Labor & Employment Law

Deficit Chair Simpson Rants Against Seniors Again. Time to Go

By Mike Hall

Maybe when he?s back on some Wyoming ranch, Alan Simpson can avoid stepping in it. But the co-chairman of the federal budget deficit commission seems to squish deep into it, every time he opens his apparently out-of-control mouth about Social Security.

After the latest loose-lip flap, leaders of seniors? organization say its time for Simpson to head back to the ranch and resign from the commission.

In a nasty e-mail to Ashley Carson, executive director of the Older Women?s League (OWL) Simpson berates her for an April blog she wrote on Huffington Post in which she takes him to task for distorting the opposition to the Social Security cuts.  Raising the retirement age is one such potential cut, one that Simpson supports.

In his Aug. 24 e-mail Simpson writes that Carson and ?people like you babble into the vapors…and all the rest of that crap.?  He says that Social Security is ?like a milk cow with 310 million tits? and signs off by telling Carson, ?Call when you get honest work.?

Carson says that, ?Apparently Mr. Simpson thinks that defending the rights of women is not honest work.?

The acerbic rant is one of Simpson?s favorite weapons to turn on anyone who disagrees with him.  Previously, Simpson called seniors ?greedy geezers;? described lower-income Americans as ?lesser people in society;? and complained that he is frustrated hearing from retirees who, ?live in gated communities and drive their Lexus to the Perkins restaurant to get the AARP discount.?

In a joint letter to President Obama, Barbara Easterling, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans and Executive Director Edward C. Coyle, urged the president to demand Simpson?s resignation. They wrote that his remarks are

conduct unbecoming a person named to co-chair a presidential panel.  Moreover, it is the latest in a series of derisive and inappropriate comments Mr. Simpson has made about our nation?s seniors and the Social Security benefits they have earned and rely upon to make ends meet.

Click here for their full letter.

In another letter to Obama, the National Council of Women?s Organizations (NCWO) says:

Mr. Simpson suggests that anyone supporting people who most need help and who deserve the benefits they paid for must be dishonest or stupid.  Such open contempt goes beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated from someone in such a position of authority.

You can also sign a petition calling for Simpson?s removal here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).