Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

I absolutely agree with him...

Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.



Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.
In his characteristically colorful style, Simpson told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Republicans' rigid opposition to new tax revenues has hampered productivity and diminished the chances of reaching an agreement with Democrats on debt reduction.


Simpson continued: "If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the east or something. But if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise. And you learn to compromise on the issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains."

Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

Apparently Simpson did not get the GOP Purity memo from Grover.

America was built on compromise, not everyone had the same idea of what the US government should be... Hell not every founding father was even sure that independence was the right course of action at the time.

But eventually compromise had to take precedence.

Jetboogieman said:

America was built on compromise, not everyone had the same idea of what the US government should be... Hell not every founding father was even sure that independence was the right course of action at the time.

But eventually compromise had to take precedence.

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Nothing gets done without compromise...the teaparty faction of the gop is pandering to their super rich benefactors.
Having said that alot of the cause of this attitude is because of the way the democrat super majority rammed through obamacare without any compromise...which cost them dearly. Americans do not like anything rammed down their throat...and eventually they will reject the teaparty...actually that rejection has already started

lpast said:

Having said that alot of the cause of this attitude is because of the way the democrat super majority rammed through obamacare without any compromise...

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True. How does the lamb negotiate with the two wolves about what to have for lunch? And what sort of compromise is possible?

Diogenes said:

True. How does the lamb negotiate with the two wolves about what to have for lunch? And what sort of compromise is possible?

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Good point...but lets go back to how it used to work...Democrats want this...Republicans want that...they negotiate, threaten, walk out, walk back, negotiate some more.both sides have press conferences blaming the other side for stonewalling and being unreasonable..then a few democrats and few republicans get together behind closed doors...and make a deal..

What we need to fix our country...is reasonable entitlement reform...and the "TEMPORARY" end of ALL tax loophole and deductions and TAX HAVENS for everyone across the board...until the deficit is GONE...then revisit taxs...that means middleclass get no deductions either...no mortgage deductions no kid deductions nada...just put in your income and pay your present rate...Corporations like GE pay 35% on the 14 billion they made...turtledude pays 35% on the 500,000 to the millions he says he makes...down the line...and watch how fast the deficit is gone and theres a surplus...id bet 5 yrs or less...because right now the rich and corps are paying peanuts compared to what they should be

Diogenes said:

True. How does the lamb negotiate with the two wolves about what to have for lunch? And what sort of compromise is possible?

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Bad analogy, the wolves have all the power and the sheep is helpless that does not describe the situation between Dems and Reps, both sides have things to offer and more important both sides serve us in government whereas the sheep and the wolf only have self interest in mind. But either way, that sheep damn well better try and find another solution because being uncompromising is just going to make the wolves take the easiest and most apparent action, ie eat the sheep.

lpast said:

I absolutely agree with him...

Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.



Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.
In his characteristically colorful style, Simpson told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Republicans' rigid opposition to new tax revenues has hampered productivity and diminished the chances of reaching an agreement with Democrats on debt reduction.


Simpson continued: "If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the east or something. But if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise. And you learn to compromise on the issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains."

Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

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1) he's a RINO

2) he forgot or ignores what happened when GHWB compromised with the dems on taxes-taxes went up, the dems didn't cut spending and then the dems lambasted Bush for breaking his promises when they ran against him


The rich pay too much now, until the government proves it can massively go on a diet no one should have to feed it more

TurtleDude said:

1) he's a RINO

2) he forgot or ignores what happened when GHWB compromised with the dems on taxes-taxes went up, the dems didn't cut spending and then the dems lambasted Bush for breaking his promises when they ran against him

The rich pay too much now, until the government proves it can massively go on a diet no one should have to feed it more

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RINO is the new scarlet letter, too many people put way too much stock into such a silly label and use it as a way to arrogantly dismiss the "ideologically impure." But yes I agree spending must be cut as well, with an increase in taxes to pay down the debt. And forget about what happened to Bush Sr, are we going to hold grudges that long?

