Alan Simpson: If Obama can’t cut the mustard on entitlement reform, he’s heading for a “failed presidency”
If President Barack Obama does not deal with entitlement spending in a meaningful way in the next four years, he will not leave behind a successful legacy, Alan Simpson, former GOP senator of Wyoming said Tuesday at a breakfast event put on by Politico at the Newseum.
“If he can’t cut the mustard with solvency of Social Security under honest appraisals of the trustees and he can’t get a handle on an automatic pilot rig of health care, he will have a failed presidency,” Simpson said.
Mike Allen, Politico chief White House correspondent, interviewed Simpson and Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and one of the leaders of President Obama’s debt commission, Tuesday morning.
Simpson aligned a failed presidency with a failure to reduce the deficit, as the pair discussed their new debt reduction plan, released to bridge the divide between the White House and House Republicans’ debt reduction proposals.
Blowback
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I’ll bet Allen was in tears as he tried to conduct this interview. I hope he managed to keep his wagging tongue in his mouth. What a tool.
BuckeyeSam on February 20, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Come on. That ship sailed a long, LONG time ago. History will judge Obama as one of THE worst presidents of all time.
deadrody on February 20, 2013 at 9:24 AM
You assume he will be judged at all!
jake-the-goose on February 20, 2013 at 9:25 AM
Deadrody… with the lib historians…he’ll be praised ad nauseum
cmsinaz on February 20, 2013 at 9:27 AM
Instead of Alan and Erskine running around as political media grade-B guests, I wish someone would force them to answer why they caved on Robertobamacare and didn’t include it in their original proposal.
Alan may at one time have been entertaining, with the occasional ability to express a conservative thought in a folksy manner.
But he and Erskine both have demonstrated that, under pressure, from the current occupant of the WH, they are morally bankrupt and intellectually dishonest
EastofEden on February 20, 2013 at 9:27 AM
If there was ever a worse President than Obama, I’d like to know who it was. He’s already the worst ever, re-elected or not.
DRayRaven on February 20, 2013 at 9:29 AM
When I talk about history, I’m not talking about 5 or 10 years from now. There comes a point when history is not subject to opinion. At that point, all the liberals in the world will not be able to paper over the failures of the Obama Presidency.
deadrody on February 20, 2013 at 9:32 AM
Depends on what your definition of “failed” is…
If you mean divided the country, increased cost of health coverage, increased unemployment, increased dependency on government, spent us into oblivion and diminished our stature in the world at large…he’s been a success.
ProfShadow on February 20, 2013 at 9:34 AM
No they won’t.
99.9% of today’s American “historians” voted for the guy. And their European counterparts would have if they could have.
Dear Leader is too “historical” to be judged harshly by these partisan hacks. After all, he’s the first half-Black President we’ve ever had!
Del Dolemonte on February 20, 2013 at 9:37 AM
Not quite true. Today’s generation of Democrat “historians” weren’t even alive when FDR was President, but even they still paper over his failures circa 2013.
And a more recent example is Lyndon Johnson; a few years ago even the “historians” who were in charge of his Presidential Library admitted they were still whitewashing his “legacy”.
Del Dolemonte on February 20, 2013 at 9:41 AM
Unfortunately, he’s also the first anti-American Communist fraud for a president we’ve ever had (to my knowledge, anyway).
The Rogue Tomato on February 20, 2013 at 9:41 AM
He’ll be the next FDR. Bush will be Hoover.
gwelf on February 20, 2013 at 9:50 AM
Oh no he’s not. Establishment Republicans are going along with his 2nd term agenda. All that matters to the left and the brain-dead electorate is that stuff gets passed in Congress. Obama will have his photo-ops, the left will be energized and conservatives will put their wallets away and some will stay home. The disastrous consequences don’t matter to the left because they won’t get blamed for them.
Wigglesworth on February 20, 2013 at 9:56 AM
Way past “failed Presidency” and moving into a new category of bad.
albill on February 20, 2013 at 9:57 AM
Dear Leader will never be considered a “failure”, because he has one thing no other previous President has had-a totally corrupt Democrat Media in his pocket.
Del Dolemonte on February 20, 2013 at 10:09 AM
“Heading toward”? He is already there and has been there since 01/20/09
nyclakerfan on February 20, 2013 at 10:11 AM
As defined by who…?
NeoKong on February 20, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Obysmal would not allow certain items to be included in the discussions, among them Obamacare.
onlineanalyst on February 20, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Obama cut the cheese, thus he already has a “failed Presidency”.
portlandon on February 20, 2013 at 11:22 AM
ummm…pretty much the first half of my point
the second half was their response to “not being allowed…”
EastofEden on February 20, 2013 at 11:32 AM
History is what happened, what was, not what anyone wishes that happened, or was.
Schadenfreude on February 20, 2013 at 11:55 AM
The Punk makes Carter very happy. The old fool lived long enough to make it to “second worst”.
Schadenfreude on February 20, 2013 at 11:56 AM
I’d be happier if we were still at the “failed” stage, but it has become (and will continue to become) much, much worse.
Othniel on February 20, 2013 at 12:10 PM