Written by Lynn Goya,

Veteran groups are calling for the resignation of Co-chair of the Deficit Commission Alan Simpson for calling for cuts to their benefits, saying they “weren’t helping” the deficit.  Petitions have circulated around the internet, but three veterans groups have written letters asking for President Obama to fire Simpson. 

Gale Reid, USAF, Ret. (DAV) from the International Gulf War Council  took issue with Simpson’s statement that veterans who took advantage of the services promised and offered to veterans were “not helping us save the country.”  Reid says that “veterans have already paid their dues” when they risked “their lives and limbs” in defense of our country.  Reminding the president that many service members paid their dues with the ultimate sacrifice, Reid tells the president in an open letter, “Sir, he does NOT serve you, nor the county well when he makes such derogatory statements.”  Reid took umbrage with Simpson for expecting veterans to continue to make sacrifice upon sacrifice, even after their military service.  He is also insulted by the tone and words that Simpson has employed when talking about fellow Americans, saying he managed to insult the National Council of Women’s Organizations, along with “many groups” when he made “unfounded profanities about the people who are less fortunate and in need of help.”

Simpson and co-chair Erskine Bowles want to balance the budget primarily by reducing services and benefits to veterans, seniors, farmers and workers through cuts in social security and Medicare.  The plan includes increasing gas taxes and reducing mortgage deductions.  However, people are particularly offended at the way Simpson characterizes the people who will be most affected by the cuts.

Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran and the Chairman of VoteVets.org, a pro-military organization comprised of over 50,000 veterans and military families and another 50,000 civilian supporters, said in his petition that he was “long” concerned with Simpson’s “troubling pattern of denigrating those who rely on Social Security.”  More than 10 million veterans, he says, collect Social Security benefits, a number that has quadrupled since the 1960s. That Senator Simpson should refer to Social Security beneficiaries as “greedy geezers” and  “lesser people” should concern the president, Soltz says.  The U.S. has over 23 million veterans, Stoltz says.  The comment that particularly incensed Stoltz was when Simpson targeted veterans exposed to Agent Orange saying, “The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.”

Stoltz shot back, “Tuesday, Senator Simpson actually put veteran’s benefits on the chopping block…blaming disabled veterans for the country’s fiscal situation. And for us, that is the final straw. We ask that you remove him from his current position so that the commission can continue its work in a way that will give the military community–and all Americans–confidence in the conclusions it reaches.”

American Gulfwar Veterans Association drafted a letter requesting Simpson’s removal that also cited Simpson’s language.  “Mr. Simpson suggests that anyone supporting people who most need help and who deserve the benefits they paid for must be dishonest or stupid. Such open contempt goes beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated from someone in such a position of authority,” the letter says, continuing, “It may be good politics to have such an enemy to play off of heading into November, but Mr. President, it is time for you to stand up for the millions of American workers who have paid into Social Security on the promise of a secure retirement, and put them ahead of political sportsmanship. Mr. Simpson must be removed from this commission, either by his own will, or by yours.”

Veterans aren’t the only groups concerned.  The National Organization for Women (NOW) hand delivered 1,500 baby bottle tops in a “Tits for an Ass” campaign caused by an email Simpson sent to the executive director of the Older Women’s League (OWL).  In the email, he told her that Social Security was like “a milk cow with 320 million tits.  Instead of advocating for the preservation of Social Security, Simpson advises the activist to “call when you get honest work.”