If this is the conclusion of the Re[s, no wonder we are called the The Stupid Party. It was a status quo election. The GOP retained control of the House. Obama won with 51% of the vote--certainly no mandate.
If the GOP surrenders unilaterally, they deserve to lose control of the House and be the permanent minority party. They are the ones who will be blamed for cutting benefits for SS. Obama will say that he was forced into the deal trying to protect tax cuts for the middle class and making sure that the wealthy pay their fair share.
There won't be any "cuts" to SS/Medicare. They are proposing to slow COLAs by tying the pittance of COLA increases to another index. They play these games now anyway! There was a long time where SS recipients didn't get a COLA for 2 years. The Govt said it was "because there isn't any inflation." I am not joking.
It is a big cut to SS and federal pensions (including the military) if they reduce COLAs. There is an established formula for determining COLAs. It had nothing to do with who was in the WH. History of Automatic Cost-Of-Living Adjustments
Again, they would have been blamed either way. If there was no deal, the coming losses of 2 million jobs due to Sequestration would be blamed on them. The gutting of the military would be blamed on them because they voted for Sequestration 18 months ago. They would be blamed when the debt ceiling expired and SS checks were (once again) threatened to not be direct deposited because of them (even if the House authorized the funding in a seperate line).
The GOP cannot win, the new media won't let them.
The COLA adjustment was all they could get.
Yes, there is a formula in place now, but even with that there was no COLA increase until last year. The Govt saved Billions by cooking the books and not issuing COLAs even when there was real inflation.
Will the "deal" make COLAs (for SS, Fed pensions, and military pensions) even smaller?
Absolutely!