The Republican co-chair of President Obama’s Deficit Commission, former Sen. Alan Simpson, has a certain knack for controversy. Recently he described the Social Security system as a “milk cow with 310 million tits.” Now, Simpson has taken on Vietnam veterans claiming Agent Orange injuries as people who are “not helping us to save the country.”
Simpson objects that the Agent Orange claims are paid out too freely and run “contrary to efforts to control federal spending.” He said the “irony” is that “the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.”
Simpson found a particularly bad way to express concerns that have been spoken by others. For example, diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans — despite a lack of research connecting Agent Orange and diabetes.
This is a case of a legitimate concern being expressed in the worse possible way. In defense of Simpson, he is an Army veteran who has historically supported military spending and support.
Source: Think Progress
CM You will see some real changes when John Boehner takes over as speaker. He and Pelosi have very different opinions on almost everything. The republicans will try to eliminate most entitlement programs including the extension of unemployment benefits. Many liberals that say there are no differences are not dependent on the government for social services and don’t seem concerned about those who will suffer when the programs are cut or eliminated. Also John Boehner’s views on issues that effect women and children are totally different than Pelosi’s.
Rafflaw.
Everything I said about Democrats in the post above addressed to Buddah also applies to President Obama. He is a loyal servant of the overclass and his reaching for nonexistent bipartisanship is his way of cooperating with the Republicans to serve his and their common masters. RIABN for Republicans In All But Name, that is what the Democrats really are.
Buddah.
The Democrats in Congress are not sellouts as their true masters are elites of the kleptarchy not those silly enough to vote for them. It may be that Democrats are slightly less vicious in attacking the interests of the working and middle classes than are the Republicans but that is only because they are trying to make it appear that there is a difference between them and the Republicans apart from the lack of overt support for the fetus obsessed misogynists of the Chritian Taliban, but they are going to dismantle social security, force all Americans to pay through the nose for useless health insurance and protect the prison industrial complex and the war machine.
You poor yanks are stuffed either way. Vote Republican and you will be S****ed by the Republicans, vote democrat and you will be s****ed by the Democrats unless you are at least a hectamillionare.
Simpson is a buffoon that has got to go. President Obama, it is way past time to forget this bipartisan crap. If you haven’t noticed, the Republicans have been giving you the back of their hand every time you have reached out. First it was the seniors who built this nation and now the vets who saved our democracy more than once. Send Simpson on his way and make him pay his own ticket. We wouldn’t want a senior like him draining our treasury.
Agent Orange by Kate Wolf
I was seventeen when I quit school, the year that I enlisted
I don’t recall just why I did, my Mom says I insisted
I had some strange idea then, that Uncle Sam was right
My Mama cried, she signed the card, and I went off to fight.
But I just found out this morning, the Doctor told me so,
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn’t even know.
Got off the plane in Vietnam, it didn’t look like war
With all I saw, I started wondering, just what we came here for.
Some Officers got drunk at night and cheated on their wives
While those peasants on the other side, were fighting for their lives.
You know the army tried some fancy stuff, to bring them to their knees
Like Agent Orange defoliant, to clear the brush and trees
We’d fly all day above the trails, through clouds of poison spray
But they never said that chemical, would hurt our health today.
But I got the news this morning, the Doctor told me so,
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn’t even know.
Well I tried hard to forget that war, like everybody else did
I settled down, got married and I even had some kids
Our children both had birth defects, the Doctors had their doubts
They never said what caused it, but I think I just found out.
Because I just found out this morning, the Doctor told me so,
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn’t even know.
The Doctor says I have some time, he was trying to be kind
You know, I’ve never been a radical, but this has changed my mind
I’d be so proud to hear my sons say “Hell no, we won’t go!”
“Because you killed our Dad in Vietnam, and he didn’t even know.”
This Agent Orange from Vietnam, we carry with us still
It stays inside for years and years, and does its best to kill
You might get cancer of the liver, you might get cancer of the skin
You might get a VA Disability, you might not live to win.
Because I got the news this morning, the Doctor told me so
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn’t even know.
They killed me in Vietnam and I didn’t even know.
I never bought all that Wyoming corn pone Simpson was dishing. Just a dyed in the wool conservative with a Will Rogers demeanor and teeth like a piranha. In ioco, veritas.
“You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.”
