Brown pushes formula for Social Security raises tailored for the elderly
Van Wert Times Bulletin – Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown thinks that the way cost of living adjustments (COLA) are figured for the elderly should be different than the way the raises are computed for everyone else. This week, Brown and Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland introduced a bill that would set up a specific Consumer Price Index for the Elderly and Social Security recipients (CPI-E).
“Too many seniors who work hard and play by the rules require Social Security to simply live, to pay for basic necessities, even as the costs have risen for prescription drugs, food, energy, and rent,” Brown asserted in a teleconference Wednesday. “Social Security has become in far too many cases, their sole source of retirement income or the majority of their retirement income.”
Even though last month the Social Security Administration announced that seniors would be getting their first COLA in more than two years, Brown is not satisfied. He claims that the way the CPI is computed is based on consumption patterns of urban wage earners and clerical workers — only 32 percent of Americans.
