Depending on how the fiscal cliff negotiations end, Social Security benefits might wind up in chains.

House Republicans have proposed indexing federal benefits, most notably Social Security, to a slower inflation rate known as the “chained Consumer Price Index (CPI).” That would slow the growth of Social Security benefits, which increase periodically with Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs), the next of which is scheduled for January.

The president has countered with his own inflation offer, a “superlative CPI” that the White House says would shield the neediest beneficiaries from the change. Liberals have cried foul about all of it.

So how would benefits change under a different calculation of inflation?