John B. Breaux: “Mr. President, yesterday a great deal of discussion was held about the CPI adjustment. I just want to make a couple…”

“Mr. President, yesterday a great deal of discussion was held about the CPI adjustment. I just want to make a couple comments because many Members said, ``We like your budget, but the CPI is something that we can't handle. We don't think it's the right thing to do.'' We have had three hearings in the Senate Finance Committee--March 13 of last year, April 6 of last year, and June 5 of last year--we had a parade of economists before the Finance Committee. Every one of them to a person said that we are making a mistake as a country. The distinguished Senator from North Dakota said that yesterday. Every year we make a mistake. Every year we give every person who is on an entitlement program more than they should get, by every economists' professional judgment. They say we overestimate what their increase should be from anywhere between 0.7 and 2 percent. So we have had the courage to make a decision that we will fix the problem. We will correct the mistake. We will say that every person in America who is entitled to an entitlement increase--Social Security, railroad retirees, Federal retirees--we will give you a more accurate increase in your benefits. For instance, in Social Security it says instead of getting a $20-a-month increase, you will get a $16-a-month increase. They still get an increase, a substantial increase. It is $4 less than they would have gotten under the incorrect formula, but everybody knows the formula is wrong.”