A part of me wonders if President Obama proposed the Chained CPI to help red state Democrats who up for re-election next year a chance to distance themselves from him and campaign against him to win in 2014. Because Obama is making Senator Max Baucus (D. MT) look like the good guy here:
http://thehill.com/...
Finance Chairman Max Baucus said the White House was wrong to call for changes to how inflation is calculated for payments to Social Security and military retirees — known as chained consumer price index (CPI) — without asking the highest earners to contribute more to the Social Security trust fund.
“Any reform of Social Security should be for the solvency of the program, not deficit reduction,” Baucus said at a hearing to discuss the fiscal 2014 budget with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
Baucus, whose panel oversees Medicare and Social Security, joins some of the most liberal Democrats in Congress in criticizing the White House budget for including chained CPI. The Finance Committee chairman is also seeking a seventh term next year in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. - The Hill, 4/11/13
Now Max Baucus may be a number of things but when it comes to Social Security, he's right on the money. He even stated back in 2011 that Social Security does not contribute to the deficit:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
“Social Security benefits are financed only through payroll taxes and the Trust Fund,” Baucus (left) said during a hearing held by his committee entitled “Perspectives on Deficit Reduction: Social Security.” Social Security, he continued, “is not responsible for the deficits we face in the general fund today. Therefore, I believe Social Security should not be part of our efforts to reduce those deficits.” - Advisor One, 5/10/11
Hell, Baucus even believes that rich people should pay more into Social Security:
http://www.denverpost.com/...
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he would have preferred that the administration achieve savings by raising Social Security payroll taxes on upper-income workers. - Denver Post, 4/11/13
Baucus even told Jack Lew that Obama's budget with the Chained CPI would do more harm than good:
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
The top Democrat on the Senate’s tax-writing committee signaled support for the administration’s plan to raise more revenue to pay down the deficit. In a separate hearing Thursday, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) said any overhaul should close billions of dollars in loopholes and help pay down the deficit.
“Some of this revenue should be used to cut taxes for America’s families and help our businesses create jobs, and some of the revenue raised in tax reform should also be used to reduce the deficit,” Mr. Baucus said.
But Mr. Lew also drew criticism from Democrats. Mr. Baucus, for example, complained that the administration’s plan to curtail the growth of entitlements would hurt seniors while doing little to shore up programs like Social Security. - The Wall Street Journal, 4/12/13
Baucus knows better than any other Democrat that voting for cuts to Social Security is a bad idea, especially if you're as vulnerable as he is for re-election next year. 1996 was one of Baucus' tightest races and he was able to defeat Denny Rehberg (R. MT) then for wanting to privatize Social Security and Medicare. Plus he hails from a rural red state that went heavily to Romney and has a big senior citizen electorate. Baucus was going to have to distance from himself from Obama and this is a good issue to distance himself from the President on. Please be sure to keep up the pressure and remind Baucus that you are still heavily against cuts to Social Security:
202-224-2651
And be sure to keep your pressure on both the Senate and House:
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/...
House: http://house.gov/...