This is the situation in Portugal...
"The constitutional court ruled that several measures in the budget were unlawful, including the scrapping of a 14th month of salary for civil servants and retirees".
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/fragile-portugal-announces--deeper-austerity-measures.aspx?pageID=238&nID=44498&NewsCatID=344
I couldn't imagine what in the hell that means, and then I found this which is describing Greece...
"Taxes have gone uncollected forever or have been short stopped by corrupt tax collectors. For decades, Greek governments have paid civil servants bonuses for showing up to work on time and 14 months' pay for Christmas. Retirement has averaged at 53 years of age. The other members of the "Club Med," or Club Nearly Dead, include Portugal, Spain and Italy which have soaring costs and gigantic underground, tax free economies."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-francis/greece-is-not-a-country-i_b_871296.html
It appears that these governments in southern Europe have been routinely paying government employees 14 months pay. And at least in the case of Portugal, it's version of a "supreme court" has ruled that it's unconstitutional not to pay them 14 months pay.
And now we jump across the ocean to back here at home, and this is what we find...
He’s (Obama) backing the idea of changing the inflation formula used to calculate annual adjustments in Social Security benefits, in a manner that would save federal dollars and be less generous to seniors.
The Social Security idea, called the chained consumer price index or "chained CPI," isn't new. Obama has floated it before, as have bipartisan groups seeking ways to curb a risky buildup of national debt.
Economists say using the new formula might mean Social Security checks would go up by about 0.3 percentage points less per year.
It sounds like a little, but the latest news sparked immediate and vigorous push-back from groups seeking to hold the line against entitlement cuts.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0405/Cuts-to-Social-Security-What-Obama-is-proposing
But of course, Sal believes it's an ignorant and misguided mindset which does not want all this insanity to continue. His solution is for government to spend even more borrowed money because it's not spending enough.
You just can't make this shit up.
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