Obama Attempts To Pay Off Social Security Recipients

The Obama administration announced that there will be a 3.5% payment increase in 2012 for social security recipients.
One way to look at it is that there hasn't been a raise for several years and they need a raise.
Another way to look at it is can Social security afford the raise.
And the third and final way to look at it is the Obama administration is doing this to buy off the social security folks for their votes.
I vote for #3 followed by 2 and 1.
Social Security is broke and I doubt that it will be able to handle the increase. However, Social Security recipients have not had a raise for a few years and they have had many of their expenses raised.
However, if this was not an election year, would the Obama administration raised the rates? I doubt it. Why they didn't they propose raises the past 2 years? Because it wasn't an presidential election year.
So, way to go to bribe those on Social Security just for their votes.