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To: The Vet who wrote (59039)	9/28/2000 6:44:07 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116762

Inflation Greater Than Government Admits NewsMax.com Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000 The factor used to determine the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to Social Security payments, veterans' benefits and government pensions is wrong. Government sources have now confirmed what NewsMax.com has been reporting all along: Inflation is still with us, and it’s higher than the feds report it to be. According to Wednesday's Washington Post, a mistake in calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has caused the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to report an inflation rate slightly below the actual figure. Sources told the Post that the BLS was getting ready to correct the error and report the true figure showing the amount of inflation rose by 3.4 percent over the past year. By omitting oil and food price rises, the so-called "core” rate rose by 2.5 percent. The true figures, due to be announced this week, according to the Post, are about 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points higher than previously reported and affect the way in which the government calculates everything from cost-of-living adjustments in such things as Social Security payments, veterans' benefits and federal pensions. Moreover, the higher figure could adversely affect the economy by causing the inflation-shy Federal Reserve to shy away from lowering interest rates, the Post speculates. The higher figure will please those receiving government benefits by boosting the cost-of-living adjustments. Last year, the Social Security COLA was 2.4 percent, which was determined by the increase in the CPI average for the third quarter of 1999 from the average for the third quarter of 1998, according to the Post. That adjustment increased the program's average monthly benefit by $19, to $804, showing that each increase of a tenth of a percent was worth 79 cents a month for the average beneficiary, or an extra $9.49 a year. The increased percentage will lower federal tax revenues and reduce the anticipated budget "surplus," because the government also uses the CPI to index numerous provisions of the tax code, such as the size of personal exemptions and the points at which income tax brackets increase. newsmax.com