Because there will be no cost-of-living raise in Social Security benefits in 2010, Obama announced plans for seniors to recieve an extra $250 check sometime next year. The White House did not say how the program would be funded, but said it would keep benefits going in a year when they were not scheduled to increase due to inflation.

In announcing that Social Security and Medicare may bust earlier than expected, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Obama "explicitly rejects the notion that Social Security is untouchable politically" but intends to reform health care spending and expand Americans' insurance coverage before working on the entitlement program. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued that improving care for younger people will relieve the burden on covering older Americans.

Obama's FY 2010 budget outline gives the Social Security Administration a 10 percent funding boost ($11.6 billion) to increase staffing and $759 million to aid in making sure payments are correct; the budget also stipulates that employers report wages more than once a year. The budget reiterates the president's desire to work "in a bipartisan way to preserve Social Security for future generations," but it also takes steps toward a new "system of automatic workplace pensions, on top of and clearly outside Social Security."

The New York Times reports that Obama's Social Security reform efforts are meeting resistance from his left. For example, at today's fiscal responsibility summit, "Obama considered announcing the formation of a Social Security task force... but several Democrats said that idea had been shelved, partly because of objections from House and Senate leaders."

About 130 officials were invited to the summit. The Washington Post reports that it's a diverse field: In addition to a range of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, "representatives from interest groups as far flung as the Service Employees International Union and the Heritage Foundation also plan to attend."

Speakers at Monday's fiscal responsibility summit, including Obama, agreed on the need to restrain medical entitlement costs, but plans were scarce. Ideas included tax incentives for retirement saving to lower the stakes for changes to the overburdened Social Security system.

In a meeting with the Washington Post's editorial board, Obama said he would convene a Fiscal Responsibility Summit in February on long-range issues, particularly Social Security and Medicare. Obama said entitlement spending will bankrupt the economy if it is not reformed soon, and he vowed to make some "hard decisions." He expressed confidence in his team's ability to fix Social Security, saying: "Social Security, we can solve."