CNN: corker just confirmed...chained CPI off the table..

[cal04]

21. some updates

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/30/fiscal-cliff_n_2384726.html

UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. -- Republican senators leaving a GOP conference meeting Sunday afternoon told reporters that they are dropping chained CPI from their fiscal cliff proposal.

"CPI has to be off the table because it's not a winning argument to say benefits for seniors versus tax breaks for rich people," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "We need to take CPI off the table -- that's not part of the negotiations -- because we can't win an argument that has Social Security for seniors versus taxes for the rich."

"There's a realization that in spite of the president's apparent endorsement of a chained CPI, that that proposal deserves more study," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "My guess, based on what Democrats are saying, is that that reform would not happen during this stage of the negotiations."

"I don't think anybody ever expected Social Security to be part of this," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.


GOP senators: Social Security off table

After a briefing from Senate leaders, several Republicans said they were in agreement that Social Security reform will not be part of the “fiscal cliff” deal being negotiated Sunday.

“Chained CPI won’t be a part of the deal,” Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) told reporters.

Democrats said earlier that Republicans had demanded a politically contentious reduction in Social Security benefits, known as chained CPI, in exchange for President Obama’s request to extend emergency unemployment benefits and cancel deep cuts to the Pentagon and other agency budgets. A Democratic aide close to the talks described the request as a “poison pill.”

Sunday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) went down to the Senate floor to make his position explicit and public. “We’re willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced, comprehensive agreement,” he said, “but we’ll not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/12/30/gop-senators-social-security-off-table/