Simpson to disabled vets: You cost too much

[phantom power]

This guy is like a gift to the GOP campaign-ads
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RALEIGH, N.C.—The system that automatically awards disability benefits to some veterans because of concerns about Agent Orange seems contrary to efforts to control federal spending, the Republican co-chairman of President Barack Obama's deficit commission said Tuesday.

Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson's comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes.

"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee....

"It's the kind of thing that's just driving us to this $1 trillion, $400 billion deficit this year," Simpson said. "It's not that I'm an uncaring person, but common sense is the most uncommon thing in Washington."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/08/31/aging_vets_costs_concern_obamas_deficit_co_chair/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news

[sandnsea]

1. Keep talking Alan n/t

[Fire1]

9. Ditto. n/t

[w4rma]

2. Soldiers are there to suffer for taxcuts for Billionaires. And the elderly to starve. (nt)

[Angry Dragon]

3. When is he going to require cutting Congressional

retirement packages.

They should be based on need.

[thelordofhell]

4. And they say Obama needs to fire this kook?

:freak:

[awoke_in_2003]

23. yeah, imagine...

people getting upset over these totally innocent statements of his.

[gophates]

5. Obama is a genius to keep this guy there.

He is only slightly less despicable than an average Thug.

Every word is another step victory, Al, baby.

[TheKentuckian]

11. He's not hurting Republicans but rather banking negativity for Obama

If Obama supports the recommendations then every shitty thing Simpson and any of these hacks says or has ever said is going to be tied around his neck and cast him into the sea.

Keep talking only works if Obama and Congress punt these fools and it probably won't do much then two years out from the next election.

[jgraz]

20. Riiiight. More stunning chess moves.

How did this country manage to survive for 232 years relying on leaders who simply said what they were going to do and then did it? :eyes:

[county worker]

6. He is the biggest reason I am turning off from Obama

He is telegraphing what the deficit committee is about and we have no say in what they come up with. Disabled veterans deserve more than the wealthy who got tax cuts that were never paid for.

The deficit's main problems can be fixed by ending the wars and letting the Bush tax cuts expire. I will never here that from Simpson.

I'm sorry but I, who got an invitation to the inauguration regret that we do not have a real progressive in the White House. I just can't bring myself to cheer for Obama anymore.

[ellenfl]

21. but they are only giving recommendations.

every time simpson steps in it, it stinks . . . and america sees it. besides, won't any recommendations go to congress before obama? let them recommend dropping ss and medicare. do you really think the republicans in the house and senate will vote for that? this deficit committee is making the case for not having a deficit committee. let them continue to shoot themselves in their collective feet. i know there are at least 2 dems on the committee who are reporting everything back to the admin.

you don't even have to wait to see what happens. write to your congress critters and the prez. they'll get your message. and don't forget . . . old people vote. :toast:

ellen fl

[county worker]

27. The recommendations will be law before old people get to vote.

After Nov 2010 the report will come out and congress will approve it before the next election.

[Fumesucker]

7. Then why do we keep making so fucking many of them?

Eh?

[cynatnite]

8. Of course, they'd never consider looking at the obscene pentagon budget...

He insulted social security recipients and now it's the vets. Who's next? Kids on CHIPS?

Fuck you, Simpson :grr:

[pwb]

10. A 100% disabled veteran gets, $32,076.oo a year.

From a grateful nation.
http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/rates/comp01.htm

[doc03]

24. I know a disabled veteran that worked about 10 years in a

steel mill and another 20 years in a coal mine. He gets a disability check from the VA, a SS disability check for a bad back, another one from the coal company and also gets checks for asbestos. He has health insurance from the UAW and goes to the VA for free dental care. To top it off he is a die hard Republican that opposes unemployment, health care, food stamps etc. for everyone else. Flame away but it is the truth.

[druidity33]

25. well, some people are shitheels. nt.

[KamaAina]

12. This guy is as useless as tits on a boar hog.

Yeah, I went there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Well, well at least he is honest

them vets are just spent bullets who didn't have the good sense to die...

Yes, that's the way many conservatives (and in that I count Conservadems by the way) truly feel about the armed forces and the vets we've produced.

Support the troops, but damn it, why is it that they don't have the good sense to win the war or at least die trying?

And yes. they make me sick, especially since they would never, EVAH put on a uniform (of any kind) themselves.

[KT2000]

14. Possible link???

Environmental research is set up to find at the most "a possible link."
Let's say someone dumps a nasty poison all over your front yard. The nasty poison could be linked to any health problems that arise but the fact that everyone living in the house has been exposed to other chemicals in their lifetime makes it impossible to prove the cause.
This is the catch-22 that keeps the manufacturers et al free from liability.
so...
Simpson is throwing a bone to the manufacturers, chemical and oil companies etc. and throwing the vets under the bus - they waited decades to get compensation for those injuries.

[w8liftinglady]

15. read my latest ltte.FU,alan

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9051227

[onethatcares]

16. will he give up his salary for one year.

totally give it up due to his being a "public servant" and all that?

let's talk about reducing our representatives' pay and perks. they seem to get enough slop at the trough without needing us lowly peons tossing pennies their way.

Common sense and all that.

[pinboy3niner]

17. "...to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan...."

Source:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

--President Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

[Scuba]

18. Great quote from CountyWorker

"Disabled veterans deserve more than the wealthy who got tax cuts that were never paid for."

[gophates]

19. gophates to Republicans: you cost too much

Slimy bastards.

[City Lights]

22. Give up your pension or STFU, Alan!

Quit sucking at the gub'mint teat, you hypocritical sack of shit!

[Octafish]

26. Vets to Simpson and BFEE: You War too Much.

Simpson was stationed in Germany in the late 1950s. I wonder if he was one of Gen. Walker's golden boys?

[Uncle Joe]

28. At what point does the "deficit commission" cover historical tax policy on the mega-wealthy

and it's effects on the nation's deficit?

I know the tax rate has dropped significantly since the 60s and 70s while the middle class has shrunk and I know Republicans don't like the idea of leaving any multi-millionaires behind, but if the repukes truly gave a damn about the troops as they claim, they wouldn't try to stab them in the back.

Thanks for the thread, phantom power.

[Waiting For Everyman]

29. Diabetes is part of advanced Agent Orange Syndrome - I ought to know,

my husband died of it at 59 after battling the whole list of terminal illnesses that go with it since he was 35. His bones slowly melted along with 3 internal organ failures, plus leukemia and paralysis of both legs. That's on top of the diatetes... which was slowly taking his feet and his sight when he died. And of course on top of PTSD which prevented almost all social contacts since he was 19 (a LRRP in places we don't admit to). 40 years of misery he got from Viet Nam.

I think I know a thing or two about that syndrome (AO/diabetes), having watched it close up for the last 24 of those 40 years. I'm damn sure I know a whole lot more about it than Simpson. He likes to declare wars but not take responsibility for the consequences of them - like all the other Repugs. He should spontaneously combust sometime, that's what I wish him and his ilk.