Media will spin Social Security raise as a win, when it isn’t

Barrons

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Social Security recipients are up for a big raise next year: benefits are projected to climb 8.7% in 2023, the biggest increase in more than 40 years. The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is designed to help benefits keep pace with inflation, which, though moderating slightly from earlier this year, has remained stubbornly high. The projected adjustment, newly updated to reflect the August consumer price index, will raise the average Social Security retirement benefit of $1,656 by $144.10, according to the Senior Citizens League, author of the projection.  The Social Security Administration will announce the actual COLA for 2023 in October. The increase is based on a calculation that compares the average consumer-price index from the third quarter of 2022 with data from the same period last year. The index that’s used in the calculation is the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. That index rose 8.7% over the past year, while the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 8.3%. 

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The Biden administration caused the inflation that warranted the raise in Social Security in the first place. But they will dance around like drunken Indians convincing senior citizens of how benevolent they are and how grateful they should be.
Maybe they’ll have James Taylor sing you’ve got a friend one more time?!