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Jim Clyburn, Stupid or Evil?

BDBlue's picture
Submitted by BDBlue on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 7:05pm

Or perhaps racist?

Jim Clyburn:

Now what we got to do is really get real about how we make that kind of adjustment. People are living longer, at the turn of the last century the life expectancy in this country was less than fifty years, at the turn of this century life expectancy got over 70 years.

When I was a little boy, my dad was 55 years old, I thought he was an old man. Come July 21 if all goes well, I’m going to be 70 years old. I’m not thinking about retiring. And so most 70 year olds I know are not thinking about retiring any more. And so all of that needs to be taken into consideration going forward.

CRS Report for Congress in 2006:

Average life expectancy for black males - 69 years.

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Cujo359's picture
Submitted by Cujo359 on

I wish I could find it, but many years ago a sports writer wrote about Shaqil O'Neal's (sp?) career, and how even though he was comparatively young he might soon retire. It wasn't just the years, he argued in a sense, it was the mileage. O'Neal had played far more games than most players his age, and since he was a very physical center, had taken a lot more bumps and lumps.

These days, in our own lives most of us are not Shaq. We have easy lives, with little physical danger, and far less arduous than in earlier days. Still, many people cannot say that - those people live tough lives, and if they have to continue those lives to be able to afford to retire, they will not make it long past retirement age.

I suspect Clyburn is just stupid, but evil isn't entirely out of the running. He ought to know better.

Bryan's picture
Submitted by Bryan on

According to the US Census Bureau, on average in 1900 if you reached age 60 you would live another 14.75 years and in 2000 you would live 20 years.

I selected the life expectancy of 60-year-olds because that's the group that is approaching retirement. He is talking about the life expectancy of new-borns who were decimated by the childhood diseases that are now prevented with vaccinations.

All of the 'problems' they keep talking about were dealt with by the Greenspan Commission under Reagan that doubled the FICA tax and raised the retirement age.

The real problem with the system is a lack of jobs to generate FICA taxes.

Submitted by Hugh on

The Democrats are a corporatist party, and Clyburn did not rise to a position of leadership in the House by rocking any boats or leading charges against that corporatism. So if the PTB decide that the thing to do is raise the retirement age, then Clyburn (and plenty of other Democrats) are going to talk about 70 as the new 40.

BDBlue's picture
Submitted by BDBlue on

But that doesn't mean they shouldn't get shit about it. Doing it on a blog doesn't mean much, but people should really call him and others out on it in person. I tend to agree with Ian that shaming these people IRL is a tool we need to use more.

Submitted by mwfolsom on

You don't get to be at the top of the list of House members that are Third Way Co-Chairs for nothing - you have to be totally sold out to the Corporate World to head that list. See the list here:
http://www.thirdway.org/co_chairs

He ain't stupid - he's just ultra corrupt. Wouldn't it be great to see him primaried from the left or some good reported going down to SC and doing a hatchet job on him. You know he's got to be dirty.

Submitted by MontanaMaven on

Encourage him to find someone to primary Clyburn. I believe I heard him say that voters were upset with Clyburn. Don't know how to get ahold of him. He is on every Sunday on Dave Marsh's Sirius Left radio show from 1-4PM EST. Call in and ask him about this.

Oh, and I vote corrupt and kinda stupid.

Submitted by mwfolsom on

and found this post that looks local to SC: http://bradwarthen.com/?p=11912

I left this comment:

Its interesting to read this posts and the comments. To think that Clyburn will bring balance to anything is stunning. As a Co-Chair of the Third Way Organization (see http://www.thirdway.org/co_chairs) you can be assured of one thing – there isn’t a progressive bone in his body. This organization works to sell the soul of the Democratic Party to Corporate America. He’s just another Corporatist who will happily sell out Democratic beliefs and principles to the highest bidder.

One wonders what his district is like?