Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, using the CPI to measure cost of living adjustments is nothing more than a feeble attempt to measure dollar depreciation. This is no more accurate than using stock and bond prices to measure inflation.

I have a lot of reservations and think we are making a serious mistake by delivering to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the authority to manipulate the CPI numbers. This is ducking our congressional responsibility, and it is a back-door way to raising taxes and manipulating the entitlements. I think, most importantly, it fails to recognize the basic flaw in our system, and that is the monetary policy and a depreciating of currency.

But we have a lame duck President quite willing to accept the responsibility and to accept more executive legislative powers from the Congress, something the Constitution does not authorize. But here we have a President quite willing to, behind the scenes, raise taxes and manipulate the cost of living.

The truth is there is no accurate way to measure the cost of living index.

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