I was on the radio last night debunking the token liberal defending the chained CPI, and let me tell you, some people are really, really dumb. They’ve really bought into that whole “shared sacrifice” bullshit, which tells me a lot of people are really into masochism. From Talking Points Memo:
Last week, while the national media turned its attention to the events unfolding in Boston, the Congressional Budget Office released a report that under normal circumstances have received much more scrutiny.
And if House Republicans eventually relent and agree to return to the normal budget process, it will become relevant once again.
The report addressed and largely affirmed a key criticism of an inflation measure called Chained CPI, which among other things would reduce Social Security cost of living increases and kick people into higher income tax brackets, if adopted across the government.
The implicit finding: Chained CPI — which President Obama included as a compromise measure in his budget — will typically harm seniors more than the rest of the population.
Supporters of Chained CPI argue that, unlike the two main existing indexes the government uses, it incorporates the assumption that consumers will substitute cheaper goods for costlier ones when prices rise, counteracting the economic impact of inflation. Thus, they argue, Chained CPI provides a more accurate calculation of inflation, and the ones the government currently uses to index benefits and tax brackets are too generous.
The most common criticism of Chained CPI dismisses the technical accuracy of Chained CPI as an inflation index and points out that benefit cuts and regressive tax increases are undesirable policies, whether they’re effectuated directly or via a technical cchange to tax and benefit calculations.But there’s another. In last week’s report, CBO examined an experimental inflation measure called CPI-E, which weights health care and other goods and services more heavily than existing measures of inflation because seniors consume them disproportionately.
What they found is that over the last 30 years, inflation as measured by existing consumer price indices has typically been lower than inflation as measured by CPI-E.
In other words, prices rise faster for seniors than for the population at large — which means slowing the growth of cost of living increases will particularly disadvantage seniors, who are already seeing their living costs outstrip their benefits.
“some people are really, really dumb.” A very recent poll showed that 7% of Democrats believed that Hillary would make a lousy president. 91% said that she would make a good or great president, and 2% had never heard of her. In this case the 7% is really, really smart and the 91% are………. Historical research indicates that only 10% of the colonists supported the Revolution, 40% supported England, and 50% didn’t much care which group of rich, white guys was in charge. Here’s a prediction, “The first one now will later be last.”
I work for the federal government – meaning I haven’t had a COLA in 4 years. I’m not complaining – I have a job I love and I do ok. But I can tell you the consequences of this slow erosion of your income are devastating. Five years ago I was doing fine – today I’m barely getting by. Property taxes are increasing, other taxes and fees are going up or being created, inflation is running at a couple percent a year; and here I make the exact same amount of money as I did 5 years ago.
I hear you. I’m making less than half of what I made 5 years ago. It’s a tough haul for most people.
The Chained CPI is actually a measurement of a Lowered Standard of Living.
Since it measure how people trade down when they have less money, it’s measuring their falling standard of living.
And since the mid-70’s, the average worker’s earnings have risen a grand total of 4%, as pointed out by Barbara Garson in her new book, Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession.
And, during the first two years of the “recovery” since the Big $h*t Pile Meltdown and Great Recession, as reported by the Pew Research Center, the top 7% increased their wealth by 28%, while the lower 93% of us lost 4%. Gee, took us 36 years to gain 4% and now it’s gone? Sheesh.
QUOTE
During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.
From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.
These wide variances were driven by the fact that the stock and bond market rallied during the 2009 to 2011 period while the housing market remained flat.
STOP QUOTE
LTE writers: Suggest you push the fact that the Chained CPI is indeed a measure of a Falling Standard of Living.
And that Obama and his economic advisers believe that those in the lower economic quintiles DO NOT DESERVE the standard of living they used to have, not even the one they do have.
Well, actually, the second graf might be too much for most voters to accept. Cognitive dissonance, in that they believed they were voting for a Democrat and a liberal. Not the Corporate running dog lackey that Obama really is and acts as.
So, just push the idea of it being a Falling Standard of Living measurement.