Senate rejects ad-hoc COLA payment

The Associated Press
reports that the Senate voted against making $250 payments in lieu of a Social Security COLA, which was not paid this year and may not be paid last year to due falling prices in late 2008.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposal by President Barack Obama to give people on Social Security a $250 bonus check. Republicans and Democratic deficit hawks combined to reject the idea by a 50-47 vote. The plan, offered in the Senate by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would have added $14 billion to the out-of-control budget deficit.

(Small editorial note: "Out-of-control budget deficit?" It's not a force of nature, folks; it's something we determine.)

Last year I did a fair bit of writing on the Social Security COLA issue, including this piece in the LA Times that argued that no COLA was needed; this piece in Forbes which argued that there are some people being hurt, just not the ones you think; and finally this long Policy Outlook for AEI that really ran through the issues.