A Republican I Respect Tonight - Like the GOP I Remember
A Republican I respect tonight.
FaceBook note February 18, 2010
Video and complete transcript at link
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june10/deficit_02-18.html
Excerpts prompting me to admire Senator Simpson in this interview.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I sat down with the two chairs of the president's new commission in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon. Erskine Bowles, Senator Alan Simpson, it's good to see both of you. Senator Simpson, you told a Montana newspaper this is like being on a suicide mission. Did you really mean that?
ALAN SIMPSON: Well, I hate -- it's a dual suicide. Let me tell you, in all the humor of it, this is dead serious stuff. you know, what we need to do is just push the ball forward, and do it for our grandchildren. And that's what we're here for. It sounds corny, I know, but that's the way it is.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, some people, mainly Republicans right now, are arguing, what's really needed are tax cuts, that, even if it raises the deficit in the short term, that this would get government out of the way of business, business could grow, and the deficit will take care of itself.
ALAN SIMPSON: Well, I'm not smoking that same pipe. I just -- everything is on the table. But, if we're just going to use flash words like cutting children's benefits or cutting veterans or raising taxes, it will be a tougher struggle. Everything is out there. We -- I know how to -- how people use emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. I have been through that old stuff with immigration. If those -- I say to them, I don't use those. I use facts. And we're going to do a lot of facts.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, are those things that you're going to be seriously considering?
ERSKINE BOWLES: . It can't be a Republican, it can't be a Democrat thing. And he has insisted that everything be on the table. And that's everything.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And that includes tax increases for the middle class?
ALAN SIMPSON: And, again, it's just a flash word. The last time they did the Social Security correction, they tweaked the system. I think it was one-tenth-of-1-percent of the payroll tax. Man, oh, man, there's a big one. But the rest of it is B.S. And if the people are really ingesting B.S. all day long, their grandchildren will be picking grit with the chickens.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tom Price, a Republican, who said, the fact that the president is already putting I think a couple of more Democrats on this 18-member commission than he is Republicans means, he said, the odds are high that your recommendations are going to be heavy on tax increases and light on spending recommendations.
ALAN SIMPSON: See, this guy is missing the boat. This is sound bite business. And that's great. That gets you reelected. But it won't help the country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Simpson, there is, at the same time, an atmosphere in this city, people call it a hyper-partisanship, of just a bitter division between the two parties.
And, right now, you have got, quite candidly, leaders in the Republican Party, Majority Leader Boehner, Senator McConnell, who initially resisted the idea of even appointing anybody to this commission.
ALAN SIMPSON: But now they're going to do it. And I visited with both John and Mitch and told them what I was going to do. And I said, I hope you can help. I hope you will appoint some good people. And they said, we will talk. And I understand that they're making -- they're going to make selections. That's all we can ask.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Speaking of this atmosphere of partisanship, how much harder does it make your work? I mean, how do you compare it to the time you were in Washington with President Clinton?
ALAN SIMPSON: I think it's worse than I have ever seen, but that doesn't mean that we should just hang up the phone and let this engine come down the track with no brakes on. And that's what's happening. This is an engine with no brakes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You're going to make some recommendations, but nobody in Congress is required to enact this. So, how do you translate what you do into...
ALAN SIMPSON: But we may be -- we will be called naive. I will be called a Republican toady. Rush babe will be after me day and night. I mean, it's going to be a thrilling experience. But I have been there before. But this is bigger than me or Erskine or you. This is about your children. This is about the future of America. This country is going to go to the bowwows unless we deal with the entitlements and Social Security and Medicare. If -- if -- I think people will trust us. I hope that's the case. At least, so far, so good. They will say, I don't like Simpson, but the nut is half-right sometimes.
And -- and, so, I have no illusions about this. My dear wife, Ann, who you know, she said, Al, what are you doing? And I said, well, it's for the cause. It's for our grandkids.
She said, the old carry on. Here's a sandwich, and head out the door, and a brown-bag lunch.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, do -- you do expect to take flak?
ERSKINE BOWLES: You bet.
ALAN SIMPSON: We -- and you know how we will beat them? With humor. Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life. And when they begin to hammer on us -- the people who hammer on you are humorless. They don't know what a smile is or laughter. They have got -- they're hundred-percenters. They have got B.O. and heartburn and gas. And they just come at you. And, so, those people are easy to handle. They get irritated. They call us silly people. See, that's how that works.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will be watching both of you.
