Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I am pleased to rise this morning to support the adoption of a consumer price index for Social Security that would accurately reflect the costs our senior citizens actually face.

I am delighted to join the Presiding Officer, Senator Brown of Ohio, in this effort, along with Senator Mikulski of Maryland. Social Security is a promise, a bond between our government and our senior citizens.

Our senior citizens have worked hard their whole life and paid into Social Security every step of the way. They expect Social Security will be there for them when they retire.

Over the past few years, I have heard from many Oregon seniors who are making ends meet on a fixed income. They ask me: Why is it we are not getting a cost-of-living adjustment, a COLA? Because our costs are rising. They have been deeply disturbed to know, with these fixed incomes and these rising costs, they are being squeezed in the middle.

I explain to them in these townhalls it is because the COLA is calculated not on what seniors face in their costs but upon what a broad cross-section of working people face. They tell me: Senator, that is different than the costs we face. We are at a different point in our lives. Health care becomes a huge component. They tell me: I can tell you, Senator, health care costs are not going down.

Some in this Chamber are coming forward with a proposal that would make it even harder for our seniors. It would use a new calculation: not this standard ``cross-section of America COLA'' we are currently using but what is referred to as a chained CPI. That chained CPI says: If the price of this goes up, you can buy that. Actually, what it does is go in the wrong direction in terms of accurately reflecting the costs our seniors face in retirement.

If we take someone who is 65 today and we look down the road, by the time they are 75, this chained CPI would cost them $560 per year--roughly a month's rent. By the time the average 85-year-old has their payment calculated, the chained CPI would cost them $984 per year; the average 95-year-old: $1,392 per year.

At a time when the best off Americans are paying less than ever before, it is simply wrong to shift costs on to our seniors and the most vulnerable in our society.

There is an alternative. It is called the CPI-E. The Consumer Price Index for our seniors or elderly. I prefer to think of it as the CPI-E for ``experienced.'' Our most experienced citizens face different costs than the rest of us. The CPI-E would track inflation specifically based on the basket of goods those aged 62 and older are purchasing.

It is simply a fairer and more accurate way to calculate the benefits for our seniors. If their costs are rising slower than the overall costs for society, it would reflect that. If their costs are rising higher than the overall pace of inflation, then that would be reflected. Either way, it is fair.

We have to ensure we are keeping our promise to our senior citizens in a way that accurately reflects the reality of living in this country. This bill for the CPI-E or Consumer Price Index for the experienced is the best way to achieve that.

I suggest the absence of a quorum

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