Even Center for American Progress is a Social Security sellout

Per a Facebook friend of mine, way back in 2010, CAP was supporting adopting the "chained CPI" as part of "fixing" Social Security. Here's the details (PDF).

And, claiming it was MORE accurate than general consumer CPI.

Go to pages 27-28 and 38, for starters.

I'm going to copy some selected comments below:

The Consumer Price Index for Clerical Workers, which is currently used to calculate changes in Social Security benefits for people who already receive benefits each year, is inconsistent over time because it relies on changes in consumption that may not accurately reflect changes in people’s behavior. ...

We recommend that benefits instead be tied to the chained Consumer Price Index, which is sometimes referred to as the “superlative” Consumer Price Index. This index is a more accurate measure of inflation than the current measure.

The Social Security Administration’s actuaries estimate the difference will amount to an inflation measure that will show inflation that is 0.3 percentage points lower than the currently used inflation measure. The Social Security Administration should use this superlative, or chained, Consumer Price Index for the calculation of cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries beginning in December 2010.

When even alleged liberals look neoliberal, we're in trouble.

My related takeaway comes from a book of Noam Chomsky interviews I grokked yesterday at the library in Waco.

Now, more than ever, it's important to stop voting for bad Democratic candidates. In fact, Chomsky said that in cases where a third-party alternative isn't available, it may be important at times to actually vote for the worse candidate.

Update, April 12: Add another sellout — the Congressional Progressive Caucus.