Granny Bird Award: Supercommittee Democrats

It's time for another Granny Bird Award, an award which is given from time to time to individuals or groups who adversely affect the rights and interests of the elders, especially if they go out of their way to do so. This one has me steaming.

It was a Democrat who jawboned Congress into passing one of the most important safety nets in our history: Social Security. It was another Democrat decades later who jawboned Congress into passing another piece of the safety net as part of his Great Society program: Medicare. Now, to my absolute horror it is a group of Democrats who are offering to undo both programs in order to reduce the deficit.

From Reuters:

Democrats are proposing up to $3 trillion in measures to slash the U.S. budget deficit, including revenue increases and significant cuts to the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly.

The plan was unveiled on Tuesday at a closed-door meeting of a 12-member congressional panel -- the so-called "super committee" that is assigned the task of finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, congressional aides told Reuters. ...

It also seeks around $400 billion in Medicare savings, with half coming in benefit cuts and the other half in cuts to healthcare providers. Details of that proposal were scant but tackling the popular Medicare program is always politically risky for politicians.

If the supercommittee wants to cut costs, I have a few suggestions. First, tie all pay raises for Congress critters to the CPI. Second, cut out all government provided health insurance for members of Congress and their staff. Let them shop for it in the market the way the rest of us have had to. Third, drop the government funded pension plan that pays so handsomely. Let them set aside part of their pay in an IRA account, or hope that the corporation they go to work for after their service has a decent 401k. That ought to save us some money.

Morons.