Michael Hiltzik, of the LA Times, , offers a clear understanding of what actually is being offered by President Obama by putting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — OUR Trust Funds — “on the table.”
This is a most important article, in terms of your own complete comprehension about what is at stake in this “offer” by President Obama. Please be sure to read it entirely.
Basing Social Security cost-of-living increases on the chained consumer price index, which presumes people will trade down to cheaper goods as costs rise, would force elderly people on fixed incomes to forgo essentials.
A man waits for free care at the Remote Area Medical clinic at the Los Angeles Memorial
Sports Arena last year. A proposal to change the formula that determines annual cost-of-
living increases for people on Social Security could leave fixed-income seniors having to
choose between medical care and food. (Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times / July 13, 2011)Of all the ways policymakers in Washington show they have absolutely no conception of how their tinkerings with the federal budget affect average Americans, one stands alone. That’s the proposal to change the formula that determines annual cost-of-living increases for people on Social Security . . . . (emphasis mine)
Of course, this particular type of “indexing” is a preserved offering strictly for the elderly, children and disabled. And ideas to suggest that it be across the board were quickly “nayed.” Hummmmm! Wonder why!
“Shared sacrifices?” You’ve got to be kidding! When and where were sacrifices ever shared in these past eleven plus years? Except between the so-called “middle-class” and the so-called “middle-class?” Now, the decimated “middle-class.”