In an article over at CNN, Tami Luhby states that Trump is pushing people off of benefits through a proposed switch from using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the chained CPI. The suggestion is that this move is a direct “attack” on the poor. The article also cites the support in the move to chained CPI due to it being more accurate. For more information on how the CPI and the chained CPI are calculated, you can find it at www.BLS.gov.
The article is written in a way to incite frustration at the Trump administration and the push to take benefits away from the poor, suggesting the move would make it harder for people to qualify for help. The reference given was that if the CPI was changed to chained CPI for the past 5 years, it would have made a $37 difference in qualification for federal benefits. That’s right, $37 over the past 5 years. The article also pushes that the Trump administration is pushing this proposal to “unilaterally strip people of Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and other basic support.”
Near the end of the article, it’s interesting that this switch has been called for multiple times by both Democrat and Republican leadership. So I thought it would be interesting to see what CNN articles were presented during the Obama years regarding a change to using chained CPI. Here’s two of the article titles:
- Seniors say, ‘We can’t afford Social Security Cuts’
- Seniors would see smaller Social Security checks under Obama budget
A big difference from this article from Luhby that is titled, “Trump Administration opens the door to pushing more people off benefits.” Am I the only one who sees the difference? Media darling Obama was addressed with a much more light tone than Trump. This is the new normal with the main stream media. Everything is an all-out assault on President Trump, no matter what he does.
