There are now multiple press reports that President Obama will agree to a fiscal deal that enacts a so-called ai???Chained CPIai??? to calculate Social Security and veteransai??i?? benefits.Ai??Under this plan, ai???a person age 75 in the future will get a yearly benefit thatai??i??s $653 lower after ten years of chained CPI than that person would get under the current formula. An 85-year-old will have $1,139 less to live on.ai??? This represents a huge cut to benefits.
This contradicts an Obama-Biden campaign pledge to not cut benefits for current beneficiaries.
In fact, in August, Vice President Biden actually explicitly told a group that there would “be no changes to Social Security”:
“Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security,” Biden said after a diner at The Coffee Break Cafe in Stuart, VA expressed his relief that the Obama campaign wasn’t talking about changing the popular entitlement program.
“Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security,” Biden said, per a pool report. “I flat guarantee you.”
Obama and Biden should stand by their words on the campaign and back off all cuts to Social Security benefits.
We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today.Ai??Check them out and donate $3 to them here.
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