repblicans are the problem:
"You canât cut spending your way out of this hole," Simpson, who was appointed as co-chair of President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010, said. "You canât grow your way out of this hole, and you canât tax your way out of this hole. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, we tell these people. This is madness."
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 wonât compromise and Iâll show you a guy with rock for brains."
During the interview Sunday, he expressed frustration with his party's focus on social issues, as well as the ability of outspoken figures like Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist to drive the conversation.
"I guess I'm known as a RINO now, which means a Republican in name only, because, I guess, of social views, perhaps, or common sense would be another one, which seems to escape members of our party," Simpson said. "For heavenâs sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, heâll defeat you. He canât murder you. He canât burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when weâre in extremity, you shouldnât even be in Congress."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/27/alan-simpson-republicans_n_1549604.html
"You canât cut spending your way out of this hole," Simpson, who was appointed as co-chair of President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010, said. "You canât grow your way out of this hole, and you canât tax your way out of this hole. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, we tell these people. This is madness."
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 wonât compromise and Iâll show you a guy with rock for brains."
During the interview Sunday, he expressed frustration with his party's focus on social issues, as well as the ability of outspoken figures like Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist to drive the conversation.
"I guess I'm known as a RINO now, which means a Republican in name only, because, I guess, of social views, perhaps, or common sense would be another one, which seems to escape members of our party," Simpson said. "For heavenâs sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, heâll defeat you. He canât murder you. He canât burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when weâre in extremity, you shouldnât even be in Congress."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/27/alan-simpson-republicans_n_1549604.html
