Govt director of Budget refuses to say if SS checks will continue
Jacob Lew was appointed by Obama as director of the Office of Management and Budget. A CNN reporter wanted to know if the government planned to keep Social Security checks coming if there was no agreement on the debt ceiling, and figured Lew was about the best guy to ask.
Lew refused to answer.
The Dems want to scare seniors in hopes they'll pressure GOP congresscritters to cave on the budget talks. And hey, if ya wanna play that way, fine with me. "Us Dems care *soooo* much about the 'little people.' But we're gonna cut off SS checks if we don't get our way." Yeah, sounds like a great strategy.
So he wouldn't say, "we're gonna let 'em starve", but also wouldn't reassure 'em either. 'Cause the strategy is to scare 'em and get 'em to pressure the GOP. So in refusing to answer, Lew is right in step with his boss, Obozo, who said he "couldn't guarantee" that Social Security checks would continue in event no agreement was reached on the debt limit.
Lew's part in this is intriguing: He started sucking at the government trough at the age of 18, as a "legislative aide." On graduating from Hahvahd he was appointed "principal domestic policy advisor" to House Speaker Tip O'Neill, and served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director.
In 1993 Bill Clinton named him as one of his "special assistants", and in 1995 appointed him director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he held for three years (and would hold again under Obozo). During this time, to all appearances he proposed virtually nothing to help avert the current financial crisis. So he has a huge personal stake in pretending that since *he* did nothing to avert this crisis, *no one could possibly have seen it coming.*
And notice the way Lew doggedly refused to answer Crowley's simple question, either one way or the other. Rather, he dismissed the question (easy with a supportive interviewer) by saying “I think that once someone gets into the business of trying to ask about setting priorities it misses the question." IOW, "You're missing the point if you ask that."
CNN's Candy Crowley got the hint and let it drop.
Lew is one of the guys who *had to have known* that the deficit-spending situation was completely, unavoidably unsustainable. And had we *started* paring some of the entitlements by just a couple of percent back then, we'd have a lot more breathing room today. But of course, he said and did nothing.
No surprise, then, that today he's doing his damnedest to deflect any pointed questions.
What a buffoon. A Poobah promoted above his level of competence.
Lew refused to answer.
The Dems want to scare seniors in hopes they'll pressure GOP congresscritters to cave on the budget talks. And hey, if ya wanna play that way, fine with me. "Us Dems care *soooo* much about the 'little people.' But we're gonna cut off SS checks if we don't get our way." Yeah, sounds like a great strategy.
So he wouldn't say, "we're gonna let 'em starve", but also wouldn't reassure 'em either. 'Cause the strategy is to scare 'em and get 'em to pressure the GOP. So in refusing to answer, Lew is right in step with his boss, Obozo, who said he "couldn't guarantee" that Social Security checks would continue in event no agreement was reached on the debt limit.
Lew's part in this is intriguing: He started sucking at the government trough at the age of 18, as a "legislative aide." On graduating from Hahvahd he was appointed "principal domestic policy advisor" to House Speaker Tip O'Neill, and served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director.
In 1993 Bill Clinton named him as one of his "special assistants", and in 1995 appointed him director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he held for three years (and would hold again under Obozo). During this time, to all appearances he proposed virtually nothing to help avert the current financial crisis. So he has a huge personal stake in pretending that since *he* did nothing to avert this crisis, *no one could possibly have seen it coming.*
And notice the way Lew doggedly refused to answer Crowley's simple question, either one way or the other. Rather, he dismissed the question (easy with a supportive interviewer) by saying “I think that once someone gets into the business of trying to ask about setting priorities it misses the question." IOW, "You're missing the point if you ask that."
CNN's Candy Crowley got the hint and let it drop.
Lew is one of the guys who *had to have known* that the deficit-spending situation was completely, unavoidably unsustainable. And had we *started* paring some of the entitlements by just a couple of percent back then, we'd have a lot more breathing room today. But of course, he said and did nothing.
No surprise, then, that today he's doing his damnedest to deflect any pointed questions.
What a buffoon. A Poobah promoted above his level of competence.
posted by SF at
2:53 PM
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