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Rep. Lynn Woolsey
Rep. Lynn Woolsey called on former Sen. Alan Simpson to resign Friday as co-chairman of President Obama’s fiscal commission after he compared the Social Security system to a “milk cow with 310 million tits.”
Woolsey said the comments show that Simpson is “too biased” to lead the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which Obama has tasked with finding ways to reduce the federal debt. It is expected to propose changes in Social Security when it issues its recommendations later this year, probably after the November election.
“Simpson portrays Social Security as some sort of welfare for the elderly who don’t need or deserve it rather than a self-funded financial security program recipients paid into throughout their working lives,” Woolsey said in a statement.
Simpson touched off the controversy on Monday when he sent an e-mail to Ashley Carson, executive director of the Older Women’s League, responding to an anti-Simpson column she wrote in April, according to a report in the New York Times:
Citing Social Security’s chief actuary to buttress the need for changes, Mr. Simpson wrote: “If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know. 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!”
Simpson apologized for his comments on Wednesday, but Woolsey said it wasn’t enough.
“Describing Social Security as a ‘milk cow with 310 million tits,’ and complaining about ‘people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree,’ Simpson illustrates that he does not have an open mind about the program and doesn’t understand it either,” the Petaluma Democrat said.
“Social Security should not even be on the table in deficit-reduction talks because it has not contributed a dime to that deficit, which has been caused largely by endless wars, reckless tax cuts and the recession,” she said.
Woolsey said there are better ways to reduce the deficit, including forming a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies. She has introduced legislation that would add the so-called “public option” into the health care bill.
“But Simpson seems more intent on targeting Social Security and those who receive it,” Woolsey said. “Simpson’s apology is not enough. He should resign.”
— Ted Appel
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@Ted Appel : Ted,
Any articles or conversations at the PD regarding the Woolsey / Judd forum (debate)Mon Sep 20 7pm at Santa Rosa City Council Chambers, 100 Santa Rosa Ave., Suite 10, Santa Rosa?
BB
hoever trespassed on private land and stole the Jim Judd for Congress, signs you need to know that you have broken 3 laws. One county, one state, and one federal. Notwithstanding the fact that you are a coward.
Homeowners association:
Shouldn’t government be like a homeowners association (A BUSINESS)? The homeowners association generally makes sure that the properties are protected (borders), they make sure that the property owners follow the rules decided by members (laws / representatives), and the surrounding areas of the property are groomed and maintained (roads and bridges).
What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is tell us what we may or may not do in our households. What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is tell us how to decorate the inside of our homes. What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is pay our house payment when we can’t. What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is tell us what car is acceptable to park and drive. What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is charge extra fees because our cars have V8 engines. What a homeowners association DOESN’T do is spend our dues money on helping the failing neighborhood bank that lent money to one of the homeowners who couldn’t make their payments. Oh and the homeowners association is a homeowners association not a health insurance company. Ahem!
Now for you hair-splitters out there, it’s a conceptual parallel. You know the spirit in which it is written? :-)
BB
5 Reasons Not to Re-Elect Lynn Woolsey
1. In the middle of a deep recession that has cost millions of Americans their jobs, Lynn Woolsey voted to give herself a pay raise. Despite all the perks she already receives as a congresswoman, she decided she needed a raise while working class Americans like you and I struggle to raise families and put food on the table. I’ve got a question for Lynn Woolsey. Lynn, do you know how many of your constituents (the people you claim to represent, like union workers, blue collar workers, minorities, low income families, and senior citizens) have lost their jobs or their homes in this economy? Why are you entitled to a pay raise at a time when working class Americans are making drastic sacrifices?
2. 2. In 2003, Lynn Woolsey wrote to Marin Superior Court Judge Terrance Boren on behalf of Stewart Pearson, the son of one of her staffers, who had raped 17 year old Tina Phan. Woolsey used official congressional letterhead to write in support of Phan’s rapist, hoping to get him off scott free. Thankfully, Woolsey’s intervention fell on deaf ears, and Pearson got jail time. I realize that this all happened seven years ago, but nobody has called Lynn Woolsey out on this, ever. She should have to answer for her actions. When is it ever okay for a politician to intervene on a rapist’s behalf?
