Tucson, Ariz. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva released the following statement today responding to recent reports that “chained CPI,” a proposal to cut Social Security benefits in the guise of making technical adjustments to the program, remains a potential feature of any long-term or year-end budget deal.
“When more than half of my House Democratic colleagues signed the Feb. 15 letter I led in opposition to Social Security benefit cuts, we thought we’d spoken loudly and clearly enough. The fact that chained CPI is still on the table seems like a bad April Fool’s joke.
“Military and veteran families would be some of the hardest hit if certain austerity fans get their way. Military veterans and their spouses and surviving family members shouldn’t be asked, let alone told, to carry any more of our country’s burden than they already have. Opposing Social Security benefit cuts is in line with the overwhelming majority of public opinion. Cutting Social Security – rather than closing outdated corporate tax loopholes or bringing our tax rates in line with reality – has become an ideological crusade. I’m declaring here and now that I won’t be a part of it, and I invite my colleagues to join me.”
As reported March 29 in Forbes:
AARP calculates that a 30-year-old veteran of the Iraq or Afghanistan war who has no children and is 100 percent disabled would likely lose about $100,000 in disability compensation by age 75 (calculated in today’s dollars), compared with benefits under the current cost-of-living formula. Over a 10-year period, 23 million veterans would lose $17 billion in compensation and pension benefits, according to AARP calculations.You can read the full analysis at http://bit.ly/13MsB0p.
The text of the Feb. 15 Grijalva-Ellison-Schakowsky-Conyers-Edwards letter opposing chained CPI is below.
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February 15, 2013
Dear President Obama:
We want to thank you for standing strong in the American Taxpayer Relief Act to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from benefit cuts that would jeopardize the well-being of millions of Americans.
We write to affirm our vigorous opposition to cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits in any final bill to replace sequestration. Earned Social Security and Medicare benefits provide the financial and health protections necessary to keep individuals and families out of poverty. Medicaid is not only a lifeline for low-income children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and families, it is the primary source of long-term care services and supports for 3.6 million individuals. We cannot overstate their importance for our constituents and our country.
That is why we remain deeply opposed to proposals to reduce Social Security benefits through use of the chained CPI to calculate cost-of-living adjustments. We remain committed to making the changes that will extend solvency for 75 years, but Social Security has not contributed to our current fiscal problems and it should not be on the bargaining table.
Similarly, we oppose proposals to increase Medicare cost-sharing requirements or to raise the age of eligibility. Half of all Medicare recipients live on less than $22,000 a year – yet they spend, on average, three times as much of those limited incomes on health care as other Americans. Raising their already heavy cost-sharing burden or increasing the age of eligibility doesn’t lower health care costs, it just shifts them to those who can least afford more financial burdens – seniors, people with disabilities and their families.
A commitment to keeping the middle-class strong and reducing poverty requires a commitment to keeping Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid strong. We urge you to reject any proposals to cut benefits, and we look forward to working with you to enact approaches that instead rely on economic growth and more fair revenue-raising policies to solve our fiscal problems.
Sincerely,
Schakowsky, Jan
Ellison, Keith
Grijalva, Raúl M.
Conyers, John
Edwards, Donna
Barber, Ron
Bass, Karen
Bera, Ami
Bonamici, Suzanne
Brady, Robert
Braley, Bruce L.
Brown, Corrine
Brownley, Julia
Bustos, Cheri
Butterfield, G.K.
Capps, Lois
Cardenas, Tony
Cartwright, Matthew
Castor, Kathy
Christensen, Donna M.,
Chu, Judy
Cicilline, David
Clarke, Yvette D.
Clay Jr., William “Lacy”
Cleaver, Emanuel
Cohen, Steve
Conyers Jr., John
Courtney, Joe
Cummings, Elijah
Davis, Danny K.
DeFazio, Peter
DeLauro, Rosa L.
Deutch, Ted
Duckworth, Tammy
Edwards, Donna F.
Ellison, Keith
Eshoo, Anna G.
Faleomavaega, Eni F. H.
Farr, Sam
Fattah, Chaka
Frankel, Lois
Fudge, Marcia L.
Garamendi, John
Grayson, Alan
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva, Raul
Gutierrez, Luis
Hahn, Janice
Hastings, Alcee L.
Hinojosa, Rubén
Holt, Rush
Honda, Mike
Huffman, Jared
Jackson Lee, Sheila
Jeffries, Hakeem
Johnson, Eddie Bernice
Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” Jr.
Kaptur, Marcy
Kildee, Daniel
Kirkpatrick, Ann
Langevin, Jim
Lee, Barbara
Lewis, John
Loebsack, David
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowenthal, Alan
Lujan Grisham, Michelle
Lynch, Stephen F.
Maloney, Carolyn
Markey, Ed
Matsui, Doris O.
McDermott, Jim
McGovern, James
Meng, Grace
Michaud, Michael
Moore, Gwen
Nadler, Jerrold
Negrete McLeod, Gloria
Nolan, Rick
Norton, Eleanor Holmes
Pastor, Ed
Payne Jr., Donald
Pingree, Chellie
Pocan, Mark
Rangel, Charles B.
Roybal-Allard, Lucille
Rush, Bobby L.
Ryan, Tim
Sablan, Gregorio
Sanchez, Linda
Scott, Robert C.
Serrano, José E.
Shea-Porter, Carol
Sinema, Kyrsten
Sires, Albio
Slaughter, Louise
Speier, Jackie
Takano, Mark
Thompson, Bennie G.
Tierney, John
Titus, Dina
Tonko, Paul D.
Vargas, Juan
Veasey, Marc
Velázquez, Nydia M.
Waters, Maxine
Watt, Mel
Waxman, Henry
Welch, Peter
Wilson, Frederica
cc: Speaker John Boehner
House Minority Leader Pelosi
Senate Majority Leader Reid
Senate Minority Leader McConnell
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