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Deficit Chair Simpson Rants Against Seniors Again. Time to Go
Maybe when he’s back on some Wyoming ranch, Alan Simpson can avoid stepping in it. But the co-chairman of the federal budget deficit commission seems to squish deep into it, every time he opens his apparently out-of-control mouth about Social Security.
After the latest loose-lip flap, leaders of seniors’ organizations say it’s time for Simpson to head back to the ranch and resign from the commission.
In a nasty e-mail to Ashley Carson, executive director of the Older Women’s League (OWL), Simpson berates her for an April blog she wrote on Huffington Post in which she takes him to task for distorting the opposition to the Social Security cuts. Raising the retirement age is one such potential cut, one that Simpson supports.
In his Aug. 24 e-mail, Simpson writes that Carson and “people like you babble into the vapors…and all the rest of that crap.” He says that Social Security is “like a milk cow with 310 million tits” and signs off by telling Carson, “Call when you get honest work.”
Carson replies, “Apparently Mr. Simpson thinks that defending the rights of women is not honest work.”
The acerbic rant is one of Simpson’s favorite weapons to turn on anyone who disagrees with him. Previously, Simpson called seniors “greedy geezers;” described lower-income Americans as “lesser people in society;” and complained that he is frustrated hearing from retirees who “live in gated communities and drive their Lexus to the Perkins restaurant to get the AARP discount.”
In a joint letter to President Obama, Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling and Executive Director Edward F. Coyle urged the president to demand Simpson’s resignation. They wrote that his remarks are:
conduct unbecoming a person named to co-chair a presidential panel. Moreover, it is the latest in a series of derisive and inappropriate comments Mr. Simpson has made about our nation’s seniors and the Social Security benefits they have earned and rely upon to make ends meet.
Click here for their full letter.
In another letter to Obama, the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) says:
Mr. Simpson suggests that anyone supporting people who most need help and who deserve the benefits they paid for must be dishonest or stupid. Such open contempt goes beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated from someone in such a position of authority.
You also can sign a petition calling for Simpson’s removal here.
Call the White House (202-456-1414) and urge Obama to demand Simpson’s resignation.
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“Deficit Chair Simpson Rants Against Seniors Again. Time to Go”
Replacing “Chair Simpson” will not, by itself, solve much of anything. The entire “Defict Reduction” is a cover-up for the massive class-war attack that has been mounted by Obama and the Democratic Party. This “Deficit Reduction” committee was created by Democrat Obama with the Democrats in full majority in both houses of Congress. The destruction of Social Security was merely a desire of the previous Bush/Cheney/Republican/corporate administration is now being implemented by Obama and the Democratic Party.
Thus it is “time to go”, starting this November 2010 but planning for the election of 2012, of supporting Obama and the Democratic Party. The AFL-CIO must break with the Democrats this fall. The time to issue a call for the foundation of a new pro-laobr party must be established that fights for the economic needs of all working people, organized and unorganized.
If President Trumka and the AFL-CIO Executive Council are unwilling to make this break with the Democrats, perhaps it is “time to go” for them as well.
jerry more and more union members are feeling and thinking on those line , we really need change and direction and you made a very good point , thank from all of us in the afl cio out of work and working members too !
Am not sure replacing Simpson will be the best approach
I am familiar with the entire Simpson clan. They are from Cody Wy. His father was governor, his brother was the Dean at The University of Wy. Alan Simpson was a Senator from Wy. he is a disgusting , dirty mouthed ex politician who draws a pension OFF THE BACKS OF UNITED STATES TAXPAYERS.
He should be sent back to his wealthy way of life in Wyoming. I am from Wy. and every time he opens his mouth it is embarrassing to most educated Wy. people.
Not only do we have Simpson to deal with, Union members from Michigan’s 4th District also have their Congreeeman, Dave Camp, on that commission, who is a puppet for the Republicans.
Never has an original thought.
The remarks, no, the filth that is coming out of the mouth of this
toilet who is receiving a generous salary and Government Benefits
more than anyone would receive on Social Security, should be
enough to have him removed immediately WITHOUT any severance
and Pension.
