Lincoln Chafee: “I think the answer to this is that people really do not want to get into trying to solve these dramatic problems that…”

“I think the answer to this is that people really do not want to get into trying to solve these dramatic problems that are out there in connection with the entitlements. The word ``entitlement'' is one we toss around here, but what are entitlements? Entitlements are, principally, Social Security. But they are also Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare. We believe--and it is not just us but every serious student of the deficit of this Nation and the direction we are going has said so-- it is essential to get the expenditures in these entitlement programs under control or there just plain will not be money to pay for them in the future years. So when we began looking into this in the Finance Committee, as the Senator from Louisiana indicated, Chairman Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve came and testified before us and he said you should look into the Consumer Price Index, and whether it is accurately stated? It was his view, which was corroborated by further studies, that the Consumer Price Index is overstated and the Consumer Price Index is the basis on which the cost of living adjustments are computed for Social Security, for pensions, indeed, for the Tax Code.”