This is the full length reply to Mr Chapman's article on 'spoiled' seniors.

At face value this article makes sense, after all, if there is no inflation then why get a COLA?  In real life though you must face the fact that the people who crunch the numbers do so on a broad range of goods and services, many of which seniors and the disabled on social security aren't affected by simply because their income level prohibits them from buying those particular goods or services.
How do I know this?  Easy, I am disabled.  I draw all of $800 a month after the government takes out $100 for medicare.  I can't get food stamps or help with my prescriptions because the government says I make too much (although the case worker at the food stamp office told me privately that if I was black or an illegal alien I would qualify for the maximum in food stamps and other assistance.
I wonder how Mr Chapman, or indeed, any of you reading this reply, would enjoy living on $800 a month?  By the way, the AVERAGE social security check is all of $1,400 a month.  Obama wants to cut social security COLA's, but, he wants to give COLA's to federal workers making an average of $76,000 a year.  Somehow that just does not seem fair.
By the way, Mr Chapman failed to mention that Obama is going to raise the cost of medicare premiums for those on social security.  This means social security checks will be smaller this year.  You should know that those seniors and disabled who rent face a raise in their rent every year that surprise surprise, exactly matches the COLA for that year!  Social security recipients never get ahead due to cost increases like this.  Other bills also seem to rise the same amount as the COLA, putting those on social security even further in the hole.  Sure, the money may be worth more, but the amount charged for rent, food and medicine only go up, not down.  If you work, you can do some overtime, or even get an extra job to make ends meet.  Those on social security don't often have this option.  Social security limits how much you can make before your social security check gets cut.  And if you are disabled or in poor health, you can't even make the $700 or so social security allows.
The end result is that the elderly and disabled will face the choice of paying rent, mortgage, utility bills and maybe car payments and insurance payments, as well as paying for gas (after all, if you live in an area without public transportation, you have to have a car to get you to doctor's appointments and the grocery store)and buying food and medicine.   
I just wish the people who talk about greedy social security recipients had to live for a year on what one of those 'greedy' seniors, or a disabled person, has to live on.  Maybe then they would have a more realistic view of just what it means to be elderly or disabled in America.