OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Exclude 'Chained CPI' from Budget

Letter

By: Allyson Schwartz, Mike Doyle, Jr., Elizabeth Esty, Judy Chu, Matt Cartwright, Peter DeFazio, André Carson, Elijah Cummings, Suzanne Bonamici, Marcia Fudge, Lacy Clay, Jr., Bob Brady, Jan Schakowsky, Earl Blumenauer, Bruce Braley, David Cicilline, Lloyd Doggett II, Cheri Bustos, Bill Enyart, Donna Edwards, Raul Grijalva, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Gloria Negrete McLeod, Mark Pocan, Gene Green, Collin Peterson, Linda Sánchez, Barbara Lee, Gary Peters, Eddie Johnson, Keith Ellison, John Conyers, Jr., Joyce Beatty, Danny Davis, Rosa DeLauro, Luis Gutiérrez, Rick Nolan, Charlie Rangel, Rubén Hinojosa, Sr., Albio Sires, Hank Johnson, Jr., Brian Higgins, Paul Tonko, Hakeem Jeffries, Lois Frankel, Emanuel Cleaver II, Corrine Brown, Ted Deutch, Tony Cárdenas, Nick Rahall II, Chellie Pingree, Jim McDermott, Frederica Wilson, Ann Kirkpatrick, Robin Kelly, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, John Yarmuth, Katherine Clark, Joe Courtney, Steve Cohen, Yvette Clarke, Al Green, Janice Hahn, Mike Michaud, Alcee Hastings, Sr., Jerry Nadler, John Sarbanes, Eleanor Norton, Doris Matsui, Maxine Waters, Grace Meng, Ron Barber, Alan Grayson, Lois Capps, Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, Betty McCollum, Carolyn Maloney, Sheila Jackson Lee, John Lewis, Stephen Lynch, Dave Loebsack, Colleen Hanabusa, Bobby Scott, John Garamendi, Rick Larsen, Louise Slaughter, Marc Veasey, José Serrano, Dan Maffei, Bennie Thompson, Frank Pallone, Jr., Tim Ryan, Eric Swalwell, Mark Takano, Carol Shea-Porter, Adam Schiff, Bobby Rush, Jared Huffman, Bill Keating, Jim Langevin, Beto O'Rourke, Marcy Kaptur, Mike Quigley, Jim McGovern, Carolyn McCarthy, Rush Holt, Jr., Juan Vargas, Kilili Sablan, Raul Ruiz, Gwen Moore, Dan Kildee, Peter Welch
Date: Feb. 19, 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance

Dear Mr. President:

We write to urge you to rule out using the chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate cost-of-living and inflation adjustments for federal programs in your Budget for Fiscal Year 2015.

Switching to a chained CPI would be devastating for seniors, veterans, federal retirees, disabled individuals and others. Under legislation enacted in 1983, Social Security benefits for seniors retiring in the coming years are already scheduled to be reduced. Today, the average worker earning $43,000 annually who retires at age 65 will find that Social Security replaces 41 percent of their previous earnings. Soon, this will decline to just 36 percent of previous earnings, as the full retirement age climbs from 66 to 67 over the 2017-2022 period.

Chained CPI would further reduce those earned benefits over time because it fails to take into account inflation for older Americans. While the Affordable Care Act has had a positive effect in reducing Medicare spending growth, increased medical costs continue to take a larger and larger share of Social Security earned benefits. As you know, many seniors already face tight personal budgets, challenges that the recession has only exacerbated. For many seniors living on a fixed income, any reduction in benefits would have a serious impact on their ability to afford basic necessities.

While there have been protections proposed to mitigate the impact of chained CPI on the very elderly and certain vulnerable populations, such as the blind, disabled and seniors with limited income, many with limited, modest incomes would still be impacted. For instance, even with the benefit enhancements that have been proposed, a low-wage retiree receiving $9,600 per year would see their benefits reduced by an average of 1.5 percent between ages 62 and 81, a loss of more than $140 per year.

Your Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 proposed a comprehensive $1.8 trillion deficit reduction package that sought to replace sequestration and reflected the compromise you offered to House Speaker John Boehner in December 2012. That plan incorporated a Republican proposal to use chained CPI to reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, as well as military veterans, people with disabilities, and beneficiaries of other federal programs. Since then, however, the Republican majority has consistently refused to discuss a balanced approach that would include increased revenues and the closing of tax loopholes.

We recognize that additional measures are required to address our nation's long-term budget challenges, and we appreciate the difficult choices you are wrestling with as you prepare a fiscal blueprint to promote economic growth. But, we respectfully ask that you not place the burden of additional deficit reduction on the backs of seniors, veterans, federal retirees, disabled individuals and others by including chained CPI in your Budget for Fiscal Year 2015.


Source
arrow_upward