Say no to President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment for current and future retirees.

I've watched the politicians claim that the Social Security Trust Fund is going belly up while hiding the fact that Congress has systematically looted the Fund over the years because the law allowed them to "borrow" from the Fund.

I will be affected by SS cuts

What's the Chained CPI? The acronym is easy: CPI stands for consumer price index, a formula that looks at how the prices of stuff we need (food, for example) change over time. It's used to make cost-of-living adjustments in programs such as Social Security, veterans benefits and food stamps. The chained CPI is a twist on that: It measures living costs differently because it assumes that when prices for one thing go up, people sometimes settle for cheaper substitutes (if beef prices go up, for example, they'll buy more chicken and less beef). Bottom line: Cost-of-living adjustments would be lower with the chained CPI than with the plain old CPI. So depending on which formula is used, the amount of your Social Security payments could change over time. How much could payments change? Estimates show that under the chained CPI, your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would be about .3 percentage point below the plain old CPI. That works out to $3 less on every $1,000, which doesn't sound like much — except that it keeps compounding over time. Look at it this way: The COLA for this year was 1.7 percent. If your monthly Social Security check was $1,250 last year, it increased to $1,271.25 this year. With the chained CPI, you would be getting $1,267.50 — or $3.75 less a month and $45 less a year. Again, that might not seem like a big reduction, but if the COLA is the same next year, the difference increases to $7.61 a month and $91.32 for the year. You start to get the picture. The gap accelerates and begins looking like real money. If you're 62 and take early retirement this year, by age 92 — when health care costs can skyrocket and more than 1 in 6 older Americans lives in poverty — you'll be losing a full month of income every year. http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-02-2013/the-chained-consumer-price-index-explained.html?CMP=KNC-360I-YAHOOBING-POL&HBX_PK=chained_cpi&utm_source=YAHOOBING&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=chained%2Bcpi&utm_campaign=M_Politics%2B&%2BSociety&360cid=SI_549716575_2125149143_1

President Obama has proposed cutting Social Security by lowering cost-of-living adjustments for current and future retirees and the disabled. These cuts, sometimes called "chained CPI," will hurt seniors and those who are disabled who have paid into the system for their whole lives and are already struggling with rising health care costs. It will also harm those like my daughter who is disabled who is not able to care for herself without assistance. We must help the elderly and those who cannot care for themselves, not to mention we have all paid into this system and it is being used as a way to manage debt that it does not cause. I must be kept separate and we must encourage our lawmakers to do what is right for the elderly and those who need our protection.

We do not want Congress or the President to cut Social Security payments. These are not entitlements, but accounts which we paid for. We are owed this money.

Saving Social Security for now and the future!

I am on social security and find it a struggle to keep ahead of everything.

I will be affected by the cuts to social security if President Obama gets his bill through. Consider other seniors who depend upon the SSI income they receive to live by and financially supply their needs in this society, for example, I make $447.00 every month and as you can see this dollar amount is well below poverty level. All of us have paid into this fund all or our working lives. It is not our fault if the U.S. government "borrowed" the money so that Social Security not longer has the funds that we American citizens put into the system toward our future retirement/welfare ... and it was done in good faith.

President Obama's offer to lower cost-of-living increases for social security will hurt present and future recipients.

Seniors and disabled individuals in this country have been strongly, negatively impacted by the economic problems this nation faces. Individuals such as myself, have paid into the Social Security system for decades and many of us depend on this source of income as the only source or significant source of income. The cost of living adjustments are the only method for many to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

Saving social security and medicare, too, really, from President Obama's new "fix," which will lower the amount that current social security recipient's and future recipients will receive on their monthly checks including increases to meet market increased cost of living. President Obama may be advancing his bill only as a measure to appear to be willing to work with republicans and other conservatives, but maybe not. If that is his strategy it may backfire on him and all of we seniors, present and future seniors. We simply cannot take a chance. What needs also to be done is to have Lois Capps write her own bill which will insist on all SS monies to be taken out of the General Fund, as it was originally intended to be put in its own fund and kept there to keep both sides of the aisle from robbing Peter to pay Paul.