As redwood alluded to, the content of the CPI is somewhat "gamed", though. It excludes "volatile" items such as food, housing and fuel. You know, the non-optional, inelastic purchases that people have to make.
The difference between core CPI and exponentially smoothed CPI (which removes volatility but includes long term changes in food and fuel) is negligable:
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr236.pdf
There may be gaming in CPI, but excluding volatile components is not it.
Another way to see it: CPI and Core CPI track each other pretty closely, and until recently Core CPI was actually higher than CPI: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=cMs