Since cost of living adjustments are tied to inflation which is negative this year, the government announced today that there will be no adjustments for Social Security recipients next year. The 2009 increase of 5.8 percent was the largest since 1982 and was due mostly to a spike in energy costs. Those costs have dropped considerably this year but since by law Social Security payments cannot go down, they will merely remain at the current rate this year. (source)

Continued...

This all seems fair and reasonable especially for a system dangerously close to bankruptcy but the current administration just can't seem to resist the opportunity to create a crisis and offer a redistributive solution. President Obama has called on Congress to approve $250 payments to more than 50 million seniors to make up for there being no cost of living adjustment. The president will not allow the $13 billion he wants to give away to come from the rapidly vanishing Social Security trust funds but offered no specific way to pay the tab. A senior administration official said Mr. Obama was open to borrowing the money thereby increasing the federal deficit. (source)

In summary, Americans who haven't even been born yet would have to pay higher taxes to compensate people that didn't get a cost of living increase when their cost of living didn't increase.

But of course there is a very good reason why President Obama is calling for these financially irresponsible and unwarranted payments. In an example of Chicago-style politics at its lowest, he's trying to bribe senior citizens with a few dollars in the hope that they will overlook what he's trying to take away from them via his health care reform legislation. Like all great con men, he's trying to entice his victims into thinking they'll get something for nothing while his real plan is to steal what they already have.