Why isn't food and fuel included in the SS COLA?

I read this morning SS may get a slight increase next year but most of it will likely be taken away by an increase in Medicare. Then this afternoon I am watching a report on Faux and they said that food and energy costs are not included in the COLA used for SS. Is this true? Has it always been that way? Is that something this Administration has changed?

and plastic clothing from Wal Mart.

Food is for the self indulgent. So is fuel.

blame anyone or say when it started, maybe it was always that way.

calculations, or be held accountable for it....

But how COLA is calculated has been the same since 1975.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html

SS COLA is based on the CPI-W which includes food and fuel.

and it would scare people:)

:shrug:

Furthermore, with food, they are always playing shell games with what constitutes the "basket" of items which is used to determine prices. Steaks become packages of ground chuck, and so on.

There is a detailed list the economic assistants must go by when collecting prices. If the exact item is not there, they may make a substitution of the closest like item. That substitution is reviewed by an economist who deterimines if the substitution is close enough to consider the same. Since steak and ground beef are seperate item categories, that would not be a valid substitution. Porterhouse and NY strip would not be a valid substitution. Top round and bottom round might be.

The complaint is about the calculations. BLS calculates the average price of a category (like steaks or ground beef, or women's slacks) using the geometric mean, not the arithmatic mean. This gives a slightly lower average than the arithmatic mean, and is meant to emulate substitutions among like items. If 95% lean ground beef goes up in price and 92% doesn't, it's a bad assumption that people will buy just as much 95% lean as they did before, so by using a slightly lower average, that captures the fact that some people switch. It works both ways, too. If NY strip goes up, but filet mignon doesn't, people will buy more filet mignon. It's the relative price change that's important, not whether an item is more or less expensive. But the geo-mean is only used for low level item categories in the same geographic location: steak in Chicago, apples in Baltimore etc.

i don't know how people can live with these high food and gas prices.

the government was afraid that taking food and fuel costs into consideration would lead to higher food/fuel prices for everyone as the manufacturers and providers of those commodities tried to take advantage of the increased market. He likened it to the way that colleges are prone to predatory tuition increases; whenever the government raises the Pell grant amount, colleges and universities will often raise tuition right along with it so that the "increase" goes straight into THEIR pockets. Supposedly the federal government didn't want the same thing to happen with food and fuel, because unlike with college students (where tuition increases only affect college students and their families), food and fuel prices affect everyone. He also said that part if it was because food and fuel prices are more volatile and region-dependent, which would require more extensive calculations every year to decide how much the COLA should go up.

The problem I see with that idea is that it naively gives the government the benefit of the doubt, and it doesn't take into consideration the fact that food and fuel prices have kept going up REGARDLESS of this. Even if it were true (which I doubt), the point the government was making is already moot. The fact of the matter is that food and fuel prices really ARE a major part of the real cost of living, and they should be taken into account along with everything else.

one says they are included and another says they are but they manipulate the numbers to reduce their effects on the COLA. On Faux they just outright said food and fuel weren't included it like it was fact. I really don't know I have heard the same thing many times from other news outlets. On one thing I do know for sure any COLA is mostly taken back for Medicare premium increases.

Put it in one pocket and take it out of the other.

Then starve, you idiots! :nuke: And Dems aren't any better on this that RW.

her rent also goes up.

:nuke:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4789119&mesg_id=4789504

You should stop watching Fox. They lie...a lot.

lie would they? They are honest about one thing "We Report You Decide", they report and you have to do your research before you decide you can believe them. I have seen or heard that same thing reported other times in print, TV and radio other than on Faux.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

Seasonally adjusted changes from
preceding month
Un-
adjusted
12-mos.
Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. ended
2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011 2011 Feb.
2011

All items.................. .2 .2 .2 .1 .4 .4 .5 2.1
Food...................... .1 .3 .1 .2 .1 .5 .6 2.3
Food at home............. .0 .4 .1 .2 .2 .7 .8 2.8
Food away from home (1).. .3 .3 .1 .1 .1 .2 .2 1.6
Energy.................... 1.6 1.1 2.5 .1 4.0 2.1 3.4 11.0
Energy commodities....... 2.6 2.2 4.4 .7 6.4 4.0 4.8 19.3
Gasoline (all types).... 2.9 2.2 4.5 .7 6.7 3.5 4.7 19.2
Fuel oil (1)............ .9 .8 4.7 4.2 4.9 6.8 5.8 27.1
Energy services.......... .4 -.4 .0 -.8 .6 -.6 1.1 .2
Electricity............. .1 -.1 .2 .6 .3 -.5 .4 2.2
Utility (piped) gas
service.............. 1.4 -1.4 -.6 -5.3 1.7 -1.2 3.4 -5.9
All items less food and
energy................. .1 .0 .0 .1 .1 .2 .2 1.1
Commodities less food and
energy commodities.... .1 -.2 -.2 .0 -.1 .2 .2 .0
New vehicles............ .2 .1 -.1 -.2 -.1 -.1 1.0 .9
Used cars and trucks.... .9 -.4 -.6 .1 -.1 -.3 .1 1.9
Apparel................. .0 -.5 -.2 .1 .1 1.0 -.9 -.4
Medical care commodities
(1).................. .2 .3 .1 .2 .1 .5 .7 2.7
Services less energy
services.............. .0 .1 .1 .2 .1 .1 .2 1.5
Shelter................. .0 .0 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .8
Transportation services .0 .3 .3 .4 .2 .6 .5 3.5
Medical care services... .2 .7 .2 .2 .3 -.1 .4 3.0

1 Not seasonally adjusted.

The official reason is that prices for fuel and food are "volatile", which is true on a month to month basis. But taken out over a year, such prices are surprisingly non-volatile.

;) We are just slaves!

:sarcasm:

There's your problem right there. No wonder you're getting inaccurate information.

Sid

There have been no changes in how SS raises are calculated since Reagan's Administration which made a change that lowered COLA figures.