U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva for the second time in two weeks is demanding the Republican co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction commission get a new line of work.
Grijalva last week asked former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson to recuse himself after learning of an email the co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform had written to the executive director of the National Older Women’s League regarding Social Security. The commission is tasked with making recommendations on ways to cut the budget deficit, with suggestions expected by December.
Simpson asked in the email whether she had better suggestions about stabilizing Social Security than “just babbling into the vapors.”
He continued, “We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!”
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Grijalva, who said the program should not be cut in a misguided attempt to reduce the deficit, added Simpson’s “disregard for the integrity of the program, and for women in general, is unsettling.”
Simpson apologized by saying “over the last 40 years I have had my size 15 feet in my mouth a time or two.” The White House said he will remain on the commission.
Grijalva tried again Wednesday, this time calling Simpson out for a Tuesday remark that veterans “are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.” The comments came after The Associated Press found diabetes is the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans.
“This man has become completely unaccountable to anyone but himself,” Grijalva said, adding Simpson is casting vulnerable Americans as the bad guys in the budget debate. “For any reasonable person, this has to be the final straw.”
Grijalva said instead, the commission should talk about cutting military spending, sunsetting the Bush tax cuts and reconsidering America’s presence in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Adam Abrams said the president obviously disagrees with the comments and the sentiment behind them.
“The President has consistently fought for increased benefits for our nation’s veterans, and earlier this month reaffirmed his commitment to making it easier for the 200,000 Vietnam veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange get the health care and benefits they need,” he said. He also pointed out Simpson is the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan commission so “it should come as no surprise that we will sometimes strongly disagree with his positions.”
