Howard Fineman Thinks President Obama Needs to Tell Seniors to Get Ready for Some Tough Love on Social Security in SOTU Address
Click here to view this media I’m not sure what Howard Fineman has been smoking, but I’m pretty well disgusted with the man I used to like as one of Al Franken’s regulars on his radio show on Air America after hearing this nonsense out of him on Chris Matthews’ weekend show on NBC. Hey Howard, here’s a proposal for you. How about we ask the rich to pay their fair share in taxes instead of telling seniors on fixed incomes that they haven’t sacrificed enough for their country? Or pretending that ending Social Security benefits for upper earners and means testing it would do nothing but turn Social Security into another welfare program instead of an insurance program? And while we’re at it, quit pretending Social Security is doing anything to add to our deficit problem when it’s not. If there’s one thing I hope President Obama does during his State of the Union address, it is to not listen to Howard Fineman or his fellow Villagers spouting similar nonsense. The only people who have not been asked to sacrifice in this country are the rich and acting like there’s some abundance of rich seniors feeding off of the government trough at the expense of their grandchildren is just shameless. I’m really disgusted and disappointed with Howard for going there. He should know better. FINEMAN: If he doesn’t make a double feature a single unified theme, then he will have failed. And what he’s got to say, bluntly is some people are going to have to sacrifice in order that this next generation can have it’s Sputnik moment and to over simplify, but only slightly, better off, that is well to do older people, senior citizens are going to have to pay more and get less from government, so that this younger generation can meet the challenges of the future. He’s got to say that, which means he’s got to mention Social Security—after all it was part of his own budget committee… MATTHEWS: Howard, put that against the filter of what we all know about politics. FINEMAN: Right. MATTHEWS: It’s the older person with more time on their hands who votes relentlessly… FINEMAN: That’s true. MATTHEWS: …who votes their interests, their pocket book interests, their retirement interests. Will they give way? FINEMAN: Well he’s got to speak to them. I think that’s a very good point Chris and while Republicans are one part of his audience—they’re going to be sitting there skeptically saying “how much are you cutting, how much are you cutting”, he’s also going to talk to seniors, the better off people, people who’ve done well in the last fifteen, twenty years and say look, if you want your children and grandchildren to be as optimistic as you were when you were a kid and to have the opportunities in terms of education and the American life that you had, then we’ve all got to pull together.
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on January 23, 2011. Filed under