3. Lynn Woolsey is a career politician, in Congress for 18 years. For perspective, she’s been in office since Bill Clinton first got elected president. She’s grown increasingly distant from the voters, and now, won’t respond to the slightest of constructive criticism. Her responses are canned, with no real thought or substance. Her staffers are dismissive and borderline rude.
4. Lynn Woolsey has no plan. She has yet to lay out an intellectual, comprehensive plan to create private sector jobs, restore lost services, and keep American jobs from going overseas. She lacks the vision and leadership it takes to guide us through the economic peril we find ourselves in. She resisted debating her opponent, Jim Judd, until voters spoke up and forced her to agree to one.
5. Lynn Woolsey recently sent me a glossy corporate printed mailer asking me to call her office and thank her for supporting HR 1548, The Pathway for Biosimilars Act. The back of the mailer read \Paid for by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.\ Lynn, how much influence do special interest groups have over you? Are you bought and paid for by big pharma? You spend an awful lot of time telling us you are fighting big corporations but you take big money from lobbyists and big special interests in exchange for votes, and that’s the truth. Do you ever intend to be honest and straight forward with us?
A couple of extras. Lynn Woolsey voted to withhold vital body armor from our troops stationed overseas, and admitted that she didn’t read HR1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 before she voted on it. Talk about arrogance!
It would be in the best interests of everyone if both Simpson and Woolsey would resign.
Lisa Moldanado,
You wrote: ” I think there are many people satisfied with govt run programs such as social security and medicare and if you look outside we have it pretty darn good with roads, streetlights, libraries and schools.”
There is no doubt that social security and medicare are popular, that is an ENTIRELY different metric from whether they are successful (and of course it depends on how you define ‘successful’). Social security and medicare are poised to destroy America: 1) they are rapidly going broke, and the ‘trust fund’ is simply an accounting trick to take trillions of federal debt off the books, 2) they are government programs that have made large numbers of people less capable, less self reliant, less productive, and less competitive in the global market, 3) medicare feeds the health insurance industry and that industry in turns passes the unfunded mandate (mc pays 86% of costs) on to taxpaying citizens, acting as a surrogate tax agency for the government.
It is utterly, completely, prosaically, clay-footdedly, leadenly, unimaginatively, timidly conventional to think that those programs are ‘successful’. Unless one’s definition of success is to crash the capitalist, individualist system. But you know, it doesn’t matter, because by the time we are ready to draw any benefits, the benefits will be chimera, and that is a natural fact of nature that is beyond debate.
Warm regards,
Chuck
PS: If the government stuck to police, roads and street lights, all would be well….
Ok here’s what I found:
Woolsey vs Judd debate – Santa Rosa City Council Chambers 100 Santa Rosa Ave., Suite 10, Santa Rosa, CA, 95401 Monday September 20th at 7pm
I know they’ll both be civil. They’re both grown ups. This will be a must-see.
I’m asking a question and I’m getting a thumbs down? Lol! All-righty then :-D
Dog gone! I’m getting this spoon fed to me ☺ The Lynn Woolsey / Jim Judd debate apparently will be on Monday September 20th.
I can’t figure out time or where. Anybody?
There’s a rumor going around that The league of Women Voters called the campaign head quarters of Jim Judd and Lynn Woolsey has agreed to debate him. I was just with Lynn Woolsey at SSU only an hour ago and there was no indication of that. Anybody hear anything? I’d love to go. When is it?
..and please tell me it will be one-on-one and not a panel.
@LisaM
“Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor.
Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.” — William F. Buckley, Jr.
A great read >
COLLECTIVISM
vs.
INDIVIDUALISM
http://freedomkeys.com/collectivism.htm
This entire conversation is pointless. Whether you think the states should be run like a corporation or not, it’s NOT possible. In a business, decisions from the top level are administered to the next level down and so on. In California, the Governor can say all he wants, but the elected officials of the legislature don’t have to listen.
