I don’t think anyone is talking about taking checks away from seniors. All reform plans the GOP has put forth, including the one Dubya tried and tried to get traction on, involve basically phasing out a lot of the giveaways for younger workers and giving them the opportunity to provide for their own retirement, including being able to pass their assets to their heirs.
Considering how well that reform went down when the stock market was performing somewhat reasonably, one would have to be smoking crack to think it would have a better shot with the ongoing meltdown.
I’ll keep hammering this out till doomsday - there are three and only three solutions to the entitlement crisis: higher taxes to pay for the benefits of the Boomers, reducing benefits to the Boomers or a combo of the first two. That’s it.