Aug 25, 2010

"Like A Milk Cow With 310 Million Tits"

From Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post:

Alan Simpson believes that Social Security is "like a milk cow with 310 million tits," according to an email he sent to the executive director of National Older Women's League Tuesday morning. Simpson co-chairs the deficit commission, which is considering various proposals to cut Social Security benefits.

Simpson's email, which OWL chief Ashley Carson released publicly, (PDF) was sent in response to an April blog post Carson wrote for the Huffington Post. Carson criticized Simpson for repeatedly describing his Social Security opponents as "Pink Panthers," arguing that the description had sexist connotations.

His email is peppered with exclamation points and condescension.
There could not be a better person to lead this effort to cut Social Security than Alan Simpson.

Update: The American Association of Retired Persons is not amused by Simpson's rant.

Further Update: Simpson has now apologized.

Even Further Update: Paul Krugman on Simpson's comments:
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.
Obama did not fire him.

I have to say that I see far more farce here than tragedy. I do not want to see Simpson replaced. He should stay the public face of this effort to cut Social Security benefits.

The Updates Just Keep Coming: This is not the first time that Simpson has gone out of his way to e-mail someone who criticized his efforts to cut Social Security benefits. I am getting miffed that I have not yet received a crude, condescending e-mail from Simpson!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Like A Milk Cow With 310 Million Tits"

Does this simpson person realize it's not just beneficiaries
suckling but so is the overpaid employees($100,000+).

John Herling said...

Nobody thought SSA's employees were overpaid before the recession started. In fact, anybody qualified enough to get a good job in private industry avoided federal employment like the plague and looked down on federal workers. It wasn't until the private industry gravy train ground to a halt that federal employment started to look good. Can you say "jealousy"?

Anonymous said...

Love him or hate hime Alan Simpson tells you what he thinks and doesn't give you a bunch of BS like other political people.

Nothing wrong in that e-mail. He just told her the way it is and she didn't like it.

Way to go Al.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on, pal. Simpson's email is condescending, sarcastic, and belittling. You don't have to disagree with someone in a disagreeable manner, and it ain't smart to do it if you are in a powerful public position. But then, Alan Simpson has always been a smart-ass and he isn't about to give it up, it seems.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how cheaply you could pay people to oversee the Billions in benefits that SSA administers and not have a disaster?

Anonymous said...

Democrats are afraid of Republicans?? What universe is he living in. Republicans are usually falling all over themselves trying to show how moderate they are, so the voters will like them. That is why the Dems get away with so much extremism. The tragedy is, that nothing will end up being done until the next crisis, and maybe not even then.

Nancy Ortiz said...

A#5--"Republicans are falling all over themselves trying to show how moderate they are..." And, this is certainly reflected in calls for secession, repeal of the 17th amendment, taking recourse to 2nd amendment rights, recommendations for nullification of federal laws, and so on. Not a radical idea in the lot. Ok. See you around the Free Republic. TTFN!

Anonymous said...

Well, Nancy, that is because some of us are done with the non-productive "moderate" route and are deciding to stand on principle and the Constitution. Of course, all done with reason and logic through enacted legislation, not by recourse to left-wing activist judges who won't even recognize the legitimacy of sanctioned elections.