Don't worry, anyone who suggests that Simpson needs to resign will be called "fucking retarded" by the White House.

Destroying Social Security was the idea all along.

Only Nixon could go to China.

Only a Democratic administration could dismantle SS.

I can appreciate the White House's difficulties when shaping the deficit commission's membership.

Oh come on. If Obama really didn't know 6 months ago what kind of asshole Simpson is, he's too incompetent to be in office. But he knew exactly what he was doing. Crazy Grandpa Simpson is just the right kind of foil to make Obama's preferred kinder and gentler gutting of SS look "moderate" and "centrist".

Simpson is perfect for the job! The whole thing becomes all about him and the report from the White House's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform sinks right out of sight!

Speaking of living off the tit, I checked Simpson's bio and his whole working career has been in a public sector job. Hypocrite

Which political genius appointed Simpson again?

And I do mean genius.

Because where's lion's share of the vitriol going to? The appointer or the appointee? The puppetmaster or the puppet?

Just like health care "reform". Genius.

U.S. Senators, both sitting and retired, are frequently self-important A-holes. Respect for laws and citizens are beneath them.

I'm reminded of a certain "I am not gay, I have never been gay!" senator's response to the cop who arrested him in an airport men's room.

He handed the policeman his senatorial I.D. and said, "What do you think of THAT!?"

Apparently they don't have Get Out of Jail cards in the western territories. . .

This is a horribly chosen commission and the White House should be ashamed.

Simpson is being a crank, but he's one of precious few Republicans willing to call bullshit on the idea that you're going to address the long-term debt without any tax increase. He called out the right for its "plain damn lies" that Reagan didn't raise taxes. When his crankery was directed at those nuts, we were all pleased.

Good luck finding a Republican co-chair who's going to deliver that message to the right.

Which political genius appointed Simpson again?

And I do mean genius.

Because who's getting the lion's share of the left wing vitriol and dissatisfaction?

The appointer or the appointee?
The puppetmaster or the puppet?

Just like health care "reform". Wash, rinse, repeat.

Genius.

I got a great idea to simplify and stabilize SS...eliminate the cap on how much income gets taxed. The folks who make a million bucks or more stop paying into SS by the end of February each year. If we took that one simple step, it would make SS solvent for the next 75 years. No increases in retirement age, no cuts in benefits, no complicated means tests and of course, NO to the idea that has already been rejected by a large majority of Americans....NO privatization of the system.

Alan....why is that so complicated? Why is that not the best and fairest and easiest solution to the problem.

Folks....every one of us needs to write to our Congress critters right now and tell them this is what the public wants....it has been documented repeatedly in polling as having wide support. The Catfood folks, including Simpson, are trying to ignore the idea even exists. Don't let them.

This whole Commission is a con job from the get go, designed to provide cover for taking the worst possible approaches to resolving what is not a huge problem.

Contact 'em now. Don't let 'em get away with it.

Fittingly, an old BOOB wrote an e-mail about 300 million tits.
Throw him off that horrible commission.
No catfood for you, Senator Simpson.

I like Alan Simpson. I like him because he's a crank. So, he vented on poor Ashley, so what? She's free to ripe him a new asshole in return.

Entitlement reform . . . its what's for dinner and a perfect thing to take on once Obama has to deal with a Republican Congress. Hey, it worked for Clinton with welfare reform.

Got tits?

If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know...

Put a small tax (say 1/1000 of a cent) on every stock bought. Dump the proceeds into social security's trust fund. We'll never have to worry about the tit shriveling up again. There is even some extra cream: It will help kill the robo-traders who are in turn killing the stockmarket.

Simpson has been an asshole for decades, and evidence has poured in 'over the transom,' to use his immortal phrase on Anita Hill. The press kissed his ass because he was a folksy 'quote machine' from the hills of Wyomin'. But once a winger, always a winger. His presence on the Catfood Commission is just more Obama 'bipartisan' crap that is so damned discouraging.

310 million tits?

My kind of moo cow!

The other night I tried to comfort a tearful 75-year-old widow who was told Social Security was broke and was afraid her checks would soon stop coming. The sons of bitches who are scaring vulnerable old people for political gain are beneath contempt and should be drawn and quartered.

My apologies for any apparent sexism here, but this is a typical repug 'Bitch Slap', which we're supposed to grin and bear, thus proving what toadies we are. THIS CANNOT BE IGNORED! It's time to raise enough hell to get this fossil thrown off the committee and show the WH where the line stands.

Seriously, who appointed that sonofabitch? Was it the Obama admin, trying to prove how farking bipartisan it is?

Oops, I commented too soon.

So Obamaa DID appoint him. Then he can damn well remove him.

Speaking of living off the tit, I checked Simpson's bio and his whole working career has been in a public sector job. Hypocrite
Posted by: Wes

Yeah. I wonder how much Simpson draws down a year even now in federal bennies. Old bastard.

"Six months later, though, it seems increasingly clear that Simpson lacks the judgment and temperament for the job."

Nobody could have predicted..

A post about the catfood commission and simpon? If ever there was a thread that SCREAMED for doodie animations, poo, and all things anal, THIS IS IT!

Of course, obamabots are going to say ELIMINATING SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOOD!

and rahm will declare it a WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The good news is that obamabots are going to be the minority by 2012 (and may even be now).

Those that got conned on "hopey/changey" campaign rhetoric are going to vote for a primary challenge to obamarahma or will go third party.

