"This is madness." I agree.

[cocodrilo]

Can someone get Alan Simpson to run for president? I don't know which party he is and I don't care.

Is there somebody out there like him who can run? Anybody? Somewhere?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/band-back-alan-madness-simpson-erskine-stupid-spending-121722531.html

[G8trGr8t]

Simpson Bowles was commissioned and did an excellent job and then 0 dismissed them and their recommendations.

Is it any wonder why the jobs council was also disbanded.

Tell him what he wants to hear or be put on ignore. The true mark of a real leader....

fixthedebt.org and sign the petition

http://www.fixthedebt.org/citizens-petition

[gatorman_07732]

Obama is never going to implement Simpson's recommendation because they are mutually exclusive from his own.

[PSGator66]

They didn't tell Obama what he wanted to hear so he dismissed them. Obama also calls out Congress in the media yet refuses to meet with them to discuss any solutions to the deficit.

[CalSFGator]

I like them both, not just the republican. Simpson, though, reminds me a little of the old perv on Family Guy. Not sure why.

[VAg8r1]

It wasn't just Obama who is responsible for derailing Simpson-Bowles. Does the name Paul Ryan ring a bell?
Ryan Helped Derail Simpson-Bowles Plan Romney Now Sees as Model
By Heidi Przybyla on August 13, 2012

Representative Paul Ryan was a pivotal figure in killing the 2010 Bowles-Simpson agreement, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney now holds out as a model for putting America’s fiscal house in order. The 18-member panel needed 14 votes to send a 10-year plan to trim the debt to Congress for a vote. As his party’s then- ranking member on the House Budget Committee, Ryan led a bloc of three House Republicans who denied the additional votes needed.

All three Senate Republicans on the panel backed the plan and one of them, former New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, said he believes the House Republicans who rejected it were beholden to an argument by anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist that the measure was tantamount to a tax increase. Bloomberg (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-13/ryan-opposed-debt-reduction-plan-romney-used-as-a-model)

[G8trGr8t]

so your arguement is that the POTUS should not support a good plan because a pub house member doesn't support it. brilliant, typical 0 apologist, blame somebody else...

Remind me again who was elected to lead the country...hint, it wasn't Paul Ryan.

[gatorman_07732]

It wasn't just Obama who is responsible for derailing Simpson-Bowles. Does the name Paul Ryan ring a bell?
Bloomberg (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-13/ryan-opposed-debt-reduction-plan-romney-used-as-a-model)

That had nothing to do with Norquist and Ryan offered an alternative plan that went further, so its not really as you portray. Yes, of course he was opposed to tax increases (as he should) but it was also about healthcare. You can't blame someone if they honestly can tell why you can't support it and then come up with another plan and attempt to work across the isle. As far as Obama goes, he's not going to let anybody get in the way of his spending plan.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/aug/30/ryan-and-simpson-bowles-commission-full-story/

On health care, Ryan said a vote for the report would advance the new Obama health care law, which he and other Republicans opposed. "My primary concern with this plan is health care," Ryan said at a news conference with other members of the panel. "I do not believe that this sufficiently fixes the health care problem. And, guess what, our debt problem is the health care problem."

He elaborated in a news release, "This plan not only lacks needed structural reforms, but would in fact take us in the wrong direction on health care by accelerating the adverse consequences of the president’s health care law."

Meanwhile, on taxes, Ryan said the plan "relies too heavily on revenue increases. … Increasing the government’s take from the economy hinders growth."

Ryan’s camp says he worked to find a bipartisan solution before the final vote was taken, joining with Alice Rivlin, a Democratic former director of the Office of Management and Budget, to offer an alternative plan that would have converted Medicaid, the state-federal health plan for the poor, into a block grant for states. But Democrats on the commission "opposed the plan and it was dropped," according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

so your arguement is that the POTUS should not support a good plan because a pub house member doesn't support it. brilliant, typical 0 apologist, blame somebody else...

Remind me again who was elected to lead the country...hint, it wasn't Paul Ryan.

Yep. This from the supposed reality based folks.

[ThePlayer]

I love that old man....he reminds me of that famous picture of the couple holding the pitchfork outside their home.

If he was my grandpa, everyone in our family would have learned the value of a buck much earlier. :yes: