Progressive activists have one more reason to be dissatisfied with the White House. A growing coalition of groups, along with members of Congress and Congressional hopefuls, have called in recent days for Social Security foe Alan Simpson to be fired from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it’s not gonna happen.
“Senator Simpson sent an email that he’s now apologized for,” Gibbs said at the daily White House press briefing today. “We regret that he sent that email. We don’t condone those comments. But Senator Simpson has and will continue to serve on the commission.”
After Simpson emailed a critic and compared Social Security to “a cow with 310 million tits,” advocacy groups including the National Organization for Women, Social Security Works, MoveOn, and progressive legislators like Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called on the White House to fire him. That’s not going to happen.
Simpson represented Wyoming in the Senate as a Republican from 1979-1997, and co-chairs the commission that may well decide the fate of Social Security later this year.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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