This past week the Federal government released two updates that are important to all Americans.
The first update was the April CPI number. The new number is 224.906. By itself it's pretty meaningless, but when taken in conjunction with the September, 2011 CPI number (218.439) it gains real importance. We've now seen the CPI value increase by 2.96% in just 7 months of 2011. Anualized it will be over 5% for the year. The WH OMB had projected it would only increase 1.3%. It had also projected the CPI would only increase by a maximum of 2.1% for any year between now and the end of 2021. Those projections look pretty foolish. So inflation is here, its higher than budgeted and it means the 2012 Budget's projected 10 year deficit of $7.2 trillion is meaningless.
The second update released this past week was the Social Security Trust Fund report for 2010. The report showed the trust funds for Medicare and Social Security being in more difficulty than previously reported. All of the trustees, government and public, expressed the opinion that the Social Security and Medicare program fundementals need to be addressed soon if they are to remain solvent.
This year we've heard Democrats like President Obama claim that significant reform isn't called for. We've heard Democrats like Sen. Reid and Sen. Durbin tell us to leave Social Security reform out of the budget debate. So are we to believe they really have the well being of the country and our Nation's finances at heart? Or are they just playing "politics as usual" hoping to maintain power, regardless of the cost.
I believe it gets easy to see which it is with each passing month.