In a business, they would be fired. In government, they’re re-elected.
Businesses are designed to be streamlined. Our government is designed to cause gridlock- and apparently designed to that purpose very well.
A business can’t vote to raise revenue. A business doesn’t have 90% of its budget determined for them (proposition system).
Saying someone from a business background would run the state the best is a complete lie spewed by Republican ideologues.
@Brian if you read my post you’ll see that I gave examples of sucessfull government programs and policies. The problem is that your definition of success is purely financial.There are intangibles that good government through its provision of swimming pools, libraries, senior centers and parks provide that can not be quantified monetarily.(health, the beauty of parks and open space, the happiness and education of children and the companionship of seniors) This is another reason why the business model is such a poor analogy for government. Its goals are inapposite.However, given that you believe the AARP to be a special interest and Singapore govt to be worthy of emulating (only a lttle intrusive on its citizens) I am not suprised we don’t agree.
Lisa, I was looking for solutions to our current economic problems. I never heard 1 solution from you. I only heard the list of bad corporations rehashed (twice). You mentioned that governments that don’t work well when following the business model. I was hoping for an example.
Currently I’m looking at Republic of Singapore. (Not the best example, but proof of possibilities)They are largely operating their government successfully using a business model while serving their people. They’re not perfect as they have a little intrusion into the citizenry. But that’s an example of a government operating in the black.
Your feelings towards our Marin and Sonoma County business community was lukewarm at best. They need our support.
We need citizen representation, not representation by someone who hides in her office only communicating with canned response letters & emails. We don’t want a representative propped up by her minions, giving forums & speeches only with the support of panels and special interest ‘corporations’ (Kaiser, AARP, and the like).
As I have said before, “how bad does it have to get” before we realize that what we’re doing isn’t working.
Lisa, you would probably agree that the CEOs of the big banks the engineered the real estate finance bubble should be in jail and the hundreds of millions in bonuses disgorged.
Frank, Dodd and Woolsey voted in the legislation that enabled the big banks to turn home loans into junk derivitives to be peddled on Wall Street. The Clinton and Bush administrations were asleep at the wheel, while guys like me saw it all headed for a crash, by 2004. Legislators, like Woolsey, who are in the pocket of the banks enabled the bubble and now we are all paying the price.
Writing her about the problems in the mortgage business only produce canned letters which demonstrate her complete lack of understanding of the issues.
Lee
Let’s see, the federal gov’t got into the business of issuing mortgage loans to people who couldn’t pay them back. The justification for issuing these dead loans was for “social justice.” Yes, this was the catalyst for the financial collapse of the U.S. economy. The examples of Enron, GM and others are merely aborations of the 12trillion dollar economy run by private enterprise.
NOTE TO PD: Ask Lynn Woolsey to state her position on the debate with Jim Judd. Is the date set? Was there a request to debate? If so, why is she ignoring the request? Do your job PD !
@Brian Brown Do you mean the heroic business sacrafices that Wall Street CEOs made in tanking the economy and then paying themselves big bonuses? Or are you talking about the heroics of BP Ceo’s who destroyed our Gulf and then went yachting? While I am sure there are many worthwhile and real heroes in business (especially in small and locally run businesses such as Alvarado Street Bakery, a workers collective) my point is that the trite philosophy of running govt like a business is an empty and unworkable one because the role and goals of government and business are different. This is also why business leaders like Carly and Meg who think they can run the state as their own private company are a disaster and usually ineffective. I think there are many people satisfied with govt run programs such as social security and medicare and if you look outside we have it pretty darn good with roads, streetlights, libraries and schools. Your blanket criticism of govt is not fair or accurate and only serves to create cynicism.
@Lisa
One thing I would point out is those business you listed have been picked winners by the government, except Enron which was allowed to fail as it should be with the rest.
