Mocking old folks who are worried about paying their bills? [View all]

[Cal Carpenter]

Really not a good idea.

Maybe the Chained CPI will be in the final bill, maybe not. Maybe removing it will be the bone we'll get thrown to make the budget better-received by the public, since a whole lot of it just advances this RW trend of our economic system anyway.

At this point nothing would surprise me. Time will tell.

But in the meantime, there are millions of people who are worried at the thought that their increases in SS will fall even further behind the true cost-of-living increases each year. It is no exaggeration to say that there are millions of elderly people in this country now who struggle to pay their bills, to buy food and heat their homes and pay for their meds.

Given that wages for younger workers have not kept pace with the generations before them, this is bound to get even worse without significant changes. Instead of such changes, we are being...what... threatened with the Chained CPI?

And when people express concern, confusion, fear, or anger about this they are being mocked, or dismissed, or marginalized. Maybe everyone who thinks this debate is funny should have to spend a few months on a limited, fixed income with no nest egg, with limited mobility, in shitty public housing so they can see what it is like.

Or wait, better yet, maybe we could address the real problems of growing poverty, growing inequality, unemployment, and the gutting of public infrastructure rather than chipping away at what little we have left.