People here should know who Third Way is.

[DanTex]

54. Yes, chained-CPI would make future social security payments to seniors "less" than they are now.

It doesn't cut the social security checks that go out this year, but it does cuts the size of the checks that go out next year, and for the rest of eternity. For people that haven't retired yet, that means every single social security check will be smaller than they would have gotten otherwise.

You work your whole life, paying the government at a certain rate, knowing that when you retire, in exchange, the government is going to pay you benefits at a specific legally binding formula that everyone has agreed to. Then you get to retirement age and, bam, the government changes its mind and decides to use a new formula that results in you getting less money.

That's a cut. Social Security is a legal obligation, it's not some willy-nilly thing. Those future social security checks are written into law. Changing the law to make them lower is, obviously, a cut.

What you are arguing is that if you sell me something, and I tell you I'll pay in two installments, $100 this year, and $200 next year. And then I decide to change my mind and only pay you $150 next year, is that a "cut" in the amount I pay you. Of course it is. It doesn't matter that it's still more than I paid you this year. I agreed to pay $200 next year. If I pay you less than that, I am "making less" the amount that I pay you.