Chained CPI Means You Can’t Have Nice Things

Word leaked last Friday (April 5) that Chained CPI was going to be part of President Obama’s budget, prompting me to point out a simple truth, “A Bad Idea Is a Bad Idea, No Matter Who Proposes It.” Of course, starting Monday, all the usual suspects and even a few somewhat surprising suspects started pushing the idea as a wonderful thing, maybe even as good as sliced bread.

One of the most important political lessons from both domestic and international government programs is that the best way to help the poor is to help the middle class.

The most popular and effective anti-poverty programs in America are Social Security, Medicare and public education.

Does President Obama have some unresolved animosity towards FDR? Obama’s budget not only cuts Social Security but is seeking to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Recently, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave a major speech at the National Defense University on cutting military — aka defense — spending. Hagel is considered a “realist” and so when it comes to such cuts, this is undoubtedly the best we’re likely to get out of Washington for a long time to come. Unfortunately, it turns out that the best is pretty poor stuff.

Barak Obama is the first Democratic president to advocate cutting Social Security benefits. Whatever happens next, this is a historic change of direction for his party and an ominous turning point for the American social/economic compact.

What I find most ironic about President Obama’s budget is that in trying to find “common ground”, he became the caricature Republicans created about him.

The story goes that some mice became very upset about the cat in the house and convened an emergency meeting. They finally came up with the idea of tying a bell around the cat’s neck, so the dangerous feline could no longer catch victims unawares. The plan gained a lot of enthusiastic praise, until one mouse piped up with a question that preceded a long silence: “Who’s going to bell the cat?”

This was entirely predictable,

Here is another reason Republicans are sadly our best hope for protecting Social Security. The powerful conservative group Americans For Tax Reform, founded by Grover Norquist, called chained-CPI a middle class tax increase. Supporting it would be a violation of the tax pledge most Congressional Republicans have signed. From Americans For Tax Reform: