So much for beginning a civil and open dialogue on our debt, deficit, Social Security, Medicare and taxes. Presidential Fiscal Commission co-chair, former Senator Alan Simpson, told CNBC just days after his appointment that seniors over 60, and the organizations who represent them (including ours) should be ?scrubbed out? of the equation.
?You remember the last time we corrected Social Security, and people calling me. Let me tell you, everything that Bush and Clinton or Obama have suggested with regard to Social Security doesn?t affect anyone over 60, and who are the people howling and bitching the most? The people over 60. This makes no sense. You?ve got scrub out (of) the equation the AARP, the Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare, the Gray Panthers, the Pink Panther, the whatever.?
But he didn’t stop there.
?Those people are lying when everything that was proposed last year, year before, year before didn?t affect any over 55. Now, anything I?ve heard so far doesn?t affect anyone over 60. Where does the howling come from? These people don?t care a whit about their grandchildren…not a whit.?
Unfortunately, the Senator missed a critical fact from the 2005 debate to privatize Social Security. America?s seniors understood very well what President Bush?s privatization scheme would and wouldn?t do. They opposed it because they want their adult children and grandchildren to have the same retirement protections afforded to current beneficiaries. That?s a fact, not a lie.You can watch the full interview here: