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Seniors Are “Greediest Generation,” Says Deficit Commission Chair, Alan Simpson
Alan Simpson
Alan Simpson, Deficit Commission Chair, further signals his commitment to fund wars and tax cuts for the super-rich by gutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare
Via Brooklynbadboy at Daily Kos
By AlterNet
I almost spit up my coffee. Per TPM:
”We had the greatest generation,” Simpson said. “I think this is the greediest generation.”
Where to begin
Simpson doesn’t apparently understand the program that it has been his life’s mission to destroy. Collecting Social Security isn’t a gift. You pay into it all your life, and then when you get old, you get your turn to collect. But his perspective indicates something even more vile: a belief that people’s sole source of income, their very livelyhood, is some sort of mass generosity. It isn’t. Social Security is a deal. A new sort of deal that didn’t exist before FDR created it. Instead of working all your life and then spending your elder years destitute, why not take care of the old people now and then when you get old, you’ll get yours. It’s a deal, not a handout.
I don’t see how you can reach consensus with someone like this. There is no middle ground between people who think Social Security is a government handout and reality. To malign people who have worked their entire lives and kept their end of the bargain, he says to them, essentially “you’re beat.” You cant negotiate with a guy like that. He doesn’t believe in keeping his end of the deal. In fact, there is a word for people who take money and then don’t hold up their end of a bargain: a thief. I say it is that person who is truly greedy.
From a link provided by Scarce:
Simpson said he’s spent about $25,000 of his own money on travel and hotel expenses on behalf of the debt commission — an expense he said he doesn’t mind paying.
Simpson might appear cynical about politics these days. But he said he hasn’t lost heart.
‘I really believe that there are more patriots in America than selfish, selfish people,’ he said.
Can you believe this guy? He’s got 25 grand to throw around to go cut your social security, but he says YOU are selfish. Hey Alan, how about you pay some higher tax on all that wealth you have? Then the problem Social Security has 27 years from now will be put off for another 75 years.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=62676
Posted by Yanira Farray on Nov 25 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Corruption, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Daniel Cavegn and Veterans Today, Veterans Today. Veterans Today said: New post: Seniors Are "Greediest Generation," Says Deficit Commission Chair, Alan Simpson http://bit.ly/fT6RZK [...]
Excuse me, “something even more vile”? What are you referring to?
This article is another example of the poorly written articles which are found
all the time on Alternet.
“Always accuse your victim of what you yourself are doing.” -Vladimir Lenin
The ‘orders’ to start stripping social security came from the Illuminati a few months ago. They want to make sure that Americans are dead – one way or the other.
I like the article and the author is “right on”. I was outraged at the results of the commission. Every single “study” D.C. makes looks at gutting social security first – the only income millions of people have after having paid into the fund all their lives. This fund has been ROBBED by Congress in THEIR GREED (and Mr. Simpson was ONE OF THE GREEDY!) Mr. Simpson didn’t CUT “even one” of the government’s obsolete departments.
HERE ARE MY COMMENTS HIS AND MR. BOWLES DEFICIT RECOMMENDATIONS:
Since the entire deficit is owed to the Federal Reserve, a PRIVATE bank owned by 13 elite mostly European families and the Rockefellers, and it was generated unconstitutionally by allowing the FED to print money rather than Treasury, the entire deficit should be WRITTEN OFF as a FRAUD against the people.
That said, Congress DOES need to CUT SPENDING DRASTICALLY. The tea partiers should be the people on this “commission”. Bowles and Simpson are so old and with the “in-crowd” that they are “out of touch”. If I hear one more politician say they want to cut Social Security (a small monthly stipend for the seniors who paid into it all their lives), instead of the VAST WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES that never go away regardless of being obsolete, I will scream!
Some things that could be slashed with no adverse effect on Americans:
(1) Dept of Education (worked better at the State and County level – grades continue to deteriorate)
(2) Homeland Security (REFUSES to do its job of securing the border or deporting illegals. Instead, spends taxpayers money suing AZ, harassing airline passengers, and sending notices to nationwide police departments that returning Vets, tea partiers, patriots, and those with anti-Obama stickers on their cars are TERRORISTS. Allows their agents to insist an airline put a panty-bomber on their airplane with no ID (Christmas bomber). FOSTERED BP poisoning of the Gulf and allowed the Coast Guard, now under their supervision, to cover up OIL, TOXIC OCEAN, TOXIC SEAFOOD, TOXIC AIR, CONTINUED COREXIT SPRAYING, and PEOPLE DYING. Napolitano should have been fired YEARS AGO!
