One thing to watch for in President Obama's State of the Union address tonight: Whether or not he mentions adopting "chained CPI" as part of the budget negotiations, a policy that would mean paying Social Security beneficiaries less by adjusting the way cost of living is calculated.
On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that raising the Medicare eligibility age is not an option, but again indicated that chained CPI is still on the table. From the official transcript of Carney's press briefing:
Again, as part of a big deal, part of a comprehensive package that reduces our deficit and achieves that $4-trillion goal that was set out by so many people in and outside of government a number of years ago, he would consider that the hard choice that includes the so-called chain CPI, in fact, he put that on the table in his proposal, but not in a cherry-picked or piecemeal way.
Groups like the AARP and the AFL-CIO, as well as progressive Democrats, remain adamantly opposed to adopting the chained CPI.
Shares