On October 5th, I commented - critically - on the legislation moving through Congress to award Social Security recipients a special $250 payment. Due to a small projected decline in inflation for 2009, there will be no cost-of-living (COLA) increase in Social Security monthly stipends for 2010.
Now President Obama has come out in favor of this $13-$14 billion post-Christmas present (financing unspecified by the White House), thus joining the pandering politicians in Congress at throwing money at what might be called "the grasping geezers."
The original legislation which provided for COLAs said that upward adjustments in COLA would always be made (my social security check went up 5.8% this year), but if prices declined (as in 2009, for the first time since the COLA was instituted) downward adjustments were ruled out. Talk about a sweetheart deal. But not sweet enough, apparently, especially for frequent voters.
The White House says that seniors are among those "hardest hit by this recession." In a class with automobile workers?? The Presidential statement points to the decline in home values, but ignores the reality that, so long as seniors stay in their current residence, the fluctuation in home values has no impact on them - only their heirs. Yes, maybe their retirement savings accounts have fallen in value - but so have those of "juniors." And juniors didn't get a 5.8% increase in Social Security stipends this year.
Now that the President has endorsed it, the $250 pandering payment is probably unstoppable in Congress, despite a growing sense that Federal spending is on a suicidal track. Only a resolute, far-sighted leader in the White House could have mustered the political courage to derail a craven, populist proposal.
But we don't have a lion in the White House; we have a free-spending fox.
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