@Lisa Maldonado: Wow Lisa. I’m having difficulty finding any government entity that is showing any financial success. Social Security, nope. Postal Service, nope. Fannie Mae, nope. Freddie Mac, nope. Medicare and Medicaid, nope. AMTRAK, nope. Still looking… Oh I give up. Now let’s look at companies that are successful and provide employment, benefits and taxes to government: J&M Manufacturing, Cotati, – Yep. Academy Studios, Novato – Yep. AXIA Architects, Santa Rosa – Yep. Barefoot Cellars, Santa Rosa – Yep. Blood Bank of the Redwoods, Santa Rosa – Yep. Community First Credit Union, Santa Rosa and Petaluma – Yep. Redwood Credit Union, Santa Rosa – Yep. …ok, I’ll stop :-)
But I do agree with you Lisa that the companies you listed are the worst of the worst and their greed and influence in Washington is dastardly and needs to be stopped. However to make any comparison of those corporations to the wonderful business community of Marin and Sonoma County is unfair. The great businesses of Marin and Sonoma County (the ones who hire us and provide us benefits) provide the perfect model of how we should run our district. The sacrifices that our business community has made in the face of difficult times are nothing less then heroic. Government should take a good look at these folks and consider following the example their leadership.
Lisa, you and I may be on opposite sides of the fence but we need to come together because we’re in this together. We can do this.
It sounds like you may have another solutions. I’d love to hear them.
BB
@Lisa Maldonado:
No, the government is not a business; but it is supposed to be a good steward of public tax money. Wasteful spending, bloated pensions, unionized public employees, and unfunded liabilities are all bad decisions and if done in the private sector, would lead to criminal charges. Why is it legal for the government to do the same thing?
We need to run the government more like a business; one that offers better returns to the investors, ie, the taxpayers.
It isn’t right that federal employees make 2x more than their private industry counter parts. It isn’t right that we have a $500 Billion unfunded pension for our public employees. It isn’t right that taxpayer dollars are wasted on non-essentials. It isn’t right that California has increased education spending but we’re almost dead last.
There are no easy fixes, and no one is going to get out of this mess without a few bruises and scars, but we HAVE to stop acting like the government has an unlimited source of income. It is dependent upon WE THE PEOPLE, and when we hurt, the government needs to cut spending drastically.
Partisanship clouds all of your judgments. The fact is, the real answers and solutions to our individual American problems lie in neither of the in-power political camps.
This is not advocacy for a third party or anything of the sort.
Pragmatism is needed to fix our issues, both local and federal. However, partisanship and pragmatism are mutually exclusive. For evidence of that, see the statements from Lisa Maldonado and whoever she replies too.
It’s not easy to do this, but it’s what must be done.
And if you post on here more than once a week…
“Get a real job, yo”.
@Brian Brown..Hmm run District 6 like a business? Which business Brian? Enron? Goldman Sachs? General Motors? United Airlines? When will people learn that 1. the state and municipal govt are not businesses and do not have the same goals as business (eg profits for shareholders at all costs) and 2. private industry is not a great example or role model for prudent and rational behavior. Especially since evidence of the huge failings of ceos and private business are evident all around us. I have so tired of the “run govt (or schools) like a business” schtick. Peopla re not products and the analogy is a false and destructive one.
I would like to have some money printed for me so that I might spend frivolously too. I need to go to the store and purchase that $10,000 stick of gum :-D
BB
Thank goodness we have a choice that really will listen to our local community-not just special interests-Jim Judd
@Chuck
Well said. It’s amazing how many people simply don’t understand how the money system works and why this path we are on of borrowing and printing is a recipe for disaster.
I wonder who’s IOUs are better SS or the Chinese’s.
RICHARD CANINI,
You wrote: “The government has an infinite, that’s right infinite, supply of money. It’s the value of money and supply of goods and services that are limiting. We are not even close to that limit.”
In a bizarre, Alice-in-Wonderland you are right twice in one paragraph. What makes it bizarre and Alice-ish is that without the third truth, your first two do make sense.
A) The government does have an infinite supply of money.
B) The value of money is limiting.
What you neglect to mention is that immutable third truth:
C) The closer the government approaches an infinite money supply, the closer the value of the money gets to ZERO.
