Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming will be 80 years old in September, and he thinks the Social Security system is for losers. Simpson, you remember, was the grouchy half of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission. That august body essentially recommended balancing the budget on the backs of the old, veterans, and the poor (whom Simpson referred to as “the lesser people”), leading progressives to call the group “The Cat Food Commission,” in reference to what many elderly would be having for lunch if Simpson’s ideas took effect. For an intelligent, knowledgeable account at the supposed Social Security “crisis,” read this clear and irrefutable explanation from Paul Krugman.
But Simpson keeps on going with his hollow rhetoric and his lousy attitude. Now, the irascible doof has turned in another stellar a-hole performance at a big finance industry event, where he declared that Social Security is a government Ponzi scheme that takes advantage of senior citizens. Simpson, as pointed out by special correspondent Mike, doesn’t mind receiving federal money himself since he “is being supported by a lavish taxpayer-funded congressional pension for life,” even though the former senator was in Congress less than 20 years. But it’s OK, I suppose, because Simpson is against giving “the lesser people” a government-managed quasi-pension. Or something.
This article appears in May 10-16, 2011.
The right wing echo chamber must be using that Ponzi Scheme lie, because you hear it all the time from ignorant right wing posters.
If SS is a Ponzi Scheme then so is every insurance policy sold and every pension system, public and private.
DLP,
You do understand that SS isn’t insurance on an individual level or a pension where you have an individual account right? If you did you’d understand how idiotic your statement is. Maybe you don’t know what a Ponzi scheme is?