Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse released the statement below today regarding President Obama’s budget proposal:
“I made a promise to the people of Rhode Island that I would always oppose cuts to Social Security, and I’m going to keep that promise. Social Security is fully solvent for the next twenty years, has not contributed to our budget deficits, and has no place in this debate over federal spending. The so-called ‘chained CPI’ proposal included in President Obama’s budget is nothing more than a benefit cut disguised behind technical jargon. While I commend the President for including some smart provisions in his budget like investments in infrastructure and the Buffett Rule for tax fairness, I cannot support a proposal that would force seniors to pay for deficits Social Security had no part in creating.”
Senator Whitehouse is a member of the Senate Budget Committee. He has repeatedly opposed attempts to cut Social Security, and is a co-sponsor of the Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act, which would ensure that Social Security remains solvent for the next 50 years by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share into the system. He has also argued that the existing formula used to calculate annual cost-of-living adjustments short changes seniors, and has called for a more accurate measure of inflation – the opposite of what chained CPI would produce.
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