The government giveth ... and the government taketh away.

Remember that 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment that was supposed to kick in for Social Security recipients in January? Forget about it. Higher Medicare Part B premiums will most likely wipe out as much as one-fourth of the anticipated Social Security raise.

Medicare Part B Premium Costs Likely To Cut Into Social Security's Increase - Kaiser Health News

Social Security Recipients to Get 3.6 Percent COLA Increase in 2012

Some good news coming in 2012 for the nation's 55 million Social Security recipients.

Social Security to hand out first raises since 2009 – USATODAY.com

National Poll Finds Retirement Security Concerns on the Rise

Let me see if I get this straight. The federal government takes money out of your paycheck each week, promises to keep it safe in a "lock box" until you're ready to retire, but this Democrat says there's no guarantee you'll ever see that money. Sure sounds like a Ponzi Scheme to me. And Democrats keep pretending that Republicans are the ones who want to cut Social Security. The Democrats have already raided the "lock box." There's nothing there.

Democrat Congressman: Gov't Has No Contractual Obligation to Pay Social Security Benefits | CNSnews.com

In Debt Crisis, Senior Citizens Groups Offering False Hope to Elderly

From Investor's Business Daily:

In trying to score political points against the GOP by warning that retirement checks were in jeopardy if the debt ceiling isn't raised, President Obama exposed the fraud at the heart of Social Security.

Read the full editorial at the link below:

Giving Lie To The 'Lockbox' - Investors.com

In trying to scare Americans about their Social Security checks not arriving in August, Barack Obama told the truth for the first time in his life. Social Security is a giant government-run Ponzi scheme. Your money has already been spent by the politicians in Washington.

John Hayward, writing at Human Events:

President Obama has performed one very important service for his country during the debt ceiling negotiations: he has utterly and forever shattered the myth of the Social Security "lockbox."

Shattering the Social Security Myth - HUMAN EVENTS

Democrats and their liberal media allies will no longer be able to use the lie about Republicans wanting to push grandma over a cliff. Barack Obama is now talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits. In case you hadn't heard, he's a Democrat.

Senate Democrats fuming over Obama's apparent move on Social Security - TheHill.com

Concord Coalition Urges Lawmakers to Heed Warnings in Trustees' Report as They Consider Budget Plans

We keep hearing about how Social Security is going bankrupt and how Medicare is draining the federal budget, but here's an interesting perspective on the government's two biggest entitlement programs from John Cogan, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of public policy at Stanford University.

From an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal:

Typical retired couples will collect $1 million or more in Social Security and Medicare. This is more than they paid in, and the cost will fall on today's workers.

The existence of so many million-dollar couples is not the result of elected officials carefully weighing the needs of senior citizens against the financial ability of younger workers to meet these needs. Rather, it is the result of decades of separate legislative actions by both political parties to liberalize retirement and health-care benefits, the sum total of which no one has bothered to calculate.

Social Security and Medicare were the result of natural human impulses to create safety-net programs to prevent poverty in old age and to help needy senior citizens with their medical bills. But the programs are flawed.

Read the full article at the newspaper's website.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama's Social Security Hoax - HUMAN EVENTS

Analysis: Most Seniors Will See Decreasing Social Security Benefits Through 2013

Americans Aware of Changes to Social Security, Tax and Benefits Programs

Valued Opinions Online Survey Shows Concern Over Internet Security

Barack Obama has already broken dozens of campaign promises. Will one more make a difference?

Liberals warn of Democratic schism if Obama backs Social Security cut - TheHill.com

The group that helped get Obamacare passed earlier this year is now warning its members that the Obama "Deficit Commission" is attempting to gut Social Security.

Will the AARP make up its mind on whether it will advocate for seniors or not?

Deficit Commission Proposal Hurts Middle Class Americans

Older Americans Blast Congress Over a 'Zero' Social Security COLA for 2011 -- and the Inaccurate, Unfair CPI that Created It!

The Obama Administration has announced there will be no cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients in January 2011, the second year in a row that seniors will have to make due with what they got in 2009.

Social Security: no COLA in 2011 - CSMonitor.com