If simpson screams about his justifiable termination, put a Uniform
on him and send him to Afghanistan to clean the out houses. With
that crappy mouth of his this should make him feel at home.
replacing Simpson would just make it easier for the catfood commission to cut Social Security while smiling and mealy mouthing about “saving Social Security.”
better by far to take him up on his call for “suggestions to stabilize Social Security.” there are plenty of good ones.
the best is to simply raise the payroll tax an average of twenty cents per week each year while wages are going up ten dollars per week each year, and retired people are living longer. the people paying the higher tax will get their money back in a longer retirement… which they will want a lot more than some of them now think.
get Simpson on natioinal televisioni and he will reveal the nastiness and stupidity of the catfood commission.
Is Simpsons ranch right next to Cheney’s?
It is all so wonderfully bipartisan and undemocratic. Once again, the debate is framed by the far fight enemies of Labor, while the Democrats try to find common ground between maintaining benefits and drastically cutting them. Once again, they will reach across the aisle to shake hands in celebration of their unity against the American worker. We are being bled dry and we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back until we build a Labor Party.
We need to shitcan the entire so called ‘committee’! 3500 Americans met in June and solved the budget problem and you can check out what we came up with, go to America Speaks, Our Budget and Our Economy. We (from conservative to liberal) came up with plans that did not throw a single American under the bus!
What was on Obama’s mind when he appointed this pathetic anti-social security slug as co-chair. Just get rid of him.
This attack against seniors is perpetrated in order to ahve enough money to give government officials a huge retirement benefits. Members of Congress do not collect from Social Security and have never paid into it.
When Congress members retire, they continue to draw their same pay, until they die, except that it may be increased from time to time, by cost of living adjustments. To protect Social Security, Congress and all government authorities must drop their incredible huge pension plans and get with the rest of us. Just watch the change in attitude of Alan Simpson
I WISH PEOPLE LIKE CYNICAL WOULD GET THERE FACTS CORRECT, CONGRESSMEN DONOT COLLECT FULL PAY, THEY ALSO HAVE TO BE AT LEAST 57 WITH 5 YEARS OF SERVICE AND THEN IT IS ONLY A PERCENTAGE OF THAT AMOUNT OF PAY THAT THEY COLLECT ON. THEY ARE LIKE ANY OTHER RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE FOR A PENSION. CHECK THIS OUT BEFORE YOU GIVE INCORRECT INFORMATION, I KNOW I WORKED 41 YEARS FOR THE USPS. NOW I AGREE THIS GUY HAS TO GO BUT EXECUTIVE BRANCH IS MADE UP OF A BUNCH OF OVER PAID USUALLY LAWYERS THAT WERE RICH WHEN THEY WERE APPOINTED TO THESES JOBS, THEY NEED A HOUSE CLEANING IN wASHINGTON IN BOTH PARTYS. ALSO THEY STARTED PAYING IN TO S.S. IN 1983 WHEN THE RETIREMENT SYSTEN CHANGED
“Members of Congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they’ve completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62″.
Jerry Wells,
Could not agree more. Class war is a little antique, yet it is, none the less, more appropriate than this blog’s continued comittment to being a mouth piece for the worst elements in the Democratic Party. Geitner, Summers, and, therefore, Obama, are followers of economist Schumpeter.
Schumpeter is a proponent of “creative destruction”, which Summers publicly proclaims as a great historic discovery. The mass unemployment facing our nation today is an example of “creative destruction”. All these jobs are being destroyed as part of the “natural process” of economic growth, or so proclaims Schumpeter, Gietner, Summers, Bernanke, Greenspan, etc.
Check it out. What makes Obama particulary bad, is he’s not all there either. As one progressive columnist put it. He won’t run for a second term because his ego is to big. He needs something Global now, etc.
The problem, though, is not the Democratic Party! It’s Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. Name the criminals and deal with them. This can become the party of Franklin Roosevelt again.
