As much as I like Obama, there's nothing I can say to defend him.

[mountain grammy]

97. I'm struggling too, but I always knew Obama wasn't as liberal as me..

in a lot of ways, he's quite Republican, the more moderate types like John Lindsay, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, etc., to be sure, but I didn't think Obama would touch the COLA, so I'm kind of at a loss here too.
This would be the moderate Republican take: The debt is unsustainable. New taxes are absolutely necessary. Closing loopholes is absolutely necessary, and reigning in "entitlements" is also absolutely necessary. We don't actually cut benefits, but we can cut the growth of benefits. Is this the same thing? With the economy so crappy, no way. But the theory is, cut the debt, the economy grows and grows. A rising tide raises all boats, so theoretically, people won't be so dependent on social security because they will be doing so much better during their working lives.
Who knows if it works? The greed, religion, and outright stupidity of conservatives always gets in the way.