Will Alan Simpson torpedo Obama's deficit commission?
My colleague at The Fiscal Times, John M. Berry, has just published a must-read piece about the amazingly wrong things that Alan Simpson, co-chair of President Obama’s deficit commission, said last week in a video interview about Social Security.
Simpson always likes to be outrageous in a cranky-old-man kind of way. It's part of his charm. But as John points out, Simpson throws around a lot of claims that are just plain wrong and insulting to boot. Among other things, he talks about Social Security being for the "lesser people." His comments threaten to undermine the commission's credibility.
Read it. If you think John is being unfair, watch the video yourself. There’s a link in the piece.
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Not exactly how it went down, Edmund
Edmund,
Thank you for showing this video. However, I think that your comments on Senator Simpson on "Social Security being for the 'lesser people'" are inaccurate -- and in fact based on a mis-writing (intentional or otherwise) of the transcript.
Senator Simpson first explained that they key would be solvency, to which Alex Lawson asked "What about adequacy? Are you focusing on adequacy as well?".
Now it didn't make it in the transcript, but Simpson's actual reply to that question was "Sure we have to take care of the lesser in society." (don't believe me, watch the video).
Now lets back up for a second, so we can explain what is going on here. When deciding what Social Security benefits should look like under a reformed plan, policy makers tend to think about two type of features -- "adequacy" and "equity." The first refers to the progressivity of the benefit and the extent to which it protects seniors in the most need of it. The latter refers to the connection between the benefit paid out, and the taxes paid in.
So when Lawson asked about adequacy (assuming he understood this lingo, which most of us in the Social Security world do), he was asking whether benefit levels would be protected for those most in need. Simpson answered that by saying that we would take care of "the lesser in society" -- clearly referring to seniors with lower levels of resources.
This isn't your fault Edmund, the transcript was wrong. But the record does need to be set straight on this, because they way the transcript skips this line makes next few pieces sound very misleading (including by making it look like Al Simpson thinks a discussion of adequacy is "crap," when the opposite is true.)
I can't agree more with the
I can't agree more with the above. I'm surprised at the shotty work done by Mr. Berry. It truly angers me when I read such slanted drivel. Mr. Berry you should be ashamed! Edmund you can take some of the blame as well for repackaging this garbage and touting it as a "must read piece". Thanks for leaving the link so we can get the real story from Sen. Simpson himself!