(3) The FBI and DOJ REFUSE to do their jobs of prosecuting Wall Street and big banks or investigate ForeclosureGate or Fannie/Freddie. The FBI covered up the Turkish Council and Israeli lesbian blackmail of Rep Jan Schakowsky that Sibel Edmonds testified about on Aug 8, 2009, and Schakowsky is STILL Chair of the House “Intelligence” Committee. The DOJ is just plain incompetent and fails to do its job altogether, despite Judicial Watch proof of coverup on the Black Panthers crime.
DOJ spends taxpayer dollars suing AZ against Americans’ wishes.
(4) Dept of Energy, which despite an oil crisis in 1972 has FAILED MISERABLY in turning the nation into an energy-efficient one in regard to housing and transportation. 100 years of future technology and medical cures for cancer THAT TAXPAYERS PAID FOR was handed over to military-industrial corporations who REFUSE TO GIVE THAT TECHNOLOGY TO THE PUBLIC. With the super-fast advancement of electronics, we should be driving spaceships by now, rather than the same oil-based cars at 25 mpg we were driving in the 50’s. Even electric cars (Volt) are old technology! Where are the air cars from Australia?
(5) The wars should be ended and the Pentagon blasted for its use of hundreds of thousands of mercenaries like Halliburton, KBR, XE, etc. and for buying brand new trucks when a tire blows rather than stocking TIRES, and for their Israeli Pentagon comptroller losing over $4 trillion just prior to 911 (no investigation, no prosecution – definitely a coverup. The comptroller’s company manufactured remote control systems for planes), and for “losing” another $8 billion last year, and for “losing” planeloads of cash sent to Iraq, and for their ABJECT FAILURE (along with the Red Cross and Clinton/Bush fundraising — where did THAT money go?) to help Haiti in any way, shape or form. THE PENTAGON’S BUDGET SHOULD BE CUT FOR ALL THESE LOSSES IN THE FOLLOWING YEAR’S BUDGET. The Pentagon’s ever-expanding military bases, like the new one they’re planning in Columbia, should be SHUT DOWN and all those soldiers brought home to defend our own nation. Cutting over 800 bases across the globe should save PLENTY. Add all those foreign jobs, vehicles, and equipment we’re paying for at these bases.
(6) The State Dept under Hillary should STOP building billion-dollar embassies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and London. Who will use these embassies in the desert and in war zones? Staffs of over 2000 and security personnel of 500 for each embassy, vehicles, office supplies, gasoline, and equipment would rack up huge savings.
(7) The Czars and their staffs should be cut. Michelle’s 27 aids should be cut. There should be a BUDGET LIMIT for presidential foreign trips.
(8) Nancy Pelosi should NOT be given an airplane. All members of congress should fly commercial, and so should the presidential staff.
(9) $385 billion in social services handouts to illegals PER YEAR…food stamps, SSI (social security they DIDN’T pay into), HUD housing where Obama’s illegal aunt lived, free hospitalization, medicaid, free college education under DREAM Act, free public schools, prison for 30% illegal inmates, FREE LEGAL DEFENSE, building more schools, more prisons, hiring more teachers, more policemen, more court personnel, while they commit murders and rapes of children, form criminal gangs with impunity, drive drunk killing Americans. FORGET the Dream Act! Pass “birthright” bill.
(10) Cut Israeli foreign aid completely (this is directed to Cantor). Americans are tired of paying for the war-mongering and threats.
(11) Combine all the competing Intelligence agencies, and cut personnel.
THESE ARE JUST A “FEW” SUGGESTIONS, BUT THERE ARE THOUSANDS MORE….AND THE PEOPLE WANT SOMETHING DONE ABOUT ALL THESE ATROCITIES, rather than cutting old people’s social security. WE’RE VERY ANGRY REGARDING SIMPSON’S AND BOWLES’ CAN ONLY THINK OF SOCIAL SECURITY TO CUT.
Mr. Simpson and his comrades in the Senate are well aware that this financial debacle has been planned and executed impecably by the Federal Reserve private bank’s owners, their friends on Wall Street, with the help of Congress and the administration, all of which are filled with dual-citizen Israelis.
Here’s an article that spells it out:
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jim-willie/qe2-and-the-great-misdiagnosis
How many times must I write this. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for food stamps, ssi or medicaid. The dream act hasn’t been passed. And if you want to find out about rapes and murders of children, you really need to look in the newspapers and see how many of these illegals there are compared to white men.
