Louisiana Voters 50+ Oppose Chained CPI

Today AARP Louisiana released new survey results that show 66 percent of older Louisiana voters would be considerably less favorable to their member of Congress or Senator if the member voted for a chained or superlative CPI proposal, expected to be in the President’s budget proposal this week.  The survey shows that 87 percent of Louisiana voters age 50+ also oppose the highly unpopular idea of reducing Social Security benefits to reduce the deficit.  AARP also released a national survey  that could indicate how a vote for benefit cuts could impact House and Senate races across the nation.

“This cut to Social Security would break the promise to Louisiana seniors and hurt veterans who’ve sacrificed so much for this great country,” said AARP State President Brenda Hatfield.  “The chained CPI reduction snowballs over time and would increase taxes for most Louisiana taxpayers - at the same time that it cuts benefits for children, veterans, widows, retirees, and people with disabilities.  As this survey shows, older Louisianans oppose the chained CPI and they’ve historically made their opinions known to their elected officials.”

Results in the survey on the impact of chained CPI include:

• 66% of Louisiana voters 50+ would be less favorable towards their Member of Congress if they voted for a chained or    superlative CPI (70% Democrats, 70% Republicans, 61% Independents).

•  75% of Louisiana voters 50+ oppose reducing the annual benefit increase retired and disabled veterans receive by changing the way the cost of living increase is calculated for veterans’ benefits (77% Democrats, 77% Republicans, 70% Independents).

• 92% of Louisiana voters 50+ believe it’s very important that benefits are not reduced for today’s seniors.

• 60% of Louisiana voters 50+ oppose increasing taxes for most taxpayers by changing the way the tax code is adjusted for inflation through chained CPI (62% Democrats, 59% Republicans, 60% Independents). However, 14% said they do not know if they support or oppose this, indicating there is little public understanding of how the chained CPI would affect a person’s taxes.

• 87% of Louisiana voters 50+ oppose reducing Social Security benefits to reduce the deficit (91% Democrats, 87% Republicans, 81% Independents).

• 85% of Louisiana voters 50+ believe that the future of Social Security should be considered separately from the budget deficit discussions (89% Democrats, 84% Republicans, 80% Independents).

The results of the full survey can be found here.  Woelfel Research, an independent research firm, conducted 808 interviews of registered voters age 50+ between March 25 through March 27, 2013.  This survey has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.5%.

For more AARP Louisiana resources and information on the impact of the chained CPI, please visit earnedasay.org.