The president is proposing a bit of pathetic pandering: he’s going to give $250 to senior citizens — running up the already huge debt by another $13B — because their social security checks would otherwise go down. The Washington Post’s editors are disgusted by another handout, which they rightly point out makes two giveaways this year (”seniors already got one such ‘economic recovery payment’ in the stimulus bill”). The editors conclude that the “best thing that can be said about the administration’s payoff is that it could have been worse.”

Well, thank goodness it wasn’t $500. But the mindset that suggests this sort of fiscal irresponsibility, and then comes up with ludicrous justifications, does not endear the administration, I would suspect, to anyone. The White House is already low on credibility these days. Voters already doubt the president’s pledge not to add a “dime to the deficit.” But what is this bribe, neatly timed in advance of ObamaCare’s proposed savaging of Medicare, other than $13B worth of dimes of new debt?

And it may be all for naught. Will seniors really be bought off by a one-time $250 check if their Medicare benefits are being transformed? I doubt it. This is the sort of half-baked idea that pleases no one – and serves only to confirm that the White House is desperate to stop the bleeding of support from key constituent groups (in this case, seniors). It’s the sort of idea that smells of political focus-group polling or a late-night brainstorming sessions. It is, in short, precisely the kind of craven and irresponsible governance that candidate Barack Obama would have ridiculed.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 7:20 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.