skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Cuts Target Seniors, Veterans and People with a Disability

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 9, 2013   

SHARPSBURG, N.C. - Reducing the deficit is a top priority in Washington, and one option being considered would cut benefits to people receiving Social Security, veterans', or disability benefits. It's part of a little-known and little-understood change to the way cost-of-living increases to benefits are calculated. The proposed method is called "chained CPI" (Consumer Price Index) and assumes that people receiving benefits can choose lower-cost items if prices rise.

According to Sharpsburg veteran Bill Burchette, however, that economic principle doesn't add up in real life.

"If the cost of steak goes up, then you can buy chicken or turkey. We're already on chicken and turkey, and some of us are not even eating that."

AARP estimates that switching to chained CPI would cost seniors and veterans a combined $146 billion over the next 10 years. Right now 62-year-olds receiving $900 a month in benefits would lose a total of $32,000 by the time they are 90.

Doug Dickerson, executive director of AARP North Carolina, insisted that switching to a chained CPI is nothing more than a tax increase.

"And the reason I'm saying in taxes is because that money, he or she has already contributed that through the original payroll tax and compounded interest," he stated.

Bill Burchette served 27 years in the Air Force reserves and said he's disappointed in this policy proposal.

"That's a slam against the people that served this country and served it well, served it at times when they didn't really believe in what some of our politicians were doing - but our nation called and said this is the right thing to do, and that's what we did."

According to an AARP survey, 73 percent of North Carolinians age 50 and over oppose changing the way the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is calculated.

Supporters of using the chained CPI to calculate cost-of-living increases maintain that it will reduce the federal deficit.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021