How many outrageous, offensive comments does this idiot have to make before Obama realizes that he’s the wrong person to Co-Chair his useless Deficit Commission?
His latest outrage (and the reaction from VoteVets.org):
“As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Deficit Commission co-chair Alan Simpson recently started a political firestorm by complaining that veterans benefits allocated for servicemembers exposed to Agent Orange run “contrary to efforts to control federal spending.” He even went as far as to say that “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.”
Now, veterans advocacy group VoteVets, the nation’s largest progressive veterans organization, is calling on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson.
Citing not only his comments about veterans benefits but also his earlier remarks comparing Social Security to a “milk cow with 310 million tits,” VoteVets asks that Obama remove Simpson 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…”
The thing is, does anyone doubt that this is probably the attitude of about 80% of the GOP? Oh, the chickenhawks love to champion unnecessary wars for other [lesser] people to fight and they love the photo ops and the flag lapel pins but when it comes to actually taking care of the men and women who selflessly serve this country, then they lose interest.
This post has been moved from “In the News.”
Taylor — I think you could more fairly paint the entire Congress with the “it’s ok for someone else’s kids to fight” brush.
That was a big complaint of the Iraq War — all these rich people were voting to send other people’s children off to war. I said it then, we can all say it now — if THEIR kids were being sent overseas to fight, that war would never have been approved. Never.
And how many members of Congress have even served? I know of Mark Kirk, simply because he’s from this area, though he’s not my rep. He’s one of only a handful, I believe.
don’t just blame the GOP. Be fair, and blame them all.
And all that said — how could he have SAID that? HOW? These people served us, and we don’t help them now? Unspeakable.
fyi… this post is by secyclintonblog.
But let’s remember it’s the chickenhawk GOP that was the worst on preemption.
I’ve also *never* given Dems a pass on Iraq, including Hillary Clinton.
Yeah, dems share a HUGE amount of responsibility for the Iraq War. They like to claim that the way the war was carried out was the problem, but that’s dishonest- the problem was there was enough evidence out there to show that the war was purely political and they were too afraid to vote against it for fear of being labeled “weak” on national security.
I almost cried when Hillary cast her vote.
The failure of Democrats to oppose the invasion of Iraq was as telling a moment as any other. I think most Dem Electeds will cave at the mere hint of “unpatriotic” criticism, because the fear of the “weak on defense” label is so strong.
We have no leadership.
Appearently this relates to the VA newly including heart disease and diabetes to the list of things covered by agent orange exposure. I read that Jim Webb (who did serve and whose son has served) is concerned about it too because of it’s budget busting potential. Of course if we had single payer none of this would be so bad.
I don’t care what gets Simpson booted as long as he gets booted. But don’t think his departure from the “catfood commission” will change their recommendations. It is loaded with conservatives both Repub and Dem.
Did you see Keith Olbermann’s interview with the head of VoteVets.org last night? If not it’s worth a watch and it’s at the Think Progress link in the post. While Simpson was definitely referring to Agent Orange claims I got the sense from VoteVets that he also was making a broader complaint against vets related to some of the mental health coverage- in other words I don’t think Simpson was just talking about Vietnam.
And of course, part of the problem is not only Simposon’s mindset and views, but also the offensive way he expresses them. His hypocrisy is also striking given the federal govt pays his former salary (when he was in office), his insurance and his pension.
Actually, I made a mistake- that interview on ThinkProgress is different than the one I saw (and the one I refer to in my comment above)- I saw a different interview on MSNBC last night with a different Veteran’s group and it was actually better than the Olbermann interview because the vet actually ripped into Simpson for his hypocrisy. I’ll see if I can find it.
Glen Greenwald wrote a “barn burner” on this topic! I am sending to my email list.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/04/simpson
I love Greenwald, he certainly has a way with words!
I can’t find the video I saw last night anywhere- I’m beginning to think I imagined it. But I know I didn’t! It was an interview with a head of a vets group but it wasn’t Paul Sullivan.
Definitely, Glen Greenwald nailed it Lake Lady. What is happening should have all Democrats and democrats up in arms. Obama is trying to push through the evisceration of Social Security via this underhanded, unaccountable, unelected, commission. No debate, no discussion, just a fiat by the usual suspects of the beltway. Change you can believe in or the same old corrupt crony capitalism that we saw under the Shrub?