While I certainly respect those trying to get by on Social Security, President Obama’s proposal to send every Social Security recipient a $250 check to compensate for the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment for this year can’t be considered anything but political pandering.

We just read about the record-setting deficit the federal government is reporting. We know we’re facing huge deficits in coming years, having to borrow more and more money to sustain already approved federal spending, and how all that borrowing is devaluing the worth of the dollar.

We don’t have the money President Obama proposes to send to Social Security recipients.

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And while I know many seniors could use the extra $250, there’s no basis for sending it, other than the chance for the president and others to crow about how they have compassion for seniors and did something to help them — though they’ll skip over how they did it using someone else’s money.

The issue has arisen because this January, for the first time since 1975, Social Security benefits are not rising due to a cost-of-living adjustment.

The same basis for measuring the cost of living that saw benefits go up 6 percent last year says there is no inflation this year so no cost-of-living adjustment is warranted.

The 6 percent increase recipients got last year is probably a bigger percentage raise than that received by most area people still working. And understandably, the bigger increase last year isn’t lessening a desire for another adjustment this year.

Predictably those who favor the $250 bonus for Social Security recipients suggest this would stimulate the economy. But simply looking at this as an issue of fairness, why is spending by those on Social Security any more stimulating to the economy than spending by anyone else?

The feds could send $250 to poor people and stimulate the economy, or to veterans, or the teachers, or most any other group and get the same economic benefit — though the benefit is in question when doing so will cause an already soaring deficit to soar even higher, and at a time when we’re reading how the recession is already starting to end.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for Social Security recipients getting more money, but there are already questions about how the government is going to afford to pay basic benefits a few years from now, much less afford one-time bonuses that aren’t part of the standard program.

The federal budget is already way out of balance. We’ve got to demand reductions in federal spending, and no more political grandstanding by the president and members of Congress, even when it benefits a deserving group like our nation’s seniors.

WILLCHAPMAN

PUBLISHER