Reid vows to pass Social Security adjustment

Reid joins Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Obama in pushing for a vote on a one-time payment to Social Security recipients. A similar payment was included in the 2009 economic stimulus. 

A report on Friday showed that consumer prices are actually lower than they were two years ago when recipients received a 5.8 percent increase, the biggest in 27 years. 

High gasoline prices, which eclipsed $4 a gallon nationwide, in the summer of 2008 created the increase. When prices went back down a short time later benefits remained at the same level. 

The next increase isn’t expected until, at the earliest, sometime next year when prices are expected to rise above those of the summer of 2008. 

The adjustments are automatic and governed by a measure of inflation set by Congress in the 1970s.