Alan Simpson, Senator Guttermouth, Spews Again

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.thenation.com/article/154187/alan-simpson-senator-guttermouth-spews-again

Retired Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, who inherited a soft-cushion career in politics from his father, is a garrulous old crank who at 79 seems desperate for attention. Simpson likes to pop off provocatively. He cannot resist mocking lesser mortals like Social Security recipients with mean-spirited ridicule. Simpson is an always quotable darling of Washington reporters, who mistake his nastiness for straight talk, who are too lazy to check out his ugly distortions.

Simpson should have been turned out to pasture years ago, but instead he was give a teaching post at Harvard and Barack Obama made him co-chair of the President's bipartisan commission on reducing the federal deficits. Every savvy player in the Capital knows what the president has in mind--whack Social Security benefits to lure Republicans into a grand deal on raising taxes. As I have written more than once, when Washington talks up bipartisan compromise it usually means the people are about to get screwed.

That train is rolling down the tracks now, but don't expect major media coverage to alert the populace. The prestige newspapers are on board for this deal and Obama's commission won't reveal its recommendations until right after the election. Too late for folks to make a stink.

Senator Trash Mouth keeps messing up the plan, however, by provoking outrage with his tasteless zingers. Most recently, Simpson compared Social Security--the federal government's most beloved program--to "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Instead of yuks, the senator got angry blowback--congressional demands that he resign or be fired by the president. Important liberal groups like the AFL-CIO joined the chorus of complaints. Simpson apologized, the Prez stood by him. Personally, I hope Simpson stays on the commission and continues to speak out. He's doing more harm than good for Obama's sleight-of-hand politics.

More at the link ---

[DJ13]

1. Alan Simpson?

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Poboy]

3. "after the election. Too late for folks to make a stink."

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Nice, eh?

:grr:

[Skittles]

4. good article

nice to see someone speaking out about this SS scam - who the fuck does Obama think he's fooling, besides, well, you know

[pa28]

5. Must read. Greider cuts all the bogus talking points and distortions to ribbons.

Especially this gem:

"Another way to understand the swindle is to think of working Americans as the US government's largest creditor, even larger than China. The IOUs belittled by Bai represent the "full, faith and credit" of the US government as surely as the Treasury bonds held by China and other foreign creditors. What Obama's deficit commission is talking about is arranging a sly partial default with the hope the people won't figure it out."

"Worthless IOU's" is the first step on a logical progression to keep corporate and sovereign equity whole while defaulting on the savings of SS payers. Don't fall for it.

[Supersedeas]

16. We shall see

[BeFree]

17. Yep

They want to write off the IOUs that the SS holds.

If they can do that, they write off $2.5 Trillion from the US deficit.
Can't do that to China, they'd cut us off.

They figure they can do it to Americans and get away with it. Instead of raising taxes, they just want to do an accounting trick and write it off the deficit total.

[glitch]

6. Of course the taxpayers paid for his knee. Just like we are paying for his sick buddy Cheney.

These suckers truly believe they're the only ones entitled to government teats.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. So in some backhanded way, Simpson is doing us a huge favor.

We need to demand that the candidates take a stand on protecting or destroying SS. Now. Before the elections.

[global1]

10. Notice That We're Not Getting The Recess Town Hall Meeting Coverage This Year Like We Did Last Year.

We should all be attending Town Hall Meetings of our Reps and Senators and make them take a stand on SS. Instead the diversion is the NYC Mosque controversy and anti-Muslim sentiment going on in this nation. We should now be holding all our elected and those running in the 2010 elections in Nov accountable and make them tell us where they are on protecting our SS.

[DURHAM D]

8. Simpson has been sloping at the public trough almost his entire work life.

If I recall correctly he was in the state house before he got a federal pay check. Now he has a federal pension and medical coverage.

What an a-hole.

[Matariki]

9. Instead of the left trying to prevent Social Security cuts or raised retirement age

we need to get the right screaming about it. That's probably the only thing that will save Social Security. And probably the best way to do that is to get them to foaming at the mouth that Obama is going to take away their benefits.

[Poboy]

11. This might be the ONLY way.

The Corporatist in Chief only listens to the right, and the right is willing to fight for what they believe in.

Lets hope they find out about this screw job about to happen.

[Poboy]

12. .

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. ...

:kick:

[Poboy]

15. .