Currently, the White House is working with the congressional Republicans in an attempt to reach a “grand bargain” on the budget to reduce federal expenditures. Unfortunately, Social Security benefits are among the targets of the said cost cutting effort.
Sanders stressed out that the budget amendment opposes a switch to the so-called “chained consumer price index” or also referred to as chained CPI. Sanders warned that the amendment would trim cost-of-living changes by changing the way inflation is measured in calculating Social Security payments to the seniors, disabled and the survivors.
In addition, Sanders cited that the adoption of the chained CPI formula would significantly reduce Social Security benefits for 55 million Americans and more than 3.2 million disabled veterans who rely on disability benefit that they receive from the Department of Veterans Affairs for their daily life expenses.
So far, in a statement released by the congressional Republicans, it was said that the changes to the federal programs are a prior condition for any compromise with regards to the country’s debt reduction efforts. In fact, the President has already declared that he is willing to take on his fellow Democrats in seeking such amendment.
Incidentally, this recent effort from the Vermont senator follows his recent attempt to strengthen the Social Security for the benefit of the future generations. In fact many of his fellow senators supported the bill that he recently introduced to protect the federal program from insolvency, detailed by a Los Angeles long term disability lawyer herein in his previous blog post.
