I got a call yesterday about Tom Coburn appearing on Morning Joe on St. Patrick's Day. They wanted my take on what he said. I don't watch that show very often anymore (along with most people around here, so this gem slipped under our radar). It took awhile to find the transcript, but in essence, Coburn is saying that he wants the U.S. to default on $2.6 trillion surplus in the Social Security trust fund.
And now, for your daily dose of bullcrap:
Yes, real quickly, we have stolen $2.6 trillion from it we put paper money in there. The problem is, we spent the money. We didn’t just take it. We took it and spent it. Social Security ran about a $53 billion deficit last year. It’s projected to run a continuous deficit there’s no question that there’s an IOU in there, but our country borrowing $4 billion a day, which is what we’re doing, we have to create a realistic expectation by the people loaning us money that we’re going to solve our problems, there’s no question, if we had the money we could wait 10 or 15 or 20 years to fix Social security. Because we don’t have the money and we have to borrow the money, we have to create an environment where people trust us. They are saying this thing is on the downstream, you better fix this if you want us to loan you the money. They’re missing the point. We can keep commitments and we can give some proper expectations to young people in terms of social security and we cannot take – we could actually enhance those that are on the low end, which is what the deficit commission did and fix Social Security. And we don’t have to raise the first tax to do that it’s all through delaying the time at onset and creating the proper expectations. You cannot borrow the money this country needs. Pimco got out of U.S. bonds last week. That ought to send a big message to this country. They’re the biggest bond holder in the world.
emphasis added
So Coburn is saying:
The government owes this money, but we should default on our obligations to Seniors.
The U.S. is broke, so the government should default with the American people instead of financiers who ripped us off blind during the mortgage meltdown.
And, if I read between the lines here (in this somewhat incoherent spiel) Coburn is also saying that he wants to change Social Security so that we go back to generating a surplus....so Congress can continue to raid the surplus????
or maybe he meant,
We have to default on our Social Security obligations and make new rules so we can generate more funds that can be stolen?
Is that what "proper expectations" means?
Aside from the baloney about the U.S. being broke, I'm somewhat perplexed here. Usually the law and order Republican wants retribution for theft not a reorganization that perpetrates more theft. I guess not when it comes to the government stealing from senior citizens and workers who've paid into this fund for 30 years or more. What makes Coburn think anyone other than their deluded followers will go along with a Soc Sec fix that would set us up for a redux of the original crime?
The real shame in this is that the rank and file Kook Aid sippers, drinkers and gulpers buy this crap.
How about cutting defense spending?
What's wrong with defunding the "war on drugs"?
Heck, why not taxing the heck out of legalized drugs?
That should move the deficit closer to the black.
Even if we don't do any of those things, can't we at least get them in the conference room if not on the table?
Later in the interview, Coburn had more bullcrap:
It is political strategy, when you take the Democrat’s base, 74% of their base now says we want you to cut spending. Well that’s not any different than the conservative base, 74% of them want us to cut spending. Where do you hang a difference between Republicans and Democrats? It’s got to be we hate little old people who paid into their Social Security and want to take it away from them. The fact is we’re not going to solve the very real problems in front of our country today. I want to tell you, they’re gigantic, we may not solve them anyhow. We’re not going to solve them with people playing political games to try to create a political advantage. The President hadn’t really done that yet, but it needs to stop and we need to come together. It the American people understand we have big problems and that’s given to them in a way that realistically says we have to act, the American people will come together and we can do the best thing for the country. If we play the game of partisan divide and gotcha politics, what we’re going to do is go down the tubes.
emphasis added again
I'm not sure what poll Coburn was referring to, but I found that polls about spending cuts show sharp differences (Pew Research) along party lines. I also found that 64% of people favor tax increases, but Coburn would rather choke than admit to that one. Even the WSJ isn't supporting Coburn's claptrap. I don't believe there are many Democrats who are willing to go along with Coburn's proposals.
However you view his view on spending cuts, the real take away here is:
Where do you hang a difference between Republicans and Democrats? It’s got to be we hate little old people who paid into their Social Security and want to take it away from them.
Wow. He admits it. Why isn't anyone running with this quote?