One of our conservative readers, Joe Walker, of Lorena, put it best in a letter to the editor this month: “Everyone is a conservative until they feel the pain.”

We may see the truth in that played out for the second year in a row when Social Security recipients learn that, just as for 2010, they aren’t due a cost-of-living adjustment next year because such automatic adjustments depend on the Consumer Price Index, which in turn determines inflation. And whatever else you can say about our dismal economy, we’ve seen almost no inflation the last couple of years.

No inflation, no COLA. That’s just how the system works. Everyone agreed to it a generation ago.

The same situation arose in 2009. Because prices for most items dropped — the price of a gallon of gas, for instance — Social Security recipients were not due an increase in monthly benefits. That didn’t stop Democrats from promptly adding $13 billion more to the federal deficit to cut $250 checks to each of the nation’s 57 million Social Security recipients.

We saw that as a craven, costly and politically motivated move by the Obama administration to curry favor with seniors, some of whom complained loudly of being cheated of their “raises,” even if COLAs are not supposed to qualify as raises. COLAs are specifically structured to kick in only when inflation raises the cost on a multitude of items and services.

Congress wanted to cut more $250 checks last fall when it became apparent that inflationary indicators weren’t going to change and spark an automatic COLA for 2010. Republicans blocked the attempt in the Senate.

All of this bodes poorly in the long term. Entitlement reform, which more conservative candidates are vowing this campaign season, will never happen if the American public doesn’t embrace the spirit of sacrifice. That means getting out the wrench and restructuring Social Security and possibly adopting such proposals as raising the age one qualifies for full benefits (for up-and-coming generations).

We well understand the frustration of seniors angry about going two years without COLA increases. We know some items have gone up in cost, even as many others have dropped. But for our nation’s leaders to take our nation into further debt, penalizing future generations of Americans and impacting other crucial expenses such as military defense, is simply not the answer. In fact, it goes against the conservative principles of most Central Texans.

We’re supposed to be a can-do nation, one that is accustomed to sacrifice for the sake of those yet to come. We suspect that members of the Greatest Generation, above all others, will understand this.