This nation got into this fix, beginning in the mid-late 1990′s, by thinking that there was some easy shortcut to wealth, that we didn’t have to actually DO anything, or MAKE anything, that we could extract wealth from bubbles. Now we have the debt without any wealth.
RICHARD CANINI, you post perfectly illustrates the current incarnation of that concept that there’s some easy way to wealth that doesn’t require hard work and sacrifice.
Regards,
Chuck
PS: And who got what from whom before we got to the trough does NOTHING to alter the underlying reality of our situation.
On Lynn Woolsey’s Facebook profile she writes:
“The people of Marin and Sonoma counties are the most important voices I listen to as I serve in Congress.”
Uhm. No. She will not talk to us. She will not listen to us. She never answers letters, emails, nor phone calls. Any correspondence from her office is a boilerplate letter or email that makes no reference to citizen concerns.
BB
Woolsey needs to be retired…I can’t believe that the people of Sonoma and Marin Counties will relect a representative that makes demands for retirment based on a comment, that when taken out of context seems worse then it is, given her own history. This is the same representative who at a open house admitted to having not read the health care bill she was determined to vote in support of and who also has previously voted for her own pay raises while critizing other industries for their pay. Really, are we going to re-elect someone with such a obvious poor work ethic and lack of respect for her district?? Polictics aside, I refuse to vote for anyone who doesn’t take their position seriously enough to read and understand the bills they vote on and I’m the healthcare bill is the only bill she hasn’t read and understoon before casting her vote. I’d get fired for that kind of work product and so should she.
@Richard
If all the government has to do is print it’s way out of problems, then please explain why there is any economic disparity in the world? Doesn’t Zimbabwe have a printing press?
Every fiat currency eventually fails, its the speed (time) at which it does that differs. The more we try to borrow and inflate away our problems the quicker it picks up speed.
Calling for Simpson’s resignation is just a sad attempt by Woolsey to divert attention away from her own mediocre performance as congresswoman.We need new leadership,and there is an alternative;http://www.jimjuddforcongress.com/.Woolsey has actually said that Social Security is solvent,that is dilusional
Social Security has been used as a charity for way too long. How to fix it is simple. If you didn’t pay into the fund, you don’t draw from the fund. That would place a hardship on those folks currently drawing from the fund. The same ones who at 19 years old have a medical marijuana card for their “injuries” and are drawing SSI from the money their parents paid into the fund.
Money is essential but otherwise unimportant. Social security money or any money is only a medium of exchange.
If goods and services are available, and they are available; the only problem is lack of money. There need be no lack of money.
G.W.Bush found $700 Billion in one week for WALL ST. If the government can find it for WALL ST crooks it can find it for you. Don’t let anyone tell you there is no money for you.
They would like you to believe there isn’t any for you, so you will not ask for any. Don’t believe it.
The government has an infinite, that’s right infinite, supply of money. It’s the value of money and supply of goods and services that are limiting. We are not even close to that limit.
Don’t worry be happy. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”, FDR
I have one small suggestion for OWN OUR VOTE. You should have capitalized PROGRESSIVELY! Lynn Wolsey and the other PROGRESSIVES think they know what is best for us – in spite of the facts or our feelings. Yet they keep getting voted back into office. Maybe it is because we voters do not take the trouble to study the issues before we mark our ballots. Let’s make a difference this year and spend the time to learn and really OWN OUR VOTE.
@Zuma
Good summary of the reality of SS. It is on the cusp of going cash flow negative. Officials declare it solvent only because the “lock box” has trillions in IOUs from taxpayers, who so far have not had to pay back a nickel of that borrowed money.
Soon they will, and it will become painful. Can we depend on the Chinese to continue lending unlimited amounts of money at 2% indefinitely? I wouldn’t want to bet my retirement on the outcome.
talk about milking the govt. Look at the retirment system the gov’t gives itself. Look at the wages paid for non-work (linda tripp), though getting any gov’t admin to admit that their underlings are doing not much, especially when his/her g-rating is at risk, is not likely. Not likely work, not-likely truth, not-likely much of anything. But SS is at risk, when I paid into it for 42 years.
What a crock of an admin when this is what the dems are putting forth as their frontsperson on fiscal savings.
