Saving Social Security: Why New Proposals Are Drawing Fire
On April 10, President Barack Obama released his $1.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2014, which included a controversial — but not altogether surprising — plan to change how Social Security benefits are calculated. Rather than using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security, the President proposed switching to “chained CPI,” which would take into account the possibility that when prices rise for certain goods and services, consumers buy cheaper products instead. Using the chained CPI method would save the federal government an estimated $230 billion over the next decade. Read more…