Deficit Commission: If You Won’t Fire Simpson, Keep Your Hands Off Social Security

[BrklynLiberal]

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010093501/deficit-commission-if-you-won-t-fire-simpson-keep-your-hands-social-security

Only 6% of Americans think Congress should concentrate on reducing the deficit or changing the tax code, according to the latest CBS News poll. Nearly ten times as many people, 56%, want it to focus on creating jobs and fixing the economy. Guess which set of policies is the center of attention in Washington right now? Pick up any newspaper or turn on any news channel and you'll hear a lot of talk about the deficit. But creating jobs and spurring economic growth? Nobody's even discussing it. Call them the Six Percenters.... if the Democrats propose popular bills that fail, people will understand why they failed. They'll see who's representing the 90% and who's representing the 6%

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have now called for Senator Alan Simpson, co-chair of the White House deficit commission, to step down – after he insulted the head of the Older Women’s League, Ashley Carson, by implying that her dedication to protecting retirees was not “honest work” – and then he revealed what he thinks of Social Security: “a milk cow with 310 million tits.”

Simpson eventually apologized, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stood by Simpson, making it clear that the Obama administration would not send him packing back to Wyoming – unless perhaps the clamor gets louder. At least Gibbs had the smarts to distance President Obama from the substance of Simpson’s remarks. But the silence from commission co-chair Erskine Bowles and commission members like economist Alice Rivlin, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad and Republican Paul Ryan has been deafening. They should be a little worried about his obnoxious style, but the truth is Simpson speaks for a large number of deficit commissioners who want to cut Social Security.

<snip>
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking at Netroots Nation in July, got it right:

When you’re talking about reducing the deficit and Social Security, you’re talking about apples and oranges. If we want to have a conversation about Social Security and how we keep it solvent, what are the things we can do to keep Social Security solvent way down the road so it’s there for future generations, that I believe is an appropriate conversation. It shouldn’t involve reducing the benefits or raising the limit or whatever, but you could talk about how you keep it solvent. To change Social Security in order to balance the budget; they aren’t the same thing, in my view. That isn’t what we should be doing. So, I will admit and accept the fact that as we make Social Security solvent—and it is solvent into the 2030s—it will have a positive impact on the deficit, but we shouldn’t be looking for reducing benefits and raising ages and all the rest, period, and we certainly shouldn’t be doing it to reduce the deficit. Two different sides of the ledger.

Note: The Campaign for America’s Future, which has helped lead the charge against Simpson, now has an action petition going to send this message: If the White House won’t fire Simpson, the deficit commission should keep its hands off Social Security.
Click here. https://caf.democracyinaction.org/o/11002/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=128

Also, CAF is working with MoveOn.org Political Action, CREDO Action, Democracy For America, the Teamsters Union and Social Security Works to encourage citizens to ask candidates for Congress to promise to oppose SS benefit cuts, retirement age increases and privatization. To see who has made the promise, go to www.handsoffsocialsecurity.org.

[Vincardog]

1. Click here. Where? ===================================>

here

< https://caf.democracyinaction.org/o/11002/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=128>

K& SIGN & R