[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     CALCULATION OF CONSUMER PRICE INDEX SHOULD BE OUTSIDE POLITICS
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Wyden] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I am a Member of the House who 
has felt that the calculation of the Consumer Price Index for our 
country should be a concern that was outside politics, one that was 
going to be nonpartisan. Making sure that the Consumer Price Index is 
calculated accurately is of enormous importance to, for example, low-
income senior citizens who depend on their Social Security to pay for 
their necessities, but it is also important to millions of middle-
income taxpayers, because our brackets are now indexed for inflation, 
and the tax brackets and the personal exemption, the standard 
deduction. A number of these concerns for middle-income people are 
affected by the Consumer Price Index.
  But recently is seems to me politics has been introduced to these 
discussions, because the Speaker has said that unless the Consumer 
Price Index is changed within the next 30 days, the agency that 
calculates it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, would be zeroed out.
  I think this is very unfortunate. We understand why someone might 
want to do this, because if you lower the Consumer Price Index, you can 
have a no-fingerprints way to cut the deficit by about $150 billion, if 
you cut the Consumer Price Index by just 1 percentage point. But what 
you will do in the process is hurt those low-income seniors and, 
ironically, there are some new studies by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics that show because of the high medical expenses of seniors 
their Consumer Price Index may be understated rather than overstated. 
So you will hurt those seniors.
  But you will also hurt the middle-income taxpayers who will find they 
will be paying more in taxes as a result of these changes.
  Now, I am one of the Democrats who voted on the first day of the 
session to make it tough to raise income taxes, because I thought it 
was important to protect small businesses and seniors and others. So 
last Friday, with the minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. 
Gephardt], and a number of our colleagues, I introduced a piece of 
legislation stipulating that to cut the Consumer Price Index in this 
Congress and raise the taxes on middle-income people and hurt low-
income senior citizens you would have to comply with rule XXI that was 
passed the first day saying that a tax increase has got to be approved 
by a three-fifths majority. I am very hopeful that this bill will not 
be necessary.
  I want that Consumer Price Index calculated on nonpartisan bases by 
professional economists, but if there is going to be an effort to 
politicize the Consumer Price Index, it will come out on the floor of 
the House of Representatives and cutting it and hurting the senior 
citizens and the middle-income taxpayers, for those who want to do it, 
they will have to comply with the rule making it tougher to raise 
income taxes.


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