When inflation rises, retirees’ social security checks keep pace with small increases. But if some lawmakers get their way, those raises may be a whole lot smaller in the future.

If the debt-debate in Washington gets much worse it could mean a lot more belt-tightening for America’s seniors, including changes to the COLA for Social Security, the Cost Of Living Adjustment meant to keep seniors at pace with inflation. The change proposed by both sides of Congress and the White House officials, elaborated in this SmartMoney article, is to adjust the measurement of inflation used when determining the COLA. Inflation is a fairly common concept – the general and expected upward creep of costs – but economists are less certain about the most appropriate measurement. Currently, costs of products are…

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