Alan Simpson: Cutting Social Security Benefits to “Take Care of the Lesser People in Society”

[Hannah Bell]

what a moronic dick.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/06/17/alan-simpson-cutting-social-security-benefits-to-take-care-of-the-lesser-people-in-society/


the lying moral cretin simpson's appointment is your first clue about what's planned for your social security.

your second clue is that every other government is doing the same thing.

fuck this shit.

[tsuki]

1. Alan Simpson would throw a party if what he considered all "the

lesser people in society" fell over dead from malnutrition and exposure like they did before the New Deal.

What sticks in his craw, the bile he tastes every morning, the anger, resentment and bitterness of his existence is that social security intrudes and diminishes the privileged, moneyed status in society. That it somehow keeps him from being more wealthy and privileged.

Peter G. Peterson, of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, has declared he will spend one billion dollars of his personal, ill-gotten gains to destroy social security. He could not be appointed to the secretive Catfood Commission, but he had his minions, Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg, appointed.

This is what a new day in government, transparency looks like. It looks like Cheney Energy Commission. And as a Gulf Coast resident, I know how that turned out.

[lib2DaBone]

2. Don't let them get away with this...

How is something an "Entitlement" that you pay into your whole working life?

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Exactly the question I want answered.

[madfloridian]

4. Why in the world was this man appointed co-chair?

He has contempt for seniors...utter contempt.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6223

"Simpson has already said that Social Security and Medicare are the reason “this country is gonna go to the bow-wows,” and he wouldn’t be dissuaded from cutting them by AARP or “the Gray Panthers, the Pink Panther, whatever.” But in an interview on Fox News last week, Simpson managed to outdo himself.

..."Simpson never makes boring copy, and so far he has been consistently quotable in his remarks. He and his co-chairman, Erskine Bowles, make quite a media pair.

But the press needs to pay attention to what they are saying, because their drive to cut the deficit will affect the financial well-being of every man, woman, and child in America. So far the direction of the media coverage has been driven by their mantra: everything is on the table; no more Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. The Erskine and Alan show is laying the groundwork for drastically changing Social Security and Medicare in ways that might not be so palatable with the public. It didn’t take Simpson long to climb on his hobbyhorse—that whatever the commission recommends will not hurt older folks. “Erskine and I are in this one for our grandchildren,” he said. “Somebody said they’re stalking horses for taxes. I’m not a stalking horse for taxes. I’m a stalking horse for my grandchildren.”

...'Simpson: And it's all BS. I don't have to take that nonsense. Look at my record. No one can say I want higher taxes. You're entitled to be called a fool, idiot, bonehead, slob, screwball. But an attack unanswered is an attack believed. I never lost an election because even though I was called everything, I never let them distort who I was. It's the same with this tax thing—I'm going to shove it right up their nostrils. Try this: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will use up all the taxes—revenue—the government takes in this year. And to do the rest of governing we'll have to borrow, including for massive things like defense, homeland security, education. Those will be paid for by shaking a tin cup in front of the world. And China will probably be throwing more chips in the tin cup than any other country, just waiting patiently for us to expire under the debt. The people who distort the commission and try to scare people into doing nothing, let's say they win the day, and we don't do anything to try to bring down this debt. Well, great. They've got grandchildren, too, and in 40 years they'll be sucking canal water and picking grit with the chickens."

Very nasty man....why was he put in charge of this commission??????

[madfloridian]

5. Simpson...gated communities and Lexus drivers..arrogant

"“These old cats 70 and 80 years old who are not affected in one whiff. People who live in gated communities and drive their Lexus to the Perkins restaurant to get the AARP discount. This is madness.”

Kick for the arrogant sob

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2010/05/06/deficit-commissions-alan-simpson-denounces-fat-cat-geezers/

Why would Obama appoint him?

[Starry Messenger]

9. Why indeed? n/t

[TheKentuckian]

6. Bowles is little better and most of the appointed "stakeholders" are worse

This is a sell out of the first magnitude that should be fought all the way to "burning down the house" since when it is done the "house" will be razed to the ground anyway.

[JPZenger]

7. France is raising retirement age from 60 to 62 years old.

France is proposing to raise the age for a full pension from 60 to 62.

Meanwhile, in the US, for most people born since circa 1961, the age to be able to receive full social security benefits is now 67. Many people still think it is 65.

[Hannah Bell]

8. no; he's raising it to what ours is now.

President Sarkozy has raised the MINIMUM legal retirement age from 60 to 62...

The age for retirement on a FULL state pension will be raised from 65 to 67 by 2020...

[joe black]

10. Make the rich pay fica.

Problem solved oh, and end the damn wars. I hate to be an one issue voter but if this happens I won't be voting for Obama or any other democrats behind this.

[lib2DaBone]

11. Why would Mr. Obama put together and Empower a Social Security Hit Squad like this?

I can't even get into the Chess player argument, and I'm not going to spend valuable time bashing my choice for president, Mr. Obama.

But all I can say is... "What is he thinking?" How could he turn these dogs loose on his own people?

[noise]

12. Why would you give Obama a pass?

If he gets the prestige and power of the Presidency then why on earth shouldn't he get the accountability that comes with the office?

[Lagomorph]

16. Not to mention...

a lifetime pension, healthcare and a personal security detail for as little as one partial term in office.

How do you explain "cutting corners to survive" to these guys?

[noise]

13. These are the people who were outraged

at the prospect that Wall Street bonuses would be reduced by the government.

Yet they are gleeful about taking away social security from people who paid into the system all their lives.

[classysassy]

14. Cut congressional retirement money

to pay for the poor,just another rich retired republican.

[Lagomorph]

17. And all the double & triple dippers...

They work 20 years and get a pension, then work 10 more years and get two, then work ten more years and get three. Bingo, triple retirement for one working life.

[TheWebHead]

15. for a republican this is rather reasonable rhetoric

he's talking about solvency, and no mention of privatization or elimination of the entitlements. The idea that FDL suggests that instead of cutting entitlements we have a sovereign debt default is dangerously naive and perhaps the most idiotic thing I've read this year. U.S. debt issuance is bought by the choice of a person or foreign government. The consequences of default for a country whose debt trades at one of the lowest yields in the world far would eclipse any proposed medicare cuts or retirement age increases. It would have an impact of the '08 banking crisis on steroids.

[Hannah Bell]

18. what default are you talking about? i don't see anything like that in the article.

[TheWebHead]

19. this..

"Simpson starts from the premise that the Treasury will default on the bonds issued to the Social Security trust fund, because all the best people apparently know that it’s better to default on America’s senior citizens and plunge them into poverty than it is to default on, say, the Chinese."

Defaulting on the Chinese would be a sovereign default...

[Hannah Bell]

20. i'm confused. you attributed that idea to fdl in your post, not simpson.

that's simpson's dangerous idea, not fdl's.