WASHINGTON - Politicians who cut the increases in Social Security - allegedly to help reduce federal red ink - will get cut out of office themselves next year, at the polls. The AFL-CIO (http://www.aflcio.org/) will work for that, federation President Richard Trumka says.
Trumka took that stand in a brief interview with Press Associates Union News Service, after a Jan. 31 press conference. There, the federation joined other groups in defending Social Security (http://www.peoplesworld.org/nationwide-rallies-against-austerity/) against plans to reduce the system's annual cost of living hikes. He explained the fed would let voters know where solons stood on that issue.
"Hit 'em where it hurts," he said of Social Security cutters. "They understand the ballot box - and that's where it counts," Trumka told PAI.
Trumka joined leaders of women's rights groups, veterans, the disabled and Social Security advocates at the press conference. All the speakers, including three senators leading the crusade, oppose plans to change the way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is calculated to determine yearly Social Security cost of living increases.
The new scheme, backed by virtually all congressional Republicans and some Democrats, is the "chained CPI (http://www.peoplesworld.org/congressional-progressives-chained-cpi-throws-seniors-off-the-cliff/)." It would produce smaller increases in monthly Social Security benefits, including benefits flowing to present recipients, they said. That reduction would especially hurt women (http://www.peoplesworld.org/campaign-to-save-social-security-medicare-from-budget-cutters/): 70% of female retirees rely on Social Security payments as their sole income source, one speaker said.
Advocates of the smaller cost of living hikes call them Social Security's contribution to so-called "entitlement reform" in budget deficit cutting. Sen. Bernie Sanders (http://www.sanders.senate.gov/), Ind.-Vt., declared again that Social Security "has contributed not one dime" to the deficit, that it has paid full benefits for 73 years and can for at least 20 years more.
But Social Security's 56 million recipients draw an average of less than $15,000 yearly. So a $675 difference - the reduction due to the chained CPI-is "not a minor tweak" in benefits, but "a significant cut," said Sanders, leader of the Senate Save Social Security coalition.
The AFL-CIO will be in "full mobilization" against using the "chained CPI" to calculate Social Security benefit increases, Trumka told the press conference. That will include workplace visits, leafleting, lobbying and more.
Regardless of the outcome, the fed will be back out on the hustings (http://www.peoplesworld.org/labor-rolls-out-biggest-voter-protection-effort-ever/) in 2014, letting workers and everyone else know how lawmakers voted on the issue, he added.
Image: Chained CPI, AFL-CIO NOW blog (http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/New-Poll-America-s-Workers-Soundly-Reject-Social-Security-Benefit-Cuts)
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Well Mr Trumka, that's a mighty fine gesture, though the timing is peculiar. Cause didn't your unions just throw a mess of money and effort into the re-election of the President? You know, that Obama guy who put 'entitlements' 'on the table'? And when the bipartisan deal is cut, and you know it will be, will you treat the Democrats who vote for it as you say? I await with bated breath...

Well Mr Trumka, that's a mighty fine gesture, though the timing is peculiar. Cause didn't your unions just throw a mess of money and effort into the re-election of the President? You know, that Obama guy who put 'entitlements' 'on the table'? And when the bipartisan deal is cut, and you know it will be, will you treat the Democrats who vote for it as you say? I await with bated breath...

Careful. Trumka is channeling the national mood..if it was so easy for them to implement "entitlement reform" without popular backlash, they would've done it long since. Fact is, they've tried spinning it every which way possible, and they haven't gained an inch of traction for their "reforms". Now, maybe you think they're blase enough to try it anyway (they are) but don't forget the fact that they're walking a razor wire tight rope. They don't have a political crisis to match the social and economic crises..so far.

Careful. Trumka is channeling the national mood..if it was so easy for them to implement "entitlement reform" without popular backlash, they would've done it long since. Fact is, they've tried spinning it every which way possible, and they haven't gained an inch of traction for their "reforms". Now, maybe you think they're blase enough to try it anyway (they are) but don't forget the fact that they're walking a razor wire tight rope. They don't have a political crisis to match the social and economic crises..so far.

True, we've seen that, every trial balloon is shot out of the sky. Yet they keep modifying their approach, if the 'Grand Bargain' is too much to swallow then perhap smaller chunks will work. And maybe some marketing genius will hit upon an angle that suitably confuses the public. Or some external factor provides cover. But ya know they're gonna keep at it until they get at least most of what they want, then they come back for the rest. For sure they are treading lightly so as not to wake the beast and I suspect that the administration thought it would be easier, how coud it not have a low opinion of the public given how it has snowed them so far? So I expect they will go to the well once too often, and just maybe that will kill the magic.

They don't have a political crisis to match the social and economic crises..so far.

In the US version of "democracy" what would a sufficient political crisis look like? What kind of political crisis is even possible in this system?