Lynn Woolsey at a senior forum a few weeks back had indicated that Social Security was completely solvent. Really? She also stated (as our representative) that we all should go on the Kaiser Medical program (special interest group?). ..and on another note she sang happy birthday to Social Security leading a reluctant audience. She rocked her head from side to side as she sang loudly. Frankly it gave me the creeps. I concluded that there is something horribly wrong as I watched her weave back and forth. I’m not a body language expert but felt strongly that we need adult representation in Marin and Sonoma County. We have to grow up and start running District 6 like a business. It’s not harsh. It’s not lacking compassion. It’s not going to damage the environment. It’s not right and it’s not left. IT’S AN EMERGENCY.
Thanks for listening,
Brian
The govt has been taking all money in the so called \trust fund\ and replacing them with IOU’s for decades. The fact is social security will soon be paying out more than it takes in each monthy (as it has this year due to the recession).
So to make up the monthly difference in what it pays out, the govt must borrow from China to pay SS benefits.
But at some point the Chinese and other nations will refuse to lend this country a dime! How does the US pay the SS recipients then as there are only two workers for each retiree? If the average recipient gets 1200 per month, each payor has to pay 600 per month to support him plus money to support medicare expenses, which is much more costly than SS!
The choice has always been to either increase the retirement age, cut bennies, raise medicare payments from retirees and workers, or raise retirement age.
Woolsey and Congress in general are living in denial!
What does she suggest to make 3 dollars from one? Build more bike paths around dumps?
Not to worry. I will vote against her. She will lose her job.
Social Security is an income tax, you can confirm that by reading applicable laws. The money you pay into Social Security does not go into a trust fund as the politicians keep telling you but it used anyway they want. What is left over is distributed to the working class suckers who paid into the program all of their lives. If the money collected were set aside in an interest bearing fund from the get go we wouldn’t have to worry about Social Security going broke in ten years and losing our benefits.
Goodness, someone should tell Mr. Simpson
that COWS have TEATS, not TITS. Perhaps he’s
mixing up his magazine reading with his governmental paperwork.
Scary to think he possibly knows as little about Social Security as about tits and teats.
By the way, is he related to Homer?
SS, 14% of income split between employers and employees, has been part of the general fund ever since taxpayers revolted against paying a phone tax to fund the Vietnam War.
I think Obama’s Federal Reserve has a plan. Hint: He’s mug is on the fifty dollar bill.
Woolsey really said this?…..
”Woolsey said there are better ways to reduce the deficit, including forming a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies. She has introduced legislation that would add the so-called “public option” into the health care bill.”
Who does she think is reading the PD? Third graders who believe anything they’re told? HA!
If Woolsey really believes what she said she should resign immediately so she can go back to a charter school and learn about government and economics and how America works when people like her aren’t in office.
She is the reason America isn’t working- she and 434 other congressmen and women, 50 senators and 1 lousy president.
Hey Charles, I never said I supported Woolsey. Just because I don’t like self proclaimed Conservitive doesn’t mean i support the Liberals. I find most career politicians to be mostly bottom feeders with no agenda other than for their own personal gain.
As of this year,for the first time,Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it will take in revenues.This is the beginning of the end of Social Security as we know it.SORRY,ONLY A BLITHERING IDIOT WOULD SUPPORT WHAT IS CURRENTLY IN PLACE.
RICHARD CANINI, Patrick, and other who support Woolsey,
Here is the best, most unbiased and comprehensive, yet easily digestible explanation of the Social security system anywhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund
Woolsey’s claim that it hasn’t contributed a dime to the deficit is mealy-mouthed garbage. After actually reading about how the system works, you will see that it doesn’t contribute to the current DEFICIT, but the “trust fund” is actually an off-the-books DEBT. We’re using Social Security payroll taxes to buy ourselves candy bars, and putting IOU’s in the kitty that will have to be paid for, repudiated, or refinanced later on. Either she doesn’t understand how it works, or she’s being just as clever as an evasive politicians can possibly be. And that sleight of hand seems to be working on some people.