TurtleDude said:

1) he's a RINO

2) he forgot or ignores what happened when GHWB compromised with the dems on taxes-taxes went up, the dems didn't cut spending and then the dems lambasted Bush for breaking his promises when they ran against him



The rich pay too much now, until the government proves it can massively go on a diet no one should have to feed it more

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Bush got his tax cuts...a full 30% reduction...turtle nothing gets done without compromise...and right now all the polls show american majorities blameing the Republican house for nothing getting done...if romney loses the election, he can directly thank the teaparty faction of the house that has forced the rest of the gop to the right....and btw traditional republicans have started to rebuke the norquist teaparty faction.....

lpast said:

Good point...but lets go back to how it used to work...Democrats want this...Republicans want that...they negotiate, threaten, walk out, walk back, negotiate some more.both sides have press conferences blaming the other side for stonewalling and being unreasonable..then a few democrats and few republicans get together behind closed doors...and make a deal..

What we need to fix our country...is reasonable entitlement reform...and the "TEMPORARY" end of ALL tax loophole and deductions and TAX HAVENS for everyone across the board...until the deficit is GONE...then revisit taxs...that means middleclass get no deductions either...no mortgage deductions no kid deductions nada...just put in your income and pay your present rate...Corporations like GE pay 35% on the 14 billion they made...turtledude pays 35% on the 500,000 to the millions he says he makes...down the line...and watch how fast the deficit is gone and theres a surplus...id bet 5 yrs or less...because right now the rich and corps are paying peanuts compared to what they should be

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Agreed on how it used to work and IMO that's what we need to make it work again. However, that requires that we go back to the days where both sides wanted the best for the country and merely disagreed on how to do it; that requires statesmen like our founding fathers were. We don't have a lot of them any more. We have a surplus of greedy hogs who are raiding the public treasury to hand out favors to themselves and their political supporters while calling it "fairness" and renaming their profligate spending as "investment" in the manner described by Orwell as "Newspeak."

Agreed that entitlement reform and the closing of loopholes is necessary, but it's going to be a fight to remove the entitlements that so many have come to expect as a "human right." The lefties have given us millions of people who truly believe that they have an inalienable right to a free college education, free health care, unlimited unemloyment insurance payments, etc. And like the man says, "If you think it's expensive now, just wait until it's free."

The government, especially the federal government, is woefully incapable of delivering retail goods and services. If you really want to see where ObamaCare will take us, visit an Indian reservation. We need to get rid of Fannie and Freddie, the Departments of Energy and Education, and hundreds of federal "assistance" programs that do nothing for the nominal recipients and serve only to provide an income stream for the federal employees (and send them on expensive vacations, like GSA and the 8th Circus Court in San Francisco).

The answer on the revenue side is not to tax "the rich" (meaning anyone who makes $1 more than you do), but rather to make everyone pay their fair share. That's going to be very unpleasant news for the 47% of the population which now pays no income tax at all. Personally, my first choice would be to go back to the tax structure of the Reagan era: federal revenue doubled over his 8 years, and it was wasted by Congress increasing spending by $1.65 for every new dollar that came in. Second choice would be to let ALL of the Bush tax cuts expire; those cuts made the tax code much too progressive because the most productive segment of society did not get their fair share of the cuts.

Here endeth the epistle for the day.

TurtleDude said:

1) he's a RINO

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Romney is a RINO, but you're still in love with him.

The answer on the revenue side is not to tax "the rich" (meaning anyone who makes $1 more than you do), but rather to make everyone pay their fair share. That's going to be very unpleasant news for the 47% of the population which now pays no income tax at all. Personally, my first choice would be to go back to the tax structure of the Reagan era: federal revenue doubled over his 8 years, and it was wasted by Congress increasing spending by $1.65 for every new dollar that came in. Second choice would be to let ALL of the Bush tax cuts expire; those cuts made the tax code much too progressive because the most productive segment of society did not get their fair share of the cuts.