If we are going to have chimpy's third term, it might as well be another bush or clinton.

Barack Obama chose Alan Simpson to head this commission. He was given the greenlight to slash Social Security and he knows it.

It is the object of the exercise. These guys act and say the things they do because they know Barack Obama has given them his implicit or explicit backing to do so. I say this a million times but Obama is a Blue Dog status quo corporatist.

This is who Obama is. Cuts food stamps to protect his charter school slush fund, the little punk.

“It’s important to note that Obama’s “Race To The Top” program is a neoliberal effort to privatize the Department of Education. What they are doing is underfunding education while holding billions in this fund, the Race To The Top fund. They are telling the individual school districts that whomever makes the most austerity program type changes to their school systems, gets some of that money. Well, several districts have completely privatized their schools systems in order to get the cash. So that money, the Race To The Top money… is actually then paid to the for-profit charter school corporations. So the White House, rather than take even PART of that money tagged for the charter school corporations, would rather take money from the poor, from the Food Stamp program, than to take it from that corporate fund. So it isn’t about taking the money to pay for education as much as it is about the Obama administration stealing from the poor while trying to protect the corporate slush fund.)”

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/obey-white-house-suggested-cutting-food-stamps-to-pay-for-education-program/

Look, it has been the GOP's wet dream for 75 years to kill social security. The reasons are obvious: it is run by the government, it is highly efficient, it is paid for, it helps millions of Americans and it is hugely popular. It has no business being any part of the discussion on reducing the national debt or even deficits--at least before 2037 UNLESS the government wants to default on the special treasuries that comprise the 2.5 trillion or so of the trust fund. as has been rightly pointed out here by several commentators, the fact that a smart guy like Obama did not simply say that social security was "off the table" is chilling. Equally chilling is Howard Dean's suggestion this morning that gutting social security might be the trade off for allowing Dumbya's tax cuts to expire. I surely will not vote for Republicans in November, but if the Democrats have to worry about the "enthusiasm gap" they need look no further than the catfood commission--and I am not a member of the professional left.

He wrote to Dean Baker, too:

Dean,

I only recently came across your column Alan Simpson: A Man Who intensely Wants to Cut Social Security. If this is the way that you do your reporting, I would think that you would have damn few fans or readers! I�m not out to �cut� anything. I�m out to stabilize the Social Security system and so, let me share with you what Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration shared with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on May 12, 2010. I hope with your own massive bias and prejudice that you won�t throw it away before you read it! First, you have to know what the Social Security system is � what it�s situation is with regard to solvency � and how do we make it sustainable. Good reading I think! And after you have finished it, you might contact me unless you just want to ramble off with your own weird opinions � on your own once again.

P.S. I loved the picture accompanying your piece. With chin in hand, I first thought of Rodin�s The Thinker � but after reading the piece I can see you haven�t done very much of that!

Apparently he doesn't know Dean Baker is an ECONOMIST!

Sorry this blog software turned all of the quote marks into �

If this is what Simpson writes in an email, imagine the jokes he tells to the boys at his members only country club.

"Fred, did you hear the one about the Jew, the Catholic, and the Colored Boy who went to heaven?"

Kind of an odd attitude for someone who collected a government paycheck for many years and is collecting a government pension right now.

Here's the plan, boys and girls:

1) Continue to bash Obama and Democrats as much as possible over the next two months;

2) Republicans win majorities in both the House and Senate;

3) Obama is impeached and removed from office (yeah!);

4) Biden conveniently curls up and dies (yeah!);

5) Lefties, who now have much more influence in the White House, convince President Boehner to fire Simpson from the "catfood commission" because that is simply the most important possible thing in the world.

6) All's well that end's well.

To be fair to Simpson, he only used the cow/tit analogy so the corporatists can finally say "I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE" when they privatize SS

For fucks sakes the Repukes don't give a shit about the size of the government per se as long as it's smaller and less powerful than (i.e., "controlled by") their corporate donors/puppetmasters. "Smaller government" is just code for "more corporate control over the country." Look at what Repukes do with the fucking military when their power. They sure the fuck don't make it smaller.

Obama wants what Simpson wants, to gut social security. Every action he's taken has shown that's what he wants.

And yet, Stevo, Obama keeps Simpson on as head without a word of reprimand. Why? It's becoming ever more clear that Obama the Neolib wants to cut Social Security himself, and do so during the lame-duck Congress. (The GOP will totally be down with THAT lame-duck vote.) Keeping Simpson on is gives Obama a perfect flak.

AND, I know you know that, Mr. Benen, but you continue to be too much of an Obamiac and give him a pass.

@ Larry: I voted Green in 2008, as in 2004. I already saw through Obama by the end of 2007.

man you guys are a bunch of paranoid idiots. how obama can be weak incompetent and sinister at the same time is beyond me. alan simpson gone? and replaced by who? another republican with good sense NOT to voice his opinion? 'cause that's what will happen, he's not going to get replaced by Krugman or some compassionate conservative. There are all kinds on that board and Obama didn't give these guys carte blanche to do anything but come up with ideas. that is all.

the idea that Obama's ultimate goal all along was to guy social security is PLAIN STUPID!! Let's ponder this for a second; IF THE DEMS ARE WILLING TO GUT SS THEN WHY O WHY DIDN'T THEY ALL GO ALONG WITH IT WHEN W WAS IN OFFICE? gET IT TOGETHER MORONS!!