[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2258-H2259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FAIRNESS IN BALANCED BUDGET PROCESS

  (Mr. SANDERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I regard it as an outrage that more and 
more pressure is being placed on the Bureau of Labor Statistics to 
change their approach of determining how the Consumer Price Index, the 
CPI, is being determined, with the goal of lowering it. Frankly, this 
is nothing more than a cheap, back-door way of balancing the budget on 
the backs of the

[[Page H2259]]

elderly by cuts in Social Security, by not giving them an increase 
which honestly reflects the rate of inflation.
  In the State of Vermont, in my view, not only is the current CPI not 
too high, it is too low. Elderly people are more dependent upon health 
care and prescription drugs than the general population, and the cost 
of health care is rising much faster than the general rate of 
inflation.
  Mr. Speaker, in Vermont and throughout this country, millions of 
elderly people are trying to survive on $7,000 or $8,000 a year. Let us 
not cut their Social Security checks and make their lives even more 
difficult. Let us move toward a balanced budget, but let us not do it 
on the backs of the weakest and most vulnerable Americans, including 
our senior citizens.

                          ____________________