Mr Simpson has a mouth and a mind like a out house thats full and needs to be pumped out , he is over due ! Mr Simpson has a real problem and how could any one in politics give him a job like this ? how can any one in america make statements like him and not have to step down from his job ? which he should do asap , or thrown in jail if he wont step down !
Americans have worked for this social security system and paid into it for years , should have never been change in any way but up in benifits and gae should not be touched and for the baby boomers and it has never been up dated to where our standard of living cost of today in 2010
the treasury can skim off the top as it sees fit , that should not be at all and the government should be 100% hands off for they have proven through the last 40 years , they cant govern very well and there spending is out of control , this is not there piggy bank !
Americans are seeing in the news that the I C E head John mporton will not enforce immigration laws for illegals , he is breaking the law and Home Land security head the same , so how do we have heads of agencys break the laws and have double set of standards of laws one set for americans and set for illegals , just remember its our tax dollars that pay them weekly as heads to these agencys to brak the laws . we live by a constitution and bill of rights and they have set up the rule of the will of man and women and its all political . they both should step down with out questioned and we should call congress and the u s seante and ask for there jobs asap , let make the change its in our hands not theres , remeber its we the people in america ! make the calls today let your voice be heard it the only way to get jobs in america and save tax payers dollars !
Just called the White House and left my comments for the President. I, too, agree the whole commission should be disbanded. It appears to be overloaded with ancient old fossils. Believe the former republican senator from NM, Pete Domenici, is also on it. He also has been for privatizing Social Security and many other things most liberal democrats disagree on. These men have cleaned up, amassed wealth during the times they were US senators. They have health care that is funded by the taxpayers and other perks for having “served” in the senate. Time for these wealthy freeloaders to pay their fair share and take the burden off the vanishing middle class.
I for once am at a loss for words. I am almost 60, and I cannot help but think it is time for a resurrection of the Radical Groups of the 60′s and early 70′s. For far too long we have been supporting parties that promise working people the world but pay out to the elite! I am tired of being a stepping stone. Obama was the first candidate for President that I ever supported, all the others were the lesser of 2 evils. I lost hope when he appointed Geitner, Bernanke and the other Wall street gang of thugs! We NEED a REAL Candidate! One that will work for working class Americans.
Unless my varilux glasses betray me, I think mr. Simpson looks like a geezer himself! I used to like him. No more! Let mr. simpson go back to his ranch. But, watch out for the cow patties & the bull s**t. Sorry, but my mother who was a member of DC37, taught me not to use such language.
So Mr. Simpson thinks we are 310 million teats sucking. I think he has that backwards. The government has been sucking the teats of the millions of people who paid in, and are now paying into Social Security. They have betrayed the trust of the American people and have taken our money and used it , so they could say they didn’t increase taxes. As far as I am concerned it is the same as embezzlement. It was working peoples money paid in to provide some security when people became older or disabled and also to provide for their minor children , in case of death. They took the money for other purposes and don’t want to return it..
I hear that our money is safe because it is in government bonds. Thats fine and good , but they don’t want to pay the bonds. I wonder now , if the government honors all the other obligations they have.
I am mad when I hear Mr. Simpson say we are greedy geezers because we want what we worked and paid for. I don’t believe it is greed for a person to need enough money to feed their selves and pay heat and utilities,medical bills and other expenses. I know many people who get very low Social Security , and they have a very hard time making it.
I say mr. Simpson is a cold uncaring greedy person. He has beeliving on the taxpayers dollar for many years , and I bet the taxpayers are paying his retirement and medical care.
The president should fire Mr. Simpson , and see that he doesn’t get on any more committees. A person as biased as he ie toward working Americans and Social Security recipients, should not be making decisions affecting those people..
If they are allowed to raise the Social Security age , many construction workers and miners will never collect. Also many aircraft pilots who are not allowed to work above a certain age.
I am also saddened to see that the younger generations don’t seem to understand or care what is going on. They don’t seem very willing to stand up against the things that are going on. Us old guys are not going to be able fight forever and one day we will be gone.. God help America
Let’s also be clear! Obama appointed Simpson; he’s Obama’s man. To paraphrase an old song: What Wall Street wants, Obama gets.
