Krugman: Fire Alan Simpson

[brentspeak]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/fire-alan-simpson/

August 25, 2010, 4:31 pm

Fire Alan Simpson

I always thought that the deficit commission was a bad idea; it has only looked worse over time, as the buzz is that Democrats are caving in to Republicans, leaning ever further toward an all-cuts, no taxes solution, including a sharp rise in the retirement age.

I’ve also had my eye on Alan Simpson, the supposedly grown-up Republican co-chair, who has been http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/zombies-have-already-killed-the-deficit-commission/">talking nonsense about Social Security from the get-go.

At this point, though, Obama is on the spot: he has to fire Simpson, or turn the whole thing into a combination of farce and tragedy — the farce being the nature of the co-chair, the tragedy being that Democrats are so afraid of Republicans that nothing, absolutely nothing, will get them sanctioned.

When you have a commission dedicated to the common good, and the co-chair dismisses Social Security as a http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/alan_simpson_social_security_n_693277.html">“milk cow with 310 million tits,” you either have to get rid of him or admit that you’re completely, um, cowed by the right wing, that http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/IOKIYAR">IOKIYAR rules completely.

And no, an apology won’t suffice. Simpson was completely in character here; it was perfectly consistent with everything else he’s said, and with his previous behavior. He has to go.

The second comment to Krugman's piece sums up reader opinion:

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/fire-alan-simpson/?permid=2#comment2

Obama will no more fire Alan Simpson than any of the other "main stream lackies" he has appointed to positions of economic influence in his administration. Obama not only appointed Simpson to this "cat food commission" but made him its co-chair. His Democratic counterpart, Erskine Bowles, is also for reducing social security benefits. The commission is a front for Obama to bring about change in which NONE of his original supporters can believe. Obama may end of delivering the country to the Republican Party for the next fifty years.

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[rufus dog]

1. Let me defend the President

The recommendations have not come out yet ..... wait, fuck that, sometimes you have a situation where you have only one choice.

A two sentence comment was all that was needed. "I do not view SS recipients as milking the system, rather as hard working Americans who paid into a system. Senator Simpson's comments are disrespectful to all hard working Americans and he has been removed from his position."