Seniors Are “Greediest Generation,” Says Deficit Commission Chair, 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.