Ryan Ray
Thursday’s announcement from the Social Security Administration that beneficiaries will receive no cost-of-living increase to their monthly payments in 2016 has added new urgency for reforms to the way benefits for seniors are remitted, says U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson.
In a conference call with reporters, Grayson called for an increase in benefits to account for the decreasing purchasing power of the elderly and disabled, many of whom depend on the program for survival.
“We owe our seniors $388 billion dollars,” said Grayson. “That’s how much we have shortchanged our seniors through undersized and unfair cost-of-living adjustments going back 40 years.”
The Orlando Democrat blames a 1975 decision to tie benefits to a cost-of-living index – the well-known consumer price index, or CPI – based on what workers generally, rather than seniors, spend their money on.
The self-professed liberal from Florida’s 9th Congressional District says using CPI as opposed to an index that takes into account what seniors in particular buy with their income costs seniors some $400 per year on average, or about 3 percent of their annual benefits.
“The effect is cumulative, so the older so are, the more you are being cheated each year,” said Grayson. “It’s like the IRS assessing your taxes based on Donald Trump‘s income.”
To remedy this perceived wrong Grayson will introduce Friday his “Seniors Deserve a Raise Act,” a one-page bill that will tie future cost-of-living adjustments to a new index called the CPIE, or consumer price index for seniors.
Grayson said the bill has already attracted some 50 co-sponsors, another 50 who have indicated their support.
What are the chances for a Democratic-sponsored bill to increase SSA spending in a virulently anti-entitlement GOP-led U.S. House?
“Given the fact that it’s one of my bills, pretty good,” said Grayson citing his by now well-rehearsed statistics that he has passed 15 bills and 31 amendments in an environment largely hostile to progressive initiatives. “Bills that we concentrate on in my office tend to move.
Grayson has long taken an interest in issues of aging and the elderly, in the manner of his hero former Florida Senator and U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper – “Florida’s fighting liberal,” as the Chicago Star once called him.
Grayson’s chief rival in his 2016 bid for the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio – U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy – said at Wednesday’s AP Day in Tallahassee he has yet to review Grayson’s proposal, but is inclined to support it.
