up with actual costs, eating into benefits.” Damon said the president’s proposal would also “require middle-class seniors — people who make $47,000 a year and more — to pay higher Medicare premiums.” (Read the full statement from the AFL-CIO below.)
The sellout by the President, who was elected to save Social Security not gut it, was confirmed by administrative sources. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” yesterday morning, Dan Pfeiffer, a senior advisor to the President, had this to say:
PFEIFFER: This president will — this — this chained CPI that’s being referred to here, is something the president will only accept on two conditions. It’s something Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell asked for in the context of the original negotiations, and those two conditions are, one, it’s part of a balanced package that includes asking — closing tax loopholes to benefit the wealthiest, and, two, that it has protections for the most — for the most vulnerable, including the oldest seniors.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So there will be some carve outs there?
PFEIFFER: Absolutely. And look, this is compromise. And compromise means there are going to be some folks on both sides who are not happy.
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