Congresswoman Barbara Lee on Opposition to Chained CPI
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2013
Contact: Carrie Adams (202) 225-2661
Washington, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement regarding the President’s inclusion of chained CPI in his 2014 budget proposal. The chained CPI is a cost index which helps to calculate the cost of living adjustments for benefit levels. The result is a lower measure of the impact of inflation on the cost of living for the average consumer, resulting in a lower benefit over time.
“Chained CPI is a benefit cut, plain and simple. At a time when our economy is still recovering from the recession, we need to strengthen Social Security, not cut it. I fundamentally oppose any proposal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits.
“Chained CPI harms those who can least afford it: the elderly, communities of color, the poor, and women. This cut is not who we are as Americans. For people who have been working all their lives to have the rules changed in the middle of the game isn’t fair, and it isn’t just. Using the nation’s most vulnerable as a bargaining chip in the budget debates is unconscionable.”
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Follow Barbara Lee on Facebook and Twitter at @RepBarbaraLee. To learn more, visit lee.house.gov.
Congresswoman Lee is a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees, the Steering and Policy Committee, is a Senior Democratic Whip, as well as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus(CPC), where she serves as the Co-Chair of the CPC Peace and Security Task Force.