Sen. Alan Simpson Kindly Provides Example of Those Thank You Letters He Went on About

Former Sen. Alan Simpson complained back in 2011 about kids not sending thank you letters anymore and listening to enemas and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg and generally behaving like a cranky old man, giving him some brief publicity while his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform failed to actually provide any decent fiscal responsibility or reform.

Let it not be said that Simpson doesn't practice what he preaches. Politico today received a copy of a letter Simpson sent to the California Alliance for Retired Americans after they protested a West Coast visit, accusing him of wanting to gut the Social Security system:

To Whom It May Concern:

Erskine Bowles and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the West Coast and received an excellent reception from folks — at least those who are using their heads and have given up using emotion, fear, guilt or racism to juice up their troops. Your little flyer entitled "Bowles! Simpson! Stop using the deficit as a phony excuse to gut our Social Security!" is one of the phoniest excuses for a "flyer" I have ever seen. You use the faces of young people, who are the ones who are going to get gutted while you continue to push out your blather and drivel. My suggestion to you — an honest one — read the damn report. The Moment of Truth — 67 pages, and then tell me if we're not doing the right thing with Social Security. What a wretched group of seniors you must be to use the faces of the very people that we are trying to save, while the "greedy geezers" like you use them as a tool and a front for your nefarious bunch of crap. You must feel some sense of shame for shoveling out this bulls**t. Read the latest news from the Social Security Trustees. The Social Security System will not "hit the skids" in 2033 instead of 2036. If you can't understand all of this you need a pane of glass in your naval so you can see out during the day! Read the report. Get back to me. My address is below.

If you don't read the report, — as Ebenezer Scrooge said in the Christmas Carol, "Haunt me no longer!"

Best regards,

Alan Simpson

That's how it's done, kids!

Nick Gillespie (with some master remixing by Austin Bragg) explained a year ago how Simpson's efforts to save Social Security (not gut it) won't work.

Comments

[RBS]

You better hat tip John before he loses it.

[General Butt Naked]

Why? John didn't write the fucking letter.

[Scott S.]

Sorry, John. Saw it myself on Politico.

[joshua corning]

I would not worry about it.

John is a notorious hat tip whore.

[Warty]

Never give John an inch.

[nipplemancer]

Angry Inch

[Romulus Augustus]

He left off, "And while you are at it, get off my lawn." It's refreshing to see what a politician who isn't running for office ever again is willing to say on this topic. Love to see him land a one-two on Bush II, Clinton, Reid, Bohner, Pelosi, Frank, etc. etc.

[Isaac Bartram]

It's funny but almost no one who has proposed changes to "fix" Social Security in the past has ever proposed to change benefits to people currently or about (say within 5-10 years) to start collecting it.

And yet the the only howls of opposition that ever come up are from current retirees. It's as if old age really does cause brain damage.

[tarran]

In turkish they have a saying that translates "pays for it like it's made of gold, uses it like it's crap."

Social security is like that. The 12% of people's salary (let's ignore the tax holiday for now) that people pay into the system would, if put into a conservatively allocated IRA provide them with plenty of income in retirement to live comfortably.

What they employee gets for this gold they put into the system is utter crap, a simple annuity that pays too little to live off of and is gone when the retiree dies.

I suspect most retirees are terrified that once people start tinkering with the system meaningfully that the younger generations will decide to reduce the current benefits because they are unaffordable, just as pensions are written down in a bankruptcy.

The house of cards will collapse. They just hope it will collapse after they're not around to experience it.

[joshua corning]

It's as if old age really does cause brain damage.

I don't think it is old age individuals I think it is the old age organizations.

Their members keep dying so they need to make sure new members get their government checks so they can afford dues.

[Tman]

The kids in Japan already figured this out. We will get a preview of that reality from them in the next decade or so.

[Isaac Bartram]

It was Geezers voting for Al Gore (and who failed the literacy test the Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections set for them) who caused the 2000 prez election fuckup.

Fucking old geazers who couldn't figure out the ballot and/or that you had to push the stylus all the way through to remove the chad were convinced by the Gore campaign that evil old BushCheneyHitler and his Halliburton minions were going to steal all the Benjamins from the SS Trust Fund to light their big fat capitalist cigars with.

[sloopyinca]

What the fuck is a "SS Trust Fund"?

[0x90]

Like a normal trust fund, but with a 454 LS6.

[Broseph of Invention]

I appreciated that, 0x90.

[NAL]

That was good!

[Isaac Bartram]

The geezers who voted for Gore, or wanted to but whose arthritis fingers couldn't punch the chads out (or who thought that they have to punch a second one for Lieberman) knew with absolute certainty that the the Social Security Trust Fund was full of cash money that they had putting into it ever since the Big One (WWII) don't you know. And their late husbands had killed the Nazis so they deserved it!!!

They knew they just had to elect Al Gore to stop the evil BushCheneyHitler and his Halliburton minions from stealing the Benjamins that it was full of to light their big fat capitalist cigars with.

Go to the nearest dealer and have your Sarcasmometer? recalibrated.

[edcoast]

I did the sad math on this a few years back. Even with fairly conservative investing, I figured I could have amassed twice the amount SS is going to pay me if I live into my 80s.

[wareagle]

which, of course, is the point. The govt can't have you investing the money. That sounds too much like accountability, self-reliance, and all those other nasty words Big Nanny cringes at hearing.

[Keith3D]

"It's as if old age really does cause brain damage."

Uh, doesn't it though?

[Apatheist ?_??]

A+ trolling

[joshua corning]

i do not get what is going on here.

Who is Simpson barking at?

Is it the no cut social security crowd or the cut social security crowd?

[Scott S.]

He is barking at the no cut Social Security crowd, of which he is also a member.

[Sevo]

That's sort of what it looked like. Is there a good guy in this exchange?

[Paul.]

The camera man.

[John Thacker]

Simpson's plan is a lot better than the status quo, and actually does involve cuts, though he likes to pretend that it doesn't (or sometimes falls to insisting that the cuts are necessary to save it, such as by cutting the rate of growth and eligibility age now rather than having disaster and a sudden sharp cut in 30 years.)

I think he's a good guy in this exchange.

OTOH, Reason has repeatedly attacked him for not going far enough, and for such irrelevant issues as him being out of touch and not being able to make good pop culture references. Clearly those later factors are just as important as Romney's dog or Obama's SAT scores.

[Scott S.]

Yes, this. The seniors are objecting to even the smallest changes, like increasing the retirement age.

[John Thacker]

He's actually a member of the "cut Social Security slightly while insisting loudly that he's trying to save it, and the cuts he's doing aren't really cuts because they're only restraining the rate of growth or changing the eligibility date."

He's barking back at the "absolutely no cuts whatsoever crowd."

Reason previously has complained about Simpson not being in favor of cutting it more, about being too worried about saving it (and thinking that people have earned a return), and about being willing to let the payroll taxes go up some for it too at the same time as benefits are cut.

[fried wylie]

You must feel some sense of shame for shoveling out this bulls**t.

Self-awareness is in such short supply.

[buntpunt]

Dont you just love them punk cops? I emean like really?

http://www.Privacy-Geeks.tk

[wef]

alan simpson:

yet another reason that

the republican party must be destroyed