More than 56 million Social Security recipients will see their monthly payments go up by 1.7 percent next year.
It was especially clear on Thursday that the AARP's work promoting President Obama's health care law has become a sticky wicket for the powerful senior citizen's lobby.
Seniors will receive a 3.6 percent Social Security cost-of-living increase next year, the first since 2009, signaling that consumer prices are rebounding even as the economy remains sluggish and unemployment is high.
President Obama said Tuesday that he may have to halt Social Security benefit checks in August if he and congressional leaders can't agree to raise the government's debt limit.
After a week of partisan wrangling, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments looming for months. But the last-ditch effort came too late.
