Faced with these numbers, the chained-CPI benefit cut is … well, embarrassing.

[JDPriestly]

29. Do you think it could have the effect of, at least internally,

revaluing our currency?

I'm not sure how that would work. But, it would affect so many measures across the economy, that it seems to me it might result in a revaluation somehow. I have to think this through to figure out just what it would do. But when you think about the vast number of people and transactions that could be affected, it is mind-boggling.

I lived through a currency revaluation or at least the aftermath of it under De Gaulle in France in 1965-66. It was the real thing. That was at least clear. People understood that an old Franc was not the same as a new one in terms of value. But, over time, this change could really have a detrimental effect on our economy it seems to me.

I do not live in a wealthy area. A lot of people pay with food stamps in my local grocery store. What if they get less value in their food stamps? That could affect the volume of business in our local market. A relatively small cut on top of all the cuts that have already taken place at the state level in welfare and other forms of aid for the poor could have quite an effect on neighborhoods that are struggling.

You cannot cut from the income of the masses of people who are retired or disabled or working for low pay without affecting the middle class.

Poverty is creeping upward in our society. The only thing that is trickling down is contempt.