FaceBook note February 18, 2010
Video and complete transcript at link
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june10/deficit_02-18.html
Excerpts prompting me to admire Senator Simpson in this interview.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I sat down with the two chairs of the president's new commission in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon. Erskine Bowles, Senator Alan Simpson, it's good to see both of you. Senator Simpson, you told a Montana newspaper this is like being on a suicide mission. Did you really mean that?
ALAN SIMPSON: Well, I hate -- it's a dual suicide. Let me tell you, in all the humor of it, this is dead serious stuff. you know, what we need to do is just push the ball forward, and do it for our grandchildren. And that's what we're here for. It sounds corny, I know, but that's the way it is.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, some people, mainly Republicans right now, are arguing, what's really needed are tax cuts, that, even if it raises the deficit in the short term, that this would get government out of the way of business, business could grow, and the deficit will take care of itself.
ALAN SIMPSON: Well, I'm not smoking that same pipe. I just -- everything is on the table. But, if we're just going to use flash words like cutting children's benefits or cutting veterans or raising taxes, it will be a tougher struggle. Everything is out there. We -- I know how to -- how people use emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. I have been through that old stuff with immigration. If those -- I say to them, I don't use those. I use facts. And we're going to do a lot of facts.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, are those things that you're going to be seriously considering?
ERSKINE BOWLES: . It can't be a Republican, it can't be a Democrat thing. And he has insisted that everything be on the table. And that's everything.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And that includes tax increases for the middle class?
ALAN SIMPSON: And, again, it's just a flash word. The last time they did the Social Security correction, they tweaked the system. I think it was one-tenth-of-1-percent of the payroll tax. Man, oh, man, there's a big one. But the rest of it is B.S. And if the people are really ingesting B.S. all day long, their grandchildren will be picking grit with the chickens.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tom Price, a Republican, who said, the fact that the president is already putting I think a couple of more Democrats on this 18-member commission than he is Republicans means, he said, the odds are high that your recommendations are going to be heavy on tax increases and light on spending recommendations.
ALAN SIMPSON: See, this guy is missing the boat. This is sound bite business. And that's great. That gets you reelected. But it won't help the country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Simpson, there is, at the same time, an atmosphere in this city, people call it a hyper-partisanship, of just a bitter division between the two parties.
And, right now, you have got, quite candidly, leaders in the Republican Party, Majority Leader Boehner, Senator McConnell, who initially resisted the idea of even appointing anybody to this commission.
ALAN SIMPSON: But now they're going to do it. And I visited with both John and Mitch and told them what I was going to do. And I said, I hope you can help. I hope you will appoint some good people. And they said, we will talk. And I understand that they're making -- they're going to make selections. That's all we can ask.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Speaking of this atmosphere of partisanship, how much harder does it make your work? I mean, how do you compare it to the time you were in Washington with President Clinton?
ALAN SIMPSON: I think it's worse than I have ever seen, but that doesn't mean that we should just hang up the phone and let this engine come down the track with no brakes on. And that's what's happening. This is an engine with no brakes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You're going to make some recommendations, but nobody in Congress is required to enact this. So, how do you translate what you do into...
ALAN SIMPSON: But we may be -- we will be called naive. I will be called a Republican toady. Rush babe will be after me day and night. I mean, it's going to be a thrilling experience. But I have been there before. But this is bigger than me or Erskine or you. This is about your children. This is about the future of America. This country is going to go to the bowwows unless we deal with the entitlements and Social Security and Medicare. If -- if -- I think people will trust us. I hope that's the case. At least, so far, so good. They will say, I don't like Simpson, but the nut is half-right sometimes.
And -- and, so, I have no illusions about this. My dear wife, Ann, who you know, she said, Al, what are you doing? And I said, well, it's for the cause. It's for our grandkids.
She said, the old carry on. Here's a sandwich, and head out the door, and a brown-bag lunch.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, do -- you do expect to take flak?
ERSKINE BOWLES: You bet.
ALAN SIMPSON: We -- and you know how we will beat them? With humor. Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life. And when they begin to hammer on us -- the people who hammer on you are humorless. They don't know what a smile is or laughter. They have got -- they're hundred-percenters. They have got B.O. and heartburn and gas. And they just come at you. And, so, those people are easy to handle. They get irritated. They call us silly people. See, that's how that works.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will be watching both of you.
posted by Mario | 6:04 PM
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