The Nation : Hikes in Benefits Backed

President Reagan endorsed legislation that would guarantee 37 million Social Security recipients cost-of-living increases whenever prices rise by abolishing the current 3% automatic trigger. White House spokesman Rusty Brashear said that Reagan had endorsed a proposal introduced by Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.). Although the Social Security Administration holds that every 1% jump in inflation costs $2 billion in additional benefit payments, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said the change would be expected to have “a negligible impact on the fiscal 1987 budget.”