[jjaredsimpson]

Then instead of arguing about increases in spending you are just arguing about metrics of inflation. I'd rather legislators argue about the former.

[alasarmas]

I think legislators are already arguing about both increases of spending and metrics of inflation. Remember the whole "chained CPI" debate about the metric to use to calculate cost-of-living increases for Social Security benefits?

[rtpg]

sure, but in the case of minimum wage, for example, it would still be rising by some (certainly imperfect) metric. Legislative deadlock would not stop these things from rising at least a little.