We need to take back the Democratic Party as the party of FDR. We need a New Deal, Roosevelt style.
The whole issue of attacking Social Security has been part of the conservatives agenda for years. Bush opened the lockbox immediately after 9/11 with the help of all but one Senate Democrat voted for using 40 billion from the trust fund surplus to fund the Iraq war. Think of it; Your retirement contributions and mine are used to fund Bush’s “war”. No one dared to talk about it that way. It was just as if 40 billion came out of nowhere. No one said that 40 billion came out of our retirement contributions. Alan Simpson has always been one of the conservative Republicans leading the charge for so-called smaller government which is really conservative propaganda supposed to eliminate waste. It is really about eliminating all social programs. It used to be that conservatives tried to cut social programs one by one, and then they figured out how they could cut them all at once through tax cuts. Cutting taxes was one of the conservatives strategic initiatives. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy 2% would creates a large deficit and now when any social program comes up there isn’t enough money for it. You see Simpson and his conservative right wingers have rewarded those wealthy people they see as good people and punish the middle and poor people. Simpson is just following the agenda he has always been tied to. His drive to cut benefits and raise the retirement age fits right into the conservative agenda. They don’t want to even think about cutting the Pentagon budget, or the Treasury and Commerce Departments or the nine-tenths of the courts that support corporate law because this is the big government they like. What they really want is to do away with social programs that invest in people, to help people to help themselves.
Getting rid of Simpson is just the begining of what really needs to happen. Replacing “Chair Simpson” will not, by itself, solve much of anything. The entire “Defict Reduction” is a cover-up for the massive class-war attack that has been mounted by the conservative Republican Party. This “Deficit Reduction” committee was created by Obama at the direction of Rham Emanuel, who if the Democrats want to maintain control of congress and the White House, must get rid of immediately, along with the other left overs brought in from the past Clinton administration. People voted for real change in 2008 and so far Obama hasn’t delivered on his promise of change. This so-called “Deficit Reduction Committee” is just doing exactly what conservatives want, and not what people who voted for a real change wanted.
After reading this article, I am very disheartened by the comments made by Mr. simpson!
I DO feel that Mr. Simpson should be asked to STEP DOWN. By his statements, he had painted a broad unprofessional stroke over the whole committee! If I was a committee member, I would ask for his resignation!!
His statements were not only vile, insensitive and disrespectful, but HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL AND MISREPSENTATIVE of what the commitee stands for!!
Until “OUR” Representative??…..must abide by all of the same rules and regulations that “WE”, are bound to, i.e., pensions, including S.S., health care benefits, etc., they WILL NEVER CHANGE! They feel that they are ABOVE, “the People!”…They make the rules that we must follow, “not them!” How crazy is that, when you think about it??? They make the rules, they don’t have to follow them, BUT WE DO??? CRAZY!!!
I think our country has forgotten, that WE the PEOPLE, are suppose to be in charge, NOT those, who we elect to be our
SERVANTS!!!
Why did Gen. McCrystal get the boot when he said unkind things about the current administration and former Senator Simpson is allowed to call honest, hard-working Americans anything he chooses. Mr. President, wake up or you’ll be a one-term president and the Republicans, God help us, will be back in control of the Congress.
Every time someone suggests returning control of Congress to the Republicans, please think about how these months under the Obama administration would have been like, if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been in office. First of all, she probably would have fired that six shooter and she would already be our 46th President!
Anyone in a high level administrative position in our Federal Government who rants against women’s rights to any extent and rants about Social Security as it were some sort of welfare should be relieved of his position immediately, if not sooner.
It literally makes me sick of someone who equates Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Compensation with Welfare. They are all insurance policies that we have paid for for years and very much have earned the right to collect when the time dictates Thousands upon thousands of dollars have been paid by me or on my behalf by my employers over the 45 years I have been working. I had no choice, therefore, the money belongs to me if and when the time comes. And to insinuate that women are somehow less worthy of their share is utterly ludicrous and downright stupid.