Obama Once Swore He'd Never Support The Social Security Cut He's Now Proposing

While campaigning for President in 2008, candidate Barack Obama promised to not alter the way that cost of living adjustments were calculated for Social Security, a policy that is now a key feature of his 2014 White House budget.

Addressing the AARP in September 2008, then-Senator Obama drew a major contrast between his policies and those of his Republican rival John McCain:

John McCain's campaign has gone even further, suggesting that best answer for the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost of living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear: I will not do either.

But things have evidently changed. A critical element of the President's new budget involves cutting cost of living adjustments through the adoption of chained CPI — a policy that will result in compounding benefit cuts for current and future retirees:

Beginning in 2015 the Budget would change the measure of inflation used by the Federal Government for most programs and for the Internal Revenue Code from the standard Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the alternative, more accurate chained CPI, which grows slightly more slowly

Here's the video of Obama addressing the AARP in 2008: