Feds COOK THE BOOKS to deny Social Security cost of living increase for "at least 2 years"........

[Faryn Balyncd]

The Congressional Budget Office says that they expect no Social Security cost of living increase for either 2010 (for the first time in 34 years), none in 2011, and possibly not until 2013.

What the CBO failed to point out, however, is that the methods used to calculate the official cost of living have been intentionally corrupted:

In "Return of the Robber Barons", Paul Craig Roberts (who, while serving Ronald Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, wrote the first Reagan tax cut bill), explains how the inflation calculation formulae have now been rigged so as to cheat beneficiaries:

.....Indeed, their plight is worse than the official statistics indicate. During the Clinton administration, the Boskin Commission rigged the inflation measures in order to hold down indexed Social Security payments to retirees.

Another deceit is the measure called “core inflation.” This measure of inflation excludes food and energy, two large components of the average family’s budget. Wall Street and corporations and, therefore, the media emphasize core inflation, because it holds down cost of living increases and interest rates. In the second quarter of this year, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a more complete measure of inflation, increased at an annual rate of 5.2 per cent compared to 2.3 per cent for core inflation.

An examination of how inflation is measured quickly reveals the games played to deceive the American people. Housing prices are not in the index. Instead, the rental rate of housing is used as a proxy for housing prices.

More games are played with the goods and services whose prices comprise the weighted market basket used to estimate inflation. If beef prices rise, for example, the index shifts toward lower priced chicken. Inflation is thus held down by substituting lower priced products for those whose prices are rising faster. As the weights of the goods in the basket change, the inflation measure does not reflect a constant pattern of expenditures. Some economists compare the substitution used to minimize the measured rate of inflation to substituting sweaters for fuel oil......


http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08022007.html

Does the Congressional Budget Office really think Americans will trust their rigged calculations, when they say the real cost of living for retirees (and for all of us) will not increase between 2009 and 2011-13?


Why does it take a Paul Craig Roberts, a refugee from the Reagan administration, to proclaim what we all know to be true?





Isn't it time for our administration to put honesty back into the calculation of inflation statistics?







:kick:

[madfloridian]

1. Thank you for this post.

:hi:

[Samantha]

2. Shameful

What else is there to say?

Sam

[DJ13]

3. If the cost of living isnt going up, why does my grocery bill keep increasing?

The government is FOS.

[emilyg]

4. Kick

[NYC_SKP]

5. Congressional Budget Office. Emphasis on CONGRESSional.

"Isn't it time for our administration to put honesty back into the calculation of inflation statistics?"

While I think the Obama administration can and should address this, WTF Congress???

Congress: :wtf:

I think we need to put pressure on our legislative branch more than on the administration.

:patriot:

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. That's a good point....

I'm not sure if this re-defining of inflation was done via statute, or within the executive branch.

I believe the rates are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that the CBO makes projections on expected revenues and expenses.

How this scheme was implemented, and what specific actions will take to restore truth to the statistics, I am not sure.

Those who implemented it achieved severe cuts without having to face the political fallout.

[Common Sense Party]

9. It's whoever is in charge of setting interest rates on gov't bonds.

Especially the I-bond. I guess that's Geithner's Treasury. They're saying we had DEFLATION--mostly due to oil and gas prices plunging from last year. So they're trying to pay almost no interest on I-bonds, and very little on Treasuries, either.

The truth is, we're flat busted broke, and they don't want to break the news to anyone yet.

[Better Believe It]

6. K & R

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Are You A Banker?

No? Then who says you have a say in this?

(:sarcasm:, of course.)

[napi21]

10. That means NO FEDERAL WORKERS will get an increase either!

SS & all other fed increases are based on COLA! If I don't get any increase, then Congress, nor any other fed emps get one either! BOY, I bet that's going to go over really GREAT!

[PufPuf23]

11. Paul Craig Roberts is an interesting dude.

From Hoover Institute and the WSJ to CounterPunch during the age of GWB.

He is correct about the finagling of the calculations.

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. (There was certainly no room for civil libertarians in Cheney's GOP.)

[JDPriestly]

13. Food, energy, medication and taxes.

Those are the major expenses for ordinary senior citizens.

The COLA should include the prices of all items. With today's computers it should be possible to actually track a much wider range of prices than the COLA requires that the government track.

Why not ask seniors what they buy and then base the Social Security COLA on what seniors really buy? If the items seniors need don't go up in price, fine. But we all know that food, energy, medication (and other medical expenses) and taxes are all going up.