Alan Simpson's e-mail tirade has to make even the Very Serious People question if a guy so apparently hostile to Social Security should be co-chairing the deficit commission, which is supposedly trying to save Social Security.
Alan Simpson believes that Social Security is "like a milk cow with 310 million tits," according to an email he sent to the executive director of National Older Women's League Tuesday morning. Simpson co-chairs the deficit commission, which is considering various proposals to cut Social Security benefits.
Simpson's email, which OWL chief Ashley Carson released publicly, (PDF) was sent in response to an April blog post Carson wrote for the Huffington Post. Carson criticized Simpson for repeatedly describing his Social Security opponents as "Pink Panthers," arguing that the description had sexist connotations.
His email is peppered with exclamation points and condescension. At one point he urged Carson to read a certain graph, "which I hope you are able to discern if you are any good at reading graphs."
Simpson concludes by implying that leading a major organization dedicated to the interests of middle-aged and elderly women is not "honest work."
"If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know," he writes. "And yes, I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too. It's the same with any system in America. We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!"
Would President Obama agree with the idea that America's seniors are "milking it to the last degree"? Simpson is well-known in senior advocacy groups for calling Social Security recipients "greedy geezers", so apparently he really does believe that all these people who worked their entire lives, paying into this system don't deserve to get it back. The average Social Security benefit is just $1,170 a month, or about $14,000 a year. Not that Alan Simpson would know that, he's got a great retirement plan as a former U.S. Senator where he put in 18 grueling years of what I'm sure was heavy lifting.
This "310 million tits" attack is all the evidence we need that Alan Simpson is not dealing in good faith on this commission, and that he has no place on it. President Obama should bounce him. Furthermore, any work the commission has done regarding Social Security should be scrapped. Deals done in bad faith--spearheaded by someone as hostile to and ignorant of the Social Security system as Simpson is--have to be rejected.
I've asked the White House for comment on Simpson's tirade, and will report back as soon as I've received one.
Don't miss Sydserious's diary on this.