You are sadly mistaken. Illegals ALREADY get all these benefits in most states, costing taxpayers $385 BILLION PER YR. (The Dream Act relates to in-state tuition and amnesty.) Missouri may be the only state NOT providing these benefits, but free hospitalization is required everywhere.
Regarding SSI — NO, illegals don’t pay into social security unless they fraudulently use your childrens’ social security number (most get paid cash and pay no taxes or SS). But they CERTAINLY are being paid SSI benefits! And — the Social Security Administration does NOT put any money it receives from illegals into YOUR account. They commit FRAUD by keeping the money. They (and ICE) know EXACTLY where all the illegals are.
Just within the last few months, two children in the news were abducted by illegals; one was an Amber Alert and was caught with the 8 yr. old girl.
The following report gives the sordid facts related to illegal crime in the U.S. Rapes by illegals number close to a million; 9,000 Americans are murdered each year; and many more die as a result of vehicular homicide by illegals DUI. And what about all those criminal gangs, human trafficking, and drugs?
The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/
Where do you live? Wake up and visit your local County Health Department! If you can find a parking place…go in sit down, if you can find a chair…and see who is there receiving “Free Care.” Get your head out of the sand!
Dear Kate,
This is one of the best commentaries that I have read on this site. Please drop me a line, maybe people like us can collaborate on some freelance reporting.
MK
Thanks, MK!
I get a kick out of all these assholes in Washington wanting to kill off the elder generation and starving them to death… For one thing theses ass holes don’t pay into Social Security, but they do draw from it when they hit retirement age as well as all their other fat benifits for life that we the tax payer pays for…
And what about doing an audit of Social Security going back to Regan if not farther, and see how much each president borrowed to help balance their budgets, there’d be plenty of money in the account if it was all paid back, with interest…
The generation that is put down in this f–ked article is the generation that has worked all their lives and paid into Social Security, not like the free loaders from all over the world that live here and get all the benifits…. there should be a cap on the amount and time limit for them too…
Hell if you cut the benifits from from those ass holes in Washington that draw and don’t pay into it, there would be no shortage of money…
That would be change we can beleive in….
I wonder how Simpson feels about service connected disabled veterans not getting any type of increase or is that in his cutting block also. The VA should re evaluate the percentages and come up with something,…..their employees are getting raises but that is probably a lost cause.
Heck, i got something to add. Why doesn’t the VA change the percentage of disability rating system instead of the shell game, carnival Ouija board system that they have? You know like our money system, 10 plus 10 equals 20. 40 plus 20 equals 60. easy huh? Fact of the matter is there ARE people in the world (disabled and or handicapped) that are not 100% ABLE to work and since I am one of em I have found out how difficult it is to find and hold a job, so this rating system (100% able and partly/ completely disabled) is antiquated.
My Veteran-husband died in 1996. The VA’s who-do math listed him as 100 per-cent disabled…in 2000 ! Everytime I go renew my military ID there is a BIG problem. They can’t figure out how to make the computers take information on someone who had been dead four years before the VA rated him!
He’s got a lot of damned nerve. The greedy generation weren’t greedy when the government took their money for social security. And why is it federal employees, including our Congress, doesn’t contribute to Social Security? They have their own pension plan that pays them “full salary” when they retire. And when is our government going to put back the money they stole from Social Security. “Greediest generation” my ass. Get Simpson and the whole deficit commission out of there. They’re probable being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure out how to rob the rest of us.
The American People will accept reform and belt-tightening because we don’t want to screw our kids and grandkids. However, we won’t accept reforms that don’t start at the top: 1. Congress must participate in social security. Congressional retirees must convert their pensions to 401k’s. 2. The Social Security Trust Fund will be locked up!! (No more “legal theft” of OUR money). 3. Members of Congress will receive a reasonable travel allocation. If it is used up, they must travel at their own expense. 4. Air Force One costs 182k/hour to fly. Ground it for all but absolutely necessary travel. 5. End Earmarks. If a congressman needs 3 million dollars for a harmonica museum in North Dakota, let him/her sponsor a separate bill for that expense. 6. As our leaders, members of Congress need to be held to a higher ethical standard. Serious ethics violations need to be punished with loss of office, loss of pension, and jail time. 7. Term limits!! The ability of a long standing dinosaur oligarchs such as Teddy K. or Robt. Byrd to have undue influence over other elected officials is what got us into this mess in the first place!!
