This is so awful it can't possibly be true

[hermetic]

On yesterday's Meet the Press, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and President Bush's point man in Congress on Social Security, suggested tying the amount of Social Security benefits to race or gender.

There's a petition here: http://www.democrats.org/blog/comment/00011496.html

[tuvor]

1. Is that the guy who said black people die sooner, therefore it's sensible?

Ahh, progress!

[Shopaholic]

2. Sadly, it is 100% true--that's exactly what the ass said and

Tim Russert lapped it up like he was a cat and it was a bowl of cream.

[ladjf]

4. "Like a duck on a June bug."

[ladjf]

3. We've got the "Nut House Blues".

Now that's a great way to unify the Country. Discriminate on the basis of race and gender on SS payments. That'll do it. They was bring people together.

[Name removed]

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[unpossibles]

6. both

you get more money (maybe... depends on how they spin it) but you die sooner.

This based on them trying to give less money to women (because they live longer). A guess at best. My theory is: they will find a way to screw all of us.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Welfareking....good one!

Are you the CEO of Halliburton?

[Name removed]

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[EFerrari]

9. What'll they do with me, a Latina woman? lol n/t

[Mrs. Overall]

10. Sorry, but I don't believe you are the person you claim to be....

[Name removed]

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[benburch]

8. Have I said yet tonight how much I hate these people? nt

[Tempest]

11. Thomas stole this idea from Chris Rock

It should be noted that Bill Thomas’s bold proposal to reform Social Security by adjusting the retirement age according to race is not new; Chris Rock suggested it in his 1999 stand-up special Bigger and Blacker. Here’s a close paraphrase, culled from my memory and the few partial quotations of the bit I could find online:

"You don't get the money till you're 65; meanwhile, the average black man dies at 54. Black people should get Social Security at 29. We don't live that long. Hypertension, high blood pressure, NYPD -- something'll get you!"

Evidently Congressman Thomas was listening, and he felt Rock’s pain. No word yet on whether the chairman will suggest benefits at 29 in committee discussions.

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/01/index.html#005296

[peacetalksforall]

14. Republicans - citizen enemies and stupid jokesters (we hope).

We're always hoping. That's what the true faith is all about.

[Name removed]

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[peacetalksforall]

15. So was Russert lapping it up because he liked the concept or did he

see higher ratings for the mention of the place where the stupidness was mouthed? We're always having to speculate.

[FizzFuzz]

17. Thomas' remarks to Russert were so evasive

Typical!

I just saw some of this this morning, and I could barely make any sense of what he was talking about, much less what the overall goals are. Russert would ask a clear question, and this guy just spewed back a nebulous word salad. :mad:

Seems to me, reducing what women receive would put them in worse poverty, for a longer time. (Than they already are--I seem to remember seeing statistics many times showing elderly women have the highest rate of poverty? Or is that after women heading single families? ... darn my memory. Works nicely with women's lowered earning rates, too--NOT)

[Extremeleftwing]

18. Hate

I hate Republicans.