~ Mark Twain (from the essay, “Corn-Pone Opinions,” 1901)
Right you are, Mr. Twain!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLRF54fCvrY&fs=1&hl=en_US]
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/house-democrats-to-obama-no-cuts-to-social-security.php
Can I say what I really want to on here and hopefully not offend anyone…..don’t look….BUT FUCK YOU BUDDY AND the horse you rode in on.
QUOTE “the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.”
A long time friend of mine did….he’s dead….cancer from agent orange…
Mr. Simpson was not of much use when he sat in the senate. He still is not of much use. However, he is continuing to draw his lifetime government pension and medical benefits, which means that he is not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/un-american—-what-will-happen-if-republicans-force-a-government-shutdown.php When the republicans win in the fall they have promised to shut government down so no one one gets a benefit check.
“September 2, 2010
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
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Dear Mr. President,
I write to you as the chairman of VoteVets, a pro-military organization comprised of over 50,000 veterans and military families and another 50,000 civilian supporters, about the head of your Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, former Senator Alan Simpson.
We have long been concerned about Senator Simpson’s troubling pattern of denigrating those who rely on Social Security. As you are aware, of the more than 23 million veterans, almost half–approximately 10 million–collect Social Security benefits. And that number has quadrupled since the 1960s.
So you can see why Senator Simpson’s comments referring to people on Social Security as “greedy geezers” and “lesser people” were so troubling. And his recent email to the Older Women’s League where he accused the executive director of “babbling into the vapors” in her work to protect the vital program while referring to it as “a milk cow with 310 million tits” has only deepened our concern.
We were also troubled when reports surfaced in August that Senator Simpson was interested in using the commission as a means to freeze military pay and raise the amounts that service members pay for their healthcare.
But then on Tuesday, Senator Simpson actually put veteran’s benefits on the chopping block, too, blaming disabled veterans for the country’s fiscal situation. And for us, that is the final straw.
President Obama, this week you called for all Americans to honor and thank our troops. I know you agree that honoring our troops can’t just be lip service. And the best way to honor those who serve our country is to make sure that we take care of them once they return home. That means strengthening the vital programs we rely on, including Social Security and veterans’ health care, not undermining them as Senator Simpson seems intent on doing.
It has become all too clear that Senator Simpson cannot be trusted to objectively review the budget and make impartial recommendations about our nation’s economic priorities. We ask that you remove him from his current position so that the commission can continue its work in a way that will give the military community–and all Americans–confidence in the conclusions it reaches.
Sincerely,
Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman, VoteVets.org” [emphasis added]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/vets-call-on-obama-to-fir_n_703520.html
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/fire-alan-simpson/ Obama’s attempts at bi-partisanship never seem to work.
That a**hole. Agent Orange wasn’t even recognized as a compensable illness/syndrome by the VA for a couple of decades, the government fought tooth and nail to avoid recognizing that chemical warfare had the unintended consequence of sickening and killing our own troops. Of course there were good political reasons for doing so: if you admit that your ‘herbicide’, which was dumped on untold numbers of Vietnamese civilians, actually harms and kills people then you might have to own up to waging a chemical war. [The war criminals that sanctioned that nastiness got away scott-free also BTW.]
How about this Mr. Simpson, we just balance he number of veterans that lived with Agent Orange poisoning or died from it (numbers unknown but arguably a bunch if not a mega-bunch) without receiving any treatment or compensation from the VA/govt. against the current claims and call it a wash. I’m sure the money saved by ignoring the problem for about 20 years offsets or entirely cancels out the current expenditures. Hell, in an actual cost analysis the govt. may still be coming out ahead.
And Simpson-The-Callous has the confidence of the President to be making decisions about the future of Social Security. It’s outrageous.
rcampbell,
He’s another tar ball and needs to be filtered ….
rcampbell,
“Simpson’s brain’s expiration date is obviously long passed.”
That’s true–assuming the man has one.
After awhile you get tired of arguing with people whose mindset is like the”udder man”.
“not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.”
That’s pretty funny considering the same – but valid – criticism could be made of all the graft swilling Constitutional sell outs in Congress who are putting corporate interests above those of citizens.
Jackass.
Conservative and Republicans are not helping to save the country. They have and they are, in fact, doing everything possible to make the US a third world country saddled with debt, depleted by senseless expensive wars and enslaved to their corporate masters. Simpson’s brain’s expiration date is obviously long passed.