Retiree Leaders Demand Simpson Resignation from Presidential Panel

August 25, 2010

Cite Growing Pattern of Offensive Remarks About Senior Citizens

For Immediate Release
August 25, 2010

Washington DC – The Alliance for Retired Americans today wrote President Obama to demand the resignation of Alan Simpson as Co-Chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  

Alliance President Barbara J. Easterling and Executive Director Ed Coyle wrote the White House in the wake of a growing pattern of offensive comments Simpson has been making about senior citizens, the most recent of which was an e-mail he wrote to the Executive Director of the Older Women’s League, in which he said that Social Security is "like a milk cow with 310 million tits."  Furthermore, he also told the prominent aging policy leader to, “call when you get honest work.”

Copy of letter

Easterling and Coyle wrote that these remarks are, “conduct unbecoming a person named to co-chair a presidential panel.  Moreover, it is the latest in a series of derisive and inappropriate comments Mr. Simpson has made about our nation’s seniors and the Social Security benefits they have earned and rely upon to make ends meet.”

Previously, Simpson has referred to seniors as “greedy geezers;” said that lower-income Americans are “lesser people in society;” and that he is frustrated hearing from retirees who, “live in gated communities and drive their Lexus to the Perkins restaurant to get the AARP discount.”

/simpson_resignation.pdf