The problem with that Diogenes is that the income disparity has become so much wider in the last 15 yrs...theres many more americans that cant pay more...people with no income for any reason cant pay taxs...illegal immigrants dont pay fed taxs...the underemployed cant pay taxs...and the working poor....the rich have a far bigger chunk of everything than they ever had...and please dont tell me its because they are so resourceful and successful...they just took it off the middleclass...by sending jobs to china and taking benefits and pensions and making full time jobs partime and stagnating their pay...all while they got fabulously richer and their TAXS were cut in half...theres an imbalance for sure

lpast said:

The problem with that Diogenes is that the income disparity has become so much wider in the last 15 yrs...theres many more americans that cant pay more...people with no income for any reason cant pay taxs...illegal immigrants dont pay fed taxs...the underemployed cant pay taxs...and the working poor....the rich have a far bigger chunk of everything than they ever had...and please dont tell me its because they are so resourceful and successful...they just took it off the middleclass...by sending jobs to china and taking benefits and pensions and making full time jobs partime and stagnating their pay...all while they got fabulously richer and their TAXS were cut in half...theres an imbalance for sure

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Income disparity is a Good Thing. A free market society (to the extent we still have one) rewards contribution, which is why Bill Gates has more money than the crack addict sleeping under a park bench. To be sure, I don't always like what the free market considers a contribution: if I was in charge, Michael Jackson would have spent his career cleaning public toilets and Madonna would be changing sheets in a hotel somewhere. But I'm not in charge and I don't think I'm smarter than the collective wisdom of the market, which is what makes me different from the American Idle who riot at every G8 meeting.

I know a number of folks who are worth more than a million dollars, but they are all self-made and they were all poor when they left home to join the work force and the world. None of them made their money by ripping off the middle class. They worked hard, saved and invested their money, and generally lived with the notion that the world did NOT owe them a living.

That said, I also concede that I wasted my career. I should never have wasted time and money going to college. Right after high school, I should have hitchhiked to California and got on with the state as a billboard inspector. After 30 years of a nothing job, I could have retired 20 years ago with full medical coverage for life and now be barely getting by on a meager pension of $100,000 a year. Then I'd probably be on your side, complaining about poverty and demanding that the productive segment of society pay more so I could have my fair share.

Let me know when entitlement reform is on the table.
Let me know when budget descreases that take effect immediately are on the table for a department that isnt Defense.
Let me know when foreign aid is on the table.

Are Democrats willing to compromise on any of this?
Then why should republicans be so willing to raise taxes to pay for liberal policies that are not negotiable?

I can see where you are going lpast but the whole picture isnt there. "Budget cuts" get broken every single time. Change the baseline budget and we can start to talk. We havent even tried that...ever.

Can we have spending cuts on the table before we start talking about raising taxes? Spending has been outpacing taxes since Eisenhower, maybe we ought to try to make some changes there first.

Diogenes said:

Income disparity is a Good Thing. A free market society (to the extent we still have one) rewards contribution, which is why Bill Gates has more money than the crack addict sleeping under a park bench. To be sure, I don't always like what the free market considers a contribution: if I was in charge, Michael Jackson would have spent his career cleaning public toilets and Madonna would be changing sheets in a hotel somewhere. But I'm not in charge and I don't think I'm smarter than the collective wisdom of the market, which is what makes me different from the American Idle who riot at every G8 meeting.

I know a number of folks who are worth more than a million dollars, but they are all self-made and they were all poor when they left home to join the work force and the world. None of them made their money by ripping off the middle class. They worked hard, saved and invested their money, and generally lived with the notion that the world did NOT owe them a living.

That said, I also concede that I wasted my career. I should never have wasted time and money going to college. Right after high school, I should have hitchhiked to California and got on with the state as a billboard inspector. After 30 years of a nothing job, I could have retired 20 years ago with full medical coverage for life and now be barely getting by on a meager pension of $100,000 a year. Then I'd probably be on your side, complaining about poverty and demanding that the productive segment of society pay more so I could have my fair share.

