That's true of course, but it was also a little-used tactic in the pool of SS recipients. The most I saw of notice about it in print was on this forum. Nowhere else that I can remember.
Getting back to cutting SS payouts to current or soon-to-be recipients, I agree that's not going to happen anytime soon. Not only would that affect the recipients, but it would also affect the relatives of everyone who is living solely on SS now and is on the edge financially. Many of those relatives would be very aware of how Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sally and Uncle Bill are all suffering and they too would be writing their congresscritters about how mean it was to pull the rug out from under their beloved relatives.
So my prediction is that Congress will act and make a change when they have to, which is about six weeks before the cuts take effect.
At least that's what MY crystal ball says.