And for DISTORTING the effect of SS on the deficit! If the White House didn't know that, they know jackal shit.
This is a very interesting and prescient article (from Feb 2010)about Simpson's position on the Commission by Saul Friedman of Time Goes By, a blog for people who are aging (that means you, pal):
http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2010/02/gray-matters-obamas-deficit-reduction-commission.html...
Simpson’s record in the Senate raises questions about his appointment: Did the president have any notion of his background of hostility towards the twin pillars of American social insurance? Has Simpson left his right-wing politics far enough behind? Can he be an honest broker when, say, advocates for Social Security and Medicare come before his panel? Here’s why I ask.
In December 1994, when the Republicans were on the verge of taking over the House, the right-wing Capital Research Center, one of several relatively new think-tanks funded by prominent and wealthy conservatives, launched assaults on the Clinton administration and two major organizations that supported Clinton’s failed efforts to pass health care reform and resisted Republican efforts to cut Medicare funds.
The organizations were AARP and the labor-backed National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC), which had played a major role in the 1965 passage of Medicare – over Republican objections. They were vulnerable because they held small federal contracts to train workers and also lobbied, which they were permitted to do.
According to consumer and medical affairs writer Trudy Lieberman, in her book, Slanting the Story, the conservative campaign took off when it was joined by Simpson, a rich rancher who was chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy.
A rather goofy dilettante, he was about to announce his retirement and had nothing to lose so he took on his antagonists, especially AARP, which had criticized him and lobbied against Republican efforts to slash Medicare funds and privatize Social Security. According to Lieberman,
“Simpson liked to tell stories about how he had to pay out of his pocket for his own parents’ care and believed everyone should do the same.”Simpson’s father, Milward Simpson, had been Wyoming’s governor and a U.S. Senator.
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