Eastwood disappointed by lack of bipartisanship
The actor and director says Simpson-Bowles may have been our last chance for political cooperation.
The actor, director and Man With No Name went on CNBC on Friday to lament the lack of bipartisan cooperation in Congress and to give some credit to former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles for at least trying back in 2010. He worried aloud that the intractable disputes between both sides of the aisle will lead to political complacency that will only further complicate national politics.
"It's almost like they don't give a damn," Eastwood said. "If they don't give a damn, why do they expect anybody else to?"
It's been an unusually active political cycle for Eastwood, whose appearance in Chrysler's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad last year in the middle of primary season made onlookers speculate which side he would take in the 2012 presidential election. He supported John McCain in 2008, but his dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama's economic policies led him to the Republican National Convention and his conversation with a piece of furniture standing in for the president.
With Obama re-elected and the nation's economy facing more cliffs than Wile E. Coyote, Eastwood longed for 2010 and the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, best known as Simpson-Bowles. The plan would have cut the federal deficit by $4 trillion, reduced debt by 60% by 2023 and eliminated the deficit altogether by 2035.
Despite support for the measure from Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and McCain, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman sniffed at it as "unserious." The measure's tax tinkering was criticized and its spending cuts, especially those applied to Social Security, were savaged by detractors.
"They were just dismissed, and that was the end of it," Eastwood told CNBC.
The plan died in committee, with votes against it from such notables as failed Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Democratic Senate fixture Max Baucus. Amid recent drama, including the fiscal cliff, the "sequester" of spending cuts and the debt ceiling debate, Simpson-Bowles is getting a fresh look. Eastwood suggests it should be a long one, as Simpson and Bowles may be our last example of bipartisanship for a while. Why focus on them?
"They're probably smarter than most."
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Republicans want to cut where cutting shouldn't be done. Depriving people of the very money they paid into Social Security is ridiculous. Social Security isn't an entitlement as these Republicans keep referring to it. Cut out the tax credits large corporations receive and get these same wealthy corporations to pay their fair share. Money they spend on tax experts to reduce their taxes and money they spend on lobbyist to get laws changed to favor them would go a long way in leveling the field. While Republicans are harping on welfare recipients as being free loaders they don't consider the really wealthy corporations that avoid paying tax as being free loaders when in fact they are. They suck the wealth out of this country and see no need to give anything back.
Who cares what Clint Eastwood thinks. He is just another sore Romney supporter that lost.
How people vote (or not vote) is determined by their pocketbook. If they work for a company that gets
government contracts they will vote for the Senator that helped that company get that contract. If that person gets a government paycheck you better bet that person will support a congress that will keep that government job open. That is what is going on in Europe right now as we speak and that is why
we have lost so many manufacturing jobs here in the good old U.S.A.
CAREER POLITICIANS it won't be a career for the politician if the problems are fixed! as long as there is a problem a politician has a nice cushy job with all the benefits.
STOP PAYING the politicians and problems will go away because only Volunteers will go into office because they TRULY want to fix the problems!
Too bad he lost all credibility with the chair thing at the RNC tea-haters club. Now, no one is listening to him. In reality, what is he actually doing to help? Going on TV to underline how bad it is? Like we don't already know. Now he is calling out bi-parisanship when he himself is polarizing it.
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