New Yorkers were “taking it to the streets” on July 2nd to defend Social Security! As part of a national day of action, our allies in New York affiliates of the Alliance for Retired Americans held “Human Chains Against a Chained CPI” actions in communities all across New York. Here in NYC, we gathered with our NYC ARA partners outside the offices of Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to call on them to keep being the champions for Social Security that they have always been, and lead the fight against any chained-CPI proposals in Congress.
The fight for universal health care in America is at the center of the larger federal budget fight that’s been going on in Congress for two years running now. But to protect Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, we must also protect Social Security. They are all part of a whole.
During negotiations for next year’s federal budget year, one bad idea being put forward is to change the formula used to calculate the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits. The change would replace a general inflation measurement to that of a “chained-CPI”. The net effect of this change would be to significantly lower the lifetime Social Security benefits received by retirees, the disabled, and spousal and child survivors of deceased workers. We can’t let that happen!
Since last year’s elections, we have been working with a number of groups and unions here in New York City to build the exciting new “No Bad Grand Bargain” (NBGB) campaign. Its goals are to protect health care and social programs from cuts and negative structural changes by restoring fairness to our tax system so that revenues increase, and by re-orienting spending priorities away from waste in the military sector and sweetheart corporate deals toward investing in domestic programs instead. Please contact us if you’d like some more info on NBGB and how to get involved.
For more information about what’s bad about the chained-CPI, click here