Lynn Woolsey could be using her time more constructively by insisting on passing a budget before the fall elections, or promoting private sector jobs.
What is the fear that Lynn Woolsey and other congress members have about their constituents seeing a budget?
Some Wall street tycoons are not the only ones living in luxury without caring about swindling someone’s retirement or future earnings from them.
Our government has done a fine job of mismanaging our funds and living high on the hog as well, and it has gotten progressively worse. At least private investment is not mandated by law.
Medicare is in trouble-the hasty passage of the latest 26 billion dollar bill to help keep it afloat for another few years and the chief actuarys recent statements attest to that, yet Lynn Woolsey wants to model the public option plan of government health care on medicare, and claims that everything is just fine with medicare as well as social security.
She wants us all to sing along with the staged “happy birthday to medicare” stunt that she presided over in the seniors and healthcare event- bizarre!
Will she and other federal government employees be on the same medical plan that they want for us? NO! They get a special gold plated plan.
$575 billion dollars were cut from medicare in the “health care” bill and we are expected to believe that it won’t adversely effect seniors. We are told that more and better coverage will be provided for even more people with $575 billion less in funds. This makes no sense unless you are a career politician.
The numbers were cooked for the C.B.O. report to reflect an unrealistic and impossible savings in order to pass the “healthcare reform” bill.The “doc fix” was promised, and not delivered. Why should we believe that social security is any different?
Social security is not in fine shape- none of the government spending sprees are helping our citizens to have more secure, productive or prosperous lives, no matter how much it is claimed by those in charge, or those who wish to believe it into reality.
Where are the jobs?
Where is the budget?
Where is the response to constituents?
Does representative Woolsey even read the bills that she votes on?
Will Lynn Woolsey debate her opponent before the elections or is she too busy trying to get Alan Simpson fired?
Social Security is sound. Don’t let them fool you into thinking there is no money for you. That just what they want you think. Social Security payment ought be increased. Hold the government responsible. We’re all in this together, right?
Don’t be sacred be happy. “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself”, FDR. He said that about the great depression. There is enough to meet every one’s needs. But there is never enough to meet any one’s greed, ask Madoff.
Do not put your faith in a WALL STREET 401(k) plan. WALL STREET is not to be trusted with your pension. The 401(k) law was set up to relieve corporations of pension responsibilities. Your government betrayed you to WALL STREET.
The same can be said about you CONSERVATIVES, Daddybill43. Seems every time I come across a CONSERVATIVE they go off half cocked and run off with some diatribe, ignoring facts, ditching the sunject all together and spewing ignorance. Nothing new though.
@t foust
>>Isn’t former senator Simpson sucking off of the richest tit of all? The Senate
retirement plan . . .<<
Simpson's senate pension is $28K per year. He'd have done better as a SR city employee.
Will Lynn Woolsey Debate Jim Judd? THAT is the question the PD should be asking.
Wow, sore subject with some posters. Just to clarify the facts; some posters think they are “paying into social security” the fact is they have been paying social security tax, NOT funding their own accounts.
There is no dedicated account with your contributions in it waiting for you to collect it. SS is a simple ponzi scheme where by the current payers are funding the current recipients.
So the next time you are pissed off at your employer remember they are paying for you too, and the next time you are pissed off at the youngsters remember they will be paying for you. It makes paying teachers correctly seem real smart.
I facts are that SS is not going to be what it is today in the future. You are better off saving your own money for retirement. Good Luck
@Lyn: spoken like someone who never read their paycheck…I’ve been paying for future social security benefits for over 40 years, because it’s mandated. There is a fund, after all, it’s not just cash in-cash out-and your benefit is based on what you paid into the system, not on what someone else pays…
Woolsey is probably just jealous that she didn’t come up with the comment herself.
I laughed out loud when she said SS hasn’t contributed to the deficit. Is she insane? Entitlement spending takes up over 45% of the national budget! How can that NOT add to the deficit? By contrast, military spending is about 28%. Further, military spending is in the Constitution whereas a “retirement fund” is not.