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I think you have me pegged wrong...I made alot more money in business and real estate than I did at my career

Wiseone said:

RINO is the new scarlet letter, too many people put way too much stock into such a silly label and use it as a way to arrogantly dismiss the "ideologically impure." But yes I agree spending must be cut as well, with an increase in taxes to pay down the debt. And forget about what happened to Bush Sr, are we going to hold grudges that long?

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the dems went back on their promises to cut spending and they castigated Bush as a "liar" or a weakling

anyone who forgets that history is an idiot

and when Reagan raised some taxes, the dems went back on their part of the bargain as well

johnny_rebson said:

Romney is a RINO, but you're still in love with him.

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He's the best alternative to Obama and on most of the issues that matter to me he is plenty conservative

crap like abortion, gay marriage and school prayer are all diversions and would better off not being part of the presidential election set of issues

You support Obama so you can whine in 2016 about the GOP needing to pick some social fascist

OpportunityCost said:

Let me know when entitlement reform is on the table.
Let me know when budget descreases that take effect immediately are on the table for a department that isnt Defense.
Let me know when foreign aid is on the table.

Are Democrats willing to compromise on any of this?
Then why should republicans be so willing to raise taxes to pay for liberal policies that are not negotiable?

I can see where you are going lpast but the whole picture isnt there. "Budget cuts" get broken every single time. Change the baseline budget and we can start to talk. We havent even tried that...ever.

Can we have spending cuts on the table before we start talking about raising taxes? Spending has been outpacing taxes since Eisenhower, maybe we ought to try to make some changes there first.

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The problem is historic, spending cuts never happen, closing the border never happens. Show me real cuts before asking for higher taxes, close the border before you ask for a comprehensive plan to deal with those illegals that are here now.

OpportunityCost said:

Let me know when entitlement reform is on the table.
Let me know when budget descreases that take effect immediately are on the table for a department that isnt Defense.
Let me know when foreign aid is on the table.

Are Democrats willing to compromise on any of this?

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You pretend to offer compromise but it is a fraud disguised as a sham in the Halloween costume of deceit.

You ask about cutting the budget but then start out exempting Defense - on of the biggest of them all.

You want entitlement reform but I bet you would squeal like a pig if a Democrat said - okay lets compromise by not letting anybody with an income over 250K collect Social Security or Medicare benefits.

Simpson was never good on taxes or guns

Here is from a website that refers to Simpson as the GOP's Grouchy old RINO

actually the worst RINOS are the lady RINOS from Maine and ex senator and now OHIO AG Mike DeWhine

TurtleDude said:

Simpson was never good on taxes or guns

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And those are the two central issues in your universe.

haymarket said:

And those are the two central issues in your universe.

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and??? if he was good on the issues that mattered to me I would have more use for him.

your issues tend to be taxing the rich more and giving the unions more power. I suspect if there was a dem candidate who was anti union and pro tax payer but reliably dem on abortion, gay rights, environmental stuff, women's issues, you would be less enamored with him or her than if the candidate was pro life, anti gay marriage but a solid Union guy and tax and spend liberal-like say Dinosaur John Dingell, who was well liked by the NRA and not exactly someone the gay lobby flocked to

TurtleDude said:

1) he's a RINO...

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its very sad that Republicans call anyone who dares to want to work with Democrats, a RINO.

as if working with Democrats to find some compromise, is a bad thing.

if Republicans think compromise is evil, our nation is finished.

Thunder said:

its very sad that Republicans call anyone who dares to want to work with Democrats, a RINO.

as if working with Democrats to find some compromise, is a bad thing.

if Republicans think compromise is evil, our nation is finished.

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Its bad to make concessions to a group that has proven in the past not to live up to its word

its called fool me once-shame on you

fool me twice-shame on me

the dems fooled RWR and GHWB