Alan Simpson invited Grover Norquist to speak at the fiscal commission.

madfloridian

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Sun Jun-20-10 01:06 PM
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Alan Simpson invited Grover Norquist to speak at the fiscal commission.

Here are Simpson's words.

Norquist Accepts Obama Fiscal Commission Co-Chair Alan Simpson's Invitation to Testify

June 30 meeting of the Commission will feature input from the public

WASHINGTON, June 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson, the co-chairman of President Obama's fiscal reform commission, has invited Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist to appear before the commission during its public hearing on the afternoon of June 30. As reported in National Journal, Simpson said:

"We're notifying everybody in America, if you want to come in, don't come in to bitch. Come in and tell us what you would do to get where we are trying to get. We're going to sit here from 1 (p.m.), grab a sandwich, and go until midnight. I want to particularly ask Grover Norquist, what is it you want to do? Other than just raise money and get members, what have you got in mind to help America proceed, other than say anybody that talks about raising taxes will be cremated and crucified on a stake?"

Simpson in his usual joking tone is probably right about Norquist and his group. Why they are allowing Norquist anywhere near this commission is puzzling to me. He wants government so small it can be "drowned in a bathtub."

From Mother Jones 2004:

The Soul of the New Machine

Grover G. Norquist is in fine form as he warms up the crowd at his Wednesday morning meeting. The conference room at Americans for Tax Reform headquarters is packed on this cool October day, and Norquist, ATR's president, jokes about the "fun-filled, star-studded" agenda in store. Why wouldn't he be in good spirits? The invitation-only meetings Norquist hosts have become a hot ticket for Washington's conservative in crowd, the place for GOP players to brainstorm, swap intelligence, and see and be seen. The 100-plus people who come each week are the powers who run the federal government�congressmen, lobbyists, senior White House and Senate staffers, industry-group leaders, and right-wing policy wonks. "Everybody there has some sort of entr�e," says conservative activist Peter Ferrara, a longtime attendee. "When the White House sits down and says, 'We want to get the word out on something,' the top of the list is Grover."

..."Norquist calls it the "Leave-Us-Alone Coalition," a grouping of gun owners, the Christian right, homeschoolers, libertarians, and business leaders that he has almost single-handedly managed to unite. The common vision: an America in which the rich will be taxed at the same rates as the poor, where capital is freed from government constraints, where government services are turned over to the free market, where the minimum wage is repealed, unions are made irrelevant, and law-abiding citizens can pack handguns in every state and town. "My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit," says Norquist. "Because that person doesn't need the goddamn government for anything."

Be sure to read that last paragraph at least twice, and then join me in wondering why the heck he is allowed near the commission that holds the fate of Social Security in its hands.

William Greider at The Nation is one of the few journalists speaking out on this absurd commission.

Social Security reform?

In setting up his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Barack Obama is again playing coy in public, but his intentions are widely understood among Washington insiders. The president intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits for future retirees while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.

..."The president has stacked the deck to encourage this strategy. The eighteen-member commission is top-heavy with fiscal conservatives and hostile right-wingers who yearn to dismantle the retirement program. The Republican co-chair, former Senator Alan Simpson, is especially nasty; he likes to get laughs by ridiculing wheezy old folks. Democratic co-chair Erskine Bowles and staff director Bruce Reed secretly negotiated a partial privatization of Social Security with Newt Gingrich back when they served in the Clinton White House, but the deal blew up with Clinton's sex scandal. Monica Lewinsky saved the system.

Greider had more to say in a January article at The Nation.

Looting Social Security.

He speaks of the harm of having this done by a commission.

This "reform" is profoundly antidemocratic because it would strip ordinary citizens of the only leverage they have in Washington--the ability to lean on their elected representatives and exact retribution if they get sold out. Peterson has two advocates in the Senate--Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire--who are self-righteous fiscal hawks. The TFT story describes the rising federal deficits as a threat to the republic, yet fails to explain why deficits on rising. The billions have been devoted to bailing out major banks and Peterson's old chums in Wall Street or to turning around the failed economy or fighting two wars at once.

Greider tell us more, including Orszag's reform plans.

A year ago, the Obama White House was playing footsie with Peterson and intended to give him a starring role in its "fiscal responsibility summit." The Nation disrupted those plans. I wrote a fierce attack on the billionaire's looting scheme and the true fiscal history of Social Security. The sting that really hurt was The Nation's cover--an unfortunate photograph of Mr. Peterson in which he resembled a Mafia don. The White House abruptly downplayed its summit and dropped Peterson as keynote speaker.

But the assault on Society Security, we knew, would come back sooner or later because many of Obama's lieutenants are devoted to Peterson's fiscal logic. Budget director Peter Orszag once co-authored a "reform" plan that would raise the payroll tax on young workers and cut benefits for older people near retirement. Isn't that clever? Pinhead economists evidently think that workers won't notice. Now the billionaire is cranking up another fight. We should finger him again, big-time, and all those who willingly collaborate in his plot.

So Norquist's views are going to be heard before the commission. It's like going back in time to give him such credibility. It's like the new-found credibility being given to Newt Gingrich as the WH is pushing his education agenda through.

Back to 1998:

In 1998, as the Bush camp was plotting its run for the White House, Karl Rove sought out Norquist's support. At Rove's request, Norquist traveled to Austin for a private meeting with the then Texas governor and presented the agenda he wanted George W. Bush to back: broad income-tax cuts, school choice, the privatization of Social Security, tort reform, and free trade. Bush won Norquist over, and with Norquist's endorsement, the Republican base soon got on board. "The president and Rove understood the coalition and deliberately placed themselves inside it," Norquist says now. "That's why they won and McCain lost."

Soul of the New Machine

Enough of the Norquist and Gingrich types. They had their day...look what their policies did to our economy.