Stop spending, Part I- Tribune editorial

Resist the urge to indulge seniors

Is the biggest fiscal crisis in decades enough to suppress politicians' instinct to pander to senior citizens? We're about to find out. Faced with an expected third consecutive trillion-dollar federal deficit this fiscal year, President Barack Obama and his party leaders in Congress think now is the perfect time to shower the elderly with goodies.

The goodies they have in mind consist of $250 in payments to everyone on Social Security. Why now? Because the Social Security Administration announced it would not confer a cost-of-living raise on retirees this year — on the grounds that the cost of living is lower than it was in 2008. Recipients also got no increase last year, for the same reason.

This prolonged price stability is good news to anyone who remembers the days of double-digit inflation back in the 1970s and 1980s. But seniors are used to getting annual raises, and politicians are loath to ask them to do without, no matter what happens to the actual cost of living.

The president and Congress gave each recipient $250 as part of the 2009 stimulus package. Obama proposed another one last fall to compensate the elderly for the lack of a cost-of-living raise, but it went nowhere. With an election approaching, though, he and his allies in Congress have resurrected the idea.

Maybe there are enough fiscally responsible members in both parties to give it the burial it deserves. The largesse would cost $14 billion that the government doesn't have, putting the taxpayers of today and tomorrow deeper in debt.

On the bright side, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky offered hope that the GOP would resist the urge to pander by expressing "a real deficit concern about this." No Republican had signed on to the House legislation as of last week.

Most retirees understand that this indulgence would be indefensible. Millions of American workers are doing without raises — or enduring pay cuts — and millions of others are out of work. Seniors, who once had the highest poverty rate of any age group, now have the lowest. There is no good excuse to single them out for generosity right now.

Last week, a White House spokesman said that "the president thinks we still need to do a lot of work in order to get our fiscal house in order." He's right, and Job One is rejecting this proposal.

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