Another Republican-manufactured fiscal crisis is fast approaching and it threatens the fragile economic recovery with the automatic, across–the-board sequestration budget cuts scheduled to kick in on March 1. Republicans have indicated they will block any attempt to stop the sequester unless there are benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

But a majority of House Democrats late last week signed a House Progressive Caucus letter to President Obama opposing benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The "chained" CPI is a Social Security benefit cut (not an innocuous "adjustment"), and the majority of voters understand this, with 55% opposing this policy proposal. 

A new poll, Strengthening Social Security: What Do Americans Want? from the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), highlights working people's opposition to benefit cuts, including the "chained" CPI, which reduces the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).   

UPDATE: With a large number of House Republicans refusing to back asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) pulled his “Plan B.” from the floor last night and adjourned the House. No negotiations between Republicans and the Obama White House on the expiring middle class tax cuts and automatic spending cuts set to go into effect Jan. 1 are scheduled.  But a White House spokesman said, “The president will work with Congress to get this done, and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy.”  

If House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “really wanted to address the true causes of our long-term budget imbalance, the last thing he would ask Congress to do is pass more wasteful tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,” AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel said in a letter to House members today.

Democrats in the House are speaking out against a proposed Social Security COLA cut known as the “chained” CPI, which would severely harm the elderly and people with disabilities.

Here are some highlights and videos of written and public statements:

On Sunday night, House Speaker John Boehner made clear he would like to make a simple trade with President Obama. He asked the president to extend tax cuts on income between $250,000 and $1 million a year—a tax bonanza of nearly $400 billion over 10 years, about half of which would go to millionaires.  

Call the White House at 202-456-1111; tell President Obama you oppose the "chained" CPI.

Beware the "chained" CPI.

As Republicans in Congress take a hard line in the sand against higher tax rates for millionaires and billionaires, they are demanding a Social Security benefit cut through a lower Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs). The lower COLA would result from the adoption of a new formula for calculating COLAs called "Chained CPI." 

The chain CPI formula calculation would further erode Social Security benefits.

Today's announcement that Social Security recipients will receive a modest increase (1.7%) in their cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) was a small but welcome boost for seniors who are seeing prices increase on necessities, from health care to food. However, even this modest increase could be jeopardized if proposals floating around in Washington to "tweak" the current COLA formula by tying it to the so-called "chained CPI" are passed. 

Senior advocates and retirement experts say the current formula, the CPI-W, is already inadequate. Higher health care costs and expenses seniors face are not accurately addressed in the CPI-W.

Social Security is popular.

It is one of the most, if not the most, popular federal government-run programs. It is social insurance, not welfare. It provides Americans with a reliable source of income when: a senior retires from work, a child loses a working parent or if a worker becomes disabled.

Social Security is an American promise.  We pay into the program during our working lives and we’re entitled to collect benefits. We paid for it. It’s our money.

There’s a plan floating around Capitol Hill that would slash Social Security benefits as part of a deficit reduction package even though Social Security does not contribute a penny to the deficit.