“Who cares if Lindsay Lohan lost her ankle bracelet?” Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson said. “We need to focus on what is really important. We are $16.2 trillion in debt. This deficit is not going away unless we do something about it. We need to hold our government accountable.”
Simpson spoke to about 200 students at the CMU Speakers Bureau’s luncheon Feb. 20.
At $50 per ticket, the luncheon sold out.
Simpson, 80, was a three-term republican senator from Wyoming. He and American businessman Erskine Bowles were appointed by President Obama to write a 10-year federal deficit reduction plan which was not implemented. Simpson and Bowles are rewriting the plan and will recirculate it sometime in the future.
“Our [deficit reduction] plan was not approved by the president who appointed us because it had to do with entitlement reform,” Simpson said. “If Obama approved it, he would have been torn to bits by his base.”
Simpson said Obama’s healthcare reform isn’t going to help America in the long run.
“It doesn’t matter if you call the healthcare reform Obamacare, Elvis Presley care or I don’t care-care,” Simpson said. “It won’t work. It is not a sustainable program.”
Simpson said republicans and democrats have to work together to save the economy. He urged the audience to ask politicians what they are doing to cut federal spending.
Simpson said limiting tax expenditures, reducing discretionary spending and reforming Medicare and Social Security will help reduce the federal deficit.
“[The] life expectancy is 78 years,” Simpson said. “When social security first started in 1937, the life expectancy was 63. Now there are 10,000 people a day turning 65. We haven’t increased the retirement age since social security began. That’s madness.”
Politics run in Simpson’s family. His father was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives before Simpson was born. When Simpson was in his early 20s, his father became the governor of Wyoming.
“My whole life was sitting at the dinner table with politics,” Simpson said.
After Simpson spoke, he answered questions from the audience. He said the questions asked by CMU students were similar to what was asked at larger universities.
Simpson did not accept payment for his speech and he donated $1,000 to the Speakers Bureau.
ASG Vice President and junior political science major Adrienne Barlow said that Simpson is a good person and politician.
“I think Alan Simpson is strong-minded, intelligent and well-spoken,” Barlow said. “I think his ideas on how to reduce the federal deficit are doable.”
Proceeds from the luncheon fund future speakers. The Speakers Bureau wants to hold two speakers per year. For more information, visit www.coloradomesa.edu/speakersbureau or call the Foundation office at 248-1902.
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