Social Security

Summary of the deal to raise the debt ceiling (later signed into law as the Budget Control Act), and its implications for key programs, including domestic discretionary, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, other mandatory programs, and taxes.

Cutting the Social Security COLA by Changing the Way Inflation is Calculated Would Especially Hurt Women shows that women will be hit hardest by changing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment from the CPI-W to the “chained CPI”.  This proposed change delivers a triple whammy to women.  Since women live longer than men, they face deeper cuts in their Social Security benefits under the chained CPI because the cuts get larger each year.  Women rely more on income from Social Security than do men, so these cuts would represent a greater share of their total retirement income.  And since older women are already more economically vulnerable than older men, these cuts will leave more of them unable to meet basic needs.