$250 fails to impress

Re “A plan to aid those on fixed income,” Oct. 15, and “Stimulus by $250 check,” Editorial, Oct. 17

If President Obama thinks he can “buy” my support with a $250 bribe, he is sadly mistaken. If a $250 check arrives in my mailbox, I will stamp it “return to sender” and mail it back.

Gordon Osborne

Woodland Hills

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I seldom agree with your editorials, but this time I do.

I am a retiree on Social Security. Although it would have been nice to receive a COLA this year, I fully understand why none will be given.

At a cost of $13 billion for the $250 “stimulus,” this is extreme and will only increase our enormous and growing deficit. On an individual basis, it will do nothing to really increase consumer spending.

I also agree with you that if the administration needs this to increase its lack of support with seniors, then the money should come from the already allocated funds that have not been spent.

Bob Braley

Bakersfield

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I agree with your editorial. The $250 check is too simple and too easy, and thus a shotgun approach.

The better choice would be job stimulus and/or an extension of jobless benefits.

The cost-of-living index should more heavily weigh medical care expenses. After all, seniors already pay obscene amounts for ever-rising healthcare expenses, what with the out-of-sight drug costs that feckless members of Congress awarded to the drug companies and no controls on healthcare costs overall.

Jim Hoover

Huntington Beach

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Let’s get our priorities straight. To achieve an upturn from the current economic downturn, the government should be promoting and funding programs that will result in a substantial number of job creations rather than sending a $250 payment to seniors, including me, on Social Security.

Marc Jacobson

Los Angeles