Some 50 million people on Social Security won't receive a raise next year, the first year since 1975.

President Obama is asking lawmakers to pay seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities a one-time $250 stimulus payment. In the meantime, he and Congress are discussing taking away $500 billion from Medicare/Medicaid programs.

Keep the paltry $250, and do something logical. That is, on health care, take the necessary time and energy to research and debate, without the current rush to bad judgment, just to meet some political agenda. That need for speed will not enable anything but a cost over-run to the taxpayer, typical of all government-managed programs.

There must be transparency, as has been promised by Obama numerous times, but that is totally lacking. And, considering this administration has already doubled the debt it inherited, there can only be the widest extent of subsidized health-care coverage, consistent with it not bankrupting the country.

The anxious public must be allowed to witness that politics have been set aside by the parties. Whatever it takes to gain consensus and bipartisan agreement on government-subsidized health care is what taxpayers need.

Bill Clinton got bipartisan support on ending generational welfare, as many had come to know it. Bush did the same on No Child Left Behind, as well as on gaining approval of the pharmaceutical coverage for seniors.

Why can't this be done now? Is it because the party in power is not willing to compromise like Clinton and Bush?

Jack Whetstone

Lompoc