Prior to 1956, military retirement at twenty years service equalled fifty percent of the active duty pay for the given rank. This retirement amount was increased to always equal fifty percent of future active duty pay of that given rank.In 1956, in an effort to save money for the general fund, or improve a veterans retirement value,depending on your political view, the veteran’s fifty percent remained a constant for a veteran’s lifetime adjusted by applied annual cost of living increases. Retired veterans have not received cost of ling increases for the past two years whereas the comparable active duty ranks have received justly signifigant pay increases.Shall the loss of veteran’s income under Simpson’s recommendations result in the recurrence of “county homes”. The thought of their wartorn wrinkled widows brings forth memories of flags at half mast.
[...] Wyoming U.S. Senator Alan Simpson volunteered to be a Co Chairperson of President Obama’s Debt Reduction Commission… [...]
when SS was first introduced it was meant to be a supplement not a retirement account. It was also voluntary. It was not a mandated program that everyone was forced to pay into.
after the program was mandated the funds grew and naturally the robbers broke into the piggy bank.
Clinton used the last remaining SS funds to balance his budget on the books. The media misleads us into thinking we are broke because it only reports debt and tax collection but no other income the USA has.
it doesn’t report income from investments and other things that we are left in the dark about. I’m betting the USA is actually far from broke but they don’t want you to know that….my god…if people knew we had more money they would want even more benefits for peons and the poor, abused and neglected congress critters might actually have to limit their unlimited benefits a tad.
so, SS was a social experiment that failed. The government has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt it cannot, will not and unable to keep their hands off someone else’s money.
so, let abolish SS along with the Government, the Fed and wall street and start new.
as to greedy generation? I find the baby boomers along with every generation since, including my own, are the “me” generation. Till recently we had it all. We had a first rate country, first rate standard of living and first rate jobs. We lost all that due to greed on all levels.
Simpson is nothing more than a pot calling a kettle black.
Well if they want to cut out SS, good for them, but I want all the money that I have paid into for the past 48+ years back and with inrerest… If that makes me greedy, than f–k who ever thinks so… I was born here, I was in the Army in the 60′s and 70′s did two tours in Viet Nam and Cambodia, so I didn’t spend my time living with mommy and daddy, playing video games or on my cell phone and texting all the time, I workrd for a f–k’n living, didn’t draw unemployment, and until I had my heart attacks, didn’t get any money from our government… So if this makes me greddy, than f–k you too….
Simpson is nothing but a worthless piece of crap. Ask him to forfeit his retirement
from the government and then listen to him squawk. Old pricks like him need to
retire back into the hills of Wyoming and stay there. Lets don’t forget that he is
the one who stated publicly that “disabled vets got their disabilities from falling
off of barstools”. Simpson has never liked veterans and Obama is an idiot. He is
really nothing more than a mis-labeled democrat working for George Bush.
FTA: “Simpson said he’s spent about $25,000 of his own money on travel and hotel expenses on behalf of the debt commission — an expense he said he doesn’t mind paying.”
That’s because Simpson’s got that fat retirement we pay him for his “service” to the country. (Does everyone else remember this “Simpson” who gave us Simpson-Mazzoli, which granted amnety to 4,000,000 illegal aliens and set the stage for the push for illegal alien amnesty today?)
The sons of bitches currently serving in the congress and senate and the ones who are now enjoying their golden parachutes, compliments of the American tax payer, need to be the first to put their own pay and benefits packages on the chopping block if they expect “Joe Six Pack” to ever stop believing our “leaders” are a bunch of thieves and cut-purses.
Before Simpson begins to lecture anyone on greed, he needs to give up his own golden parachute.
With people living into their 80′s they are taking way more benefits than they ever put in, and they think they are entitled to them. I figure when my husband retires he will have put in $130,000 – his employers put in an equal amount. According to his possible benefits in about 10years he will use up that $130,000. The Medicare contributions at only 1.45% will be used up after a 3 day stay in the hospital, for the rest of his 20 year life expectancy the medical bills paid by younger tax payers. As someone who works in the health care field, it is a bit disturbing to see the medical expenses incurred by the seniors getting total hip and knee replacements in their 80′s and 90′s. My father served in the army for less than 2 yrs in peace time. He received paid benefits for the first year after serving plus had his college tuition paid for and for the last 15 yrs has used the VA to cover medical expenses. His benefits have far outweighed his time of service. Lets get real here.