WHAT A RELIEF

Monday was a good day at the Capitol for those who fret that partisanship is making the Minnesota Legislature dysfunctional. The special session that provided $80 million in flood and tornado relief to 28 storm-socked counties demonstrated that the Legislature is still capable of efficient and (almost) rancor-free lawmaking.

A few DFLers couldn't resist the chance to publicly point out that some Republican sponsors of the relief bill were also prone on other occasions to bash government spending and vote against infrastructure improvements elsewhere in the state. To their credit, the Republicans didn't take the bait.

It may have helped that the emergency session occurred two weeks before an election. Every legislator whose name is on the Nov. 2 ballot knew that he or she has an opponent watching and willing to make hay out of any miscue. The Incumbents' Party voted in concert to pass the disaster relief bill as drafted.

LORI STURDEVANT

Can our retired readers be bought for $250? Apparently President Obama thinks they can, because two weeks before Election Day, he has endorsed sending bonus checks for that amount to the nearly 58 million Americans on Social Security.

It's hard to imagine a more blatant vote-buying exercise, especially with polls showing that seniors have turned sharply against the Democrats this year. The excuse for this bribery is the announcement by the Social Security Administration that, for the second year in a row, seniors will not get a cost-of-living increase in 2011. Prices rose by only 1.5 percent in the last year, having fallen nearly 2 percent in 2009, and seniors aren't supposed to get an increase until prices exceed their last peak.

What seniors really need is a return to more robust economic growth and more normal interest rates, and that cause won't be helped by the government adding to its already destructive tax-and-spend record.