13 November 2010
The Odd Couple
(Erskin Bowles of North Carolina. Photo AP)
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson are the co-chairs of the President’s bipartisan deficit commission. Bowles is the former Clinton Administration fund-raiser and head of the Small Business Administration. He also was Deputy Chief of Staff in the Clinton second term, and was responsible for budget negotiations between the White House and Congress, which is enough to teach anyone to know better.
He ran for the Senate in 2004 to replace that guy with the enhanced libido and great hair, but although he spent a lot of money, he failed. He quoted his father, Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles who said there were "many ways to add to the community woodpile" and that political office was only one of them.
If you ask me, he looks a little like a space alien, which might be why he is such a good match, if an odd couple, with Alan Simpson.
(Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming. Photo Wikipedia.)
He seems like he is having fun these days. I framed the cover of the June 7, 1994, edition of the Weekly World News that announced then-Senator Simpson was a space alien. Lately, he made news when he responded to a critical post by Ashley Carson of the National older Women’s League on Arianna Huffington’s website this way:
"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!"
He had to apologize for the remark, but you can see where he is coming from with the recommendations in the draft report. I have included the PowerPoint of the briefing about the recommendations, since we will undoubtedly be talking about it this week.
It is about time we had a rational discussion about this, and we have been dancing around the problem for so long that it appears we will never get around to doing anything about it.
The alternative to action is disaster, and the end of the American Dream as we know it. It is also possible that taking action will have the same sort of unintended consequences that the Coolidge Administration did to set the stage for the great depression.
As my pal Mac observed, “Imagine an Iowa without money. The banks were all closed. “ That was real, and they had to live through it. I do not look forward to what is coming if we do not do something.
The Commission knows that, too. They have to have a super-majority of the 18 assorted commissionaires to make recommendations in the final report, and that is not going to happen, so they decided to release the draft first, and “harpoon every whale,” in the delicate phrase of former Senator Simpson.
Their package envisions deep cuts in virtually every category of federal spending, as well as a dramatic simplification of the tax system that would eliminate many popular deductions for homeowner interest, capital gains, and more, which hit me right where I live, What’s more, the Veteran community takes it on the chin with another long list.
Proposed initiatives affecting the military and veterans' community would, among many other things:
Change the CPI to depress COLAs for all federal annuity programs
Require Medicare beneficiaries to absorb a greater share of health costs
Impose TRICARE fee hikes and implement enrollment fees for all TRICARE programs
Reduce COLAs for "early military retirees" (in previous proposals, such wording has meant "before age 60")
Freeze military and federal civilian pay raises for three years (including housing/subsistence allowances)
Consolidate commissaries and exchanges
Eliminate CONUS dependent schools
Raise the Social Security retirement age to 69 and the early retirement age to 64
Curtail future Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors (but stop the immediate 25% cut)
Require nondisabled vets to pay more to use VA facilities
Establish legislative requirements for mandatory across-the-board cuts if Congress doesn't act to keep federal spending growth below a specified level
Simpson said that he and Bowles "might have to go in the witness protection program."
I think he is probably right, but unfortunately, that is what happens when you tell the truth.
We will talk more about this tomorrow, but it is about time to stop talking and do something.
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
vicsocotra.com | Subscribe to the RSS feed!