Does anyone out there actually believe there will be money in SS when they retire? I plan on working well into my nineties because I KNOW it’s going to be gone.
But at least I’ll have my “free” health care.
Unless one dies shortly after they start collecting Social Security, no one pays for their benefits. Their benefits are paid by the young. That fact may be uncomfortable for some; nevertheless, it is a fact.
SS has become an intergenerational transfer tax, from the young, without regard to poverty, to the old, without regard to wealth. It must be the most regressive tax on earth.
However impolite, Simpson spoke the truth. He usually does, and it usually gets him in hot water with people like Woolsey.
Mr. Simpson is one of the biggest blowhards around. Does he really think he is impartial when he makes this kind of garbage spew from his fingers and in a document that will be passed to every Senior Citizen who has paid into Social Security from hard work, sweat and tears and more than he has! shame, shame on these malingerers passing for public officials and those in influence.
Woolsey should resign for not agreeing with Simpson. The SSA is waaaaay out of control and is not helping the people it was designed to help in the first place.
Woolsey is immensely stupid.
Thank-you, Lynn Woolsey.
The only thing wrong with Social Security is thst the salary maximum needs to be raised. It has been the same for years, while salaries for high earners have gone through the roof. The masimum subject to the FICA tax has been stuck in the $90,000′s for years. Why should the wealthiest avoid the tax? Raise it to $200,000–or better yet, remove the cap entirely–and the program will be fine. All that stuff about SS being in big trouble is just another Republican myth. It started when George Bush wanted to turn it over to Wall Street. Wouldn’t thatr have been a mess!!
Representative Woolsey should resign over her attempts to get a convicted rapist off scott free because of a personal interest.
She should acknoledge that her claims on April 1, 2010 that “we have turned the corner” on unemployment problems was inaccurate and misleading.(Unless she meant the corner toward the dead end.)
It is refreshing to have some straight talk from a politician, even if it is a little crude. I would rather hear Alan Simpson tell us the truth than a lot of false claims from Woolsey.
It is absurd to insist on the resignation of Simpson simply because Ms. Woolsey doesn’t like what he said. Who appointed her to be the speech police? Doesn’t she have better things to do than spend her time attacking Mr. Simpson for a silly comment?
People have paid into social security for years, and that money has been borrowed against by the government for other things, so social security is in financial trouble. No one is suggesting taking money from the people who are depending on it for their survival in old age.Privatizing social security for future generations so that government doesn’t have their hands in the cookie jar might help.
She is too biased toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to have the ability to rationally work toward a satisfactory outcome for the United states as well as the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.Her rhetoric about the wars has shown her clear unwillingness to hear others positions and solutions. An apology will not be satisfactory.
Lynn Woolsey, a self proclaimed progressive, has not done anything worthwhile in the 18 years that she has been in office. Yet she recently voted for a pay raise for herself.
This November, lets try electing someone who doesn’t have such thin skin or easily offended sensibilities.Let’s move forward toward the fiscal responsibility and straight talk that will put Americans back to work.
Let’s help Lynn Woolsey resign.
oh my God!!! someone said it like it is, oh noes, alert the presses!!!!!!!!
Why can’t you LIBERALS take constructive critism….
Woolsey is right on target. I have been paying into social security for years and will appreciate the benefits I have payed for when I retire.
Isn’t former senator Simpson sucking off of the richest tit of all? The Senate
retirement plan which we pay for is a pretty rich tit. Must produce whipping cream at those prices. He ought to shut the hell up and go back to Wyoming or wherever he came from. You are correct,
“he is to biased”. He would probably vote to send a few BILLION 4 to some tiny remote spot in the world in a heartbeat. They can always find the money to give away to someone else.
The same Woolsey who voted to cut off spending for 150,000 American troops in Iraq!
And the 105,000 in Afghanistan?
Instead of supporting the defense of this nation, she wants to provide welfare and bike paths to the ultra left and gay voters of the county.
Did you get your medical insurance bill for the free medical Woolsey voted for?
And just wait ’til your tax bill is due!
How is that Hopey Changy thing doing for you? Lost your job yet?