Social Security in Chains
Obama Balances Budget on the Backs of Workers and Seniors
This past Wednesday, the Obama administration unveiled his budget for the 2014 fiscal policy year. For the most part, the budget maintained the status quo of his administration’s economic policies. But as illustration of the rightward trend of the Democratic Party, it contained one unprecedented provision: An attack on social security. Social Security, instituted in the 1930’s, has remained untouched by Democratic presidents ever since. Until now. Obama’s proposal asserts that social security cost-of-living adjustments should be calculated using “chained CPI.” The logic behind the chained CPI is that because seniors supposedly do not spend as much money as the working population, their payments should be cut. According to this logic, the older you are, the less cash you need. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy research writes that "An average worker retiring at age 65 would get a yearly cut of $650 by age 75, but at age 85, this would be a cut of $1,130 a year."
This capitalistic line of argument ignores the already prevalent poverty among senior citizens, who receive worse care here in the United States than pretty much anywhere else in the industrialized world. No longer part of the labor force? The profit system no longer pays you mind. Social Security should be expanded, but our president only wants to put it in chains.
Obama Balances Budget on the Backs of Workers and Seniors
This past Wednesday, the Obama administration unveiled his budget for the 2014 fiscal policy year. For the most part, the budget maintained the status quo of his administration’s economic policies. But as illustration of the rightward trend of the Democratic Party, it contained one unprecedented provision: An attack on social security. Social Security, instituted in the 1930’s, has remained untouched by Democratic presidents ever since. Until now. Obama’s proposal asserts that social security cost-of-living adjustments should be calculated using “chained CPI.” The logic behind the chained CPI is that because seniors supposedly do not spend as much money as the working population, their payments should be cut. According to this logic, the older you are, the less cash you need. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy research writes that "An average worker retiring at age 65 would get a yearly cut of $650 by age 75, but at age 85, this would be a cut of $1,130 a year."
This capitalistic line of argument ignores the already prevalent poverty among senior citizens, who receive worse care here in the United States than pretty much anywhere else in the industrialized world. No longer part of the labor force? The profit system no longer pays you mind. Social Security should be expanded, but our president only wants to put it in chains.
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