using the financial crisis as a pretext to cut social security and Medicare

[Hannah Bell]

Dean Baker:

Wall Street investment banker Peter Peterson has been on long quest to gut social security and Medicare...He recently endowed a new foundation with $1bn to pursue this end.

Peterson and his crew are hoping that the financial crisis will help him accomplish his goal. His foundation has lately taken to arguing that because of the money spent bailing out the banks, we must make cut backs in social security, Medicare and elsewhere. In reality this is just bad economics. The Peterson crew is either badly confused or deliberately trying to mislead the public to promote its agenda.

Before dealing with this issue, it is worth noting that Peterson has a long history of being wrong in a big way about major economic issues. For example, in the 1990s he argued for partially privatising social security as a way to increase benefits. If Congress had taken his advice, beneficiaries today would be receiving much lower benefits.>>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/20/social-security-peter-peterson


Pete G Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce, Lehman Brothers, Blackstone Group, #165 on the Forbes Rich list, CFR chairman emeritus, U. of Chicago Business School, Rockefeller group associate, Concord Coalition...

Had roles in (at least) Nixon, Clinton & Bush admins.

in short, his is the voice of a substantial sector of the ruling class.

The global *financial crisis* game has 2 objectives:

1. rob from the bottom 98%.
2. give to the top 2%.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I think that the Democrats in the White House and Congress will make sure this does not happen.

[Hannah Bell]

2. Really? I'm not so sure myself.

Which is why I noted Peterson's bipartisan service, his Rockefeller/CFR links (supposedly the "liberal" wing of the ruling class), etc.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I guess being in "liberal" wing of the ruling class does not actually qualify

him as a real liberal..
I will wait and see, but I do not believe that the Obama administration would allow cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

[Wapsie B]

3. I still have to see where it is chiseled in stone

that we must cut social programs when budgets get tight. That mindset has got to be challenged. It's about time any needed cuts came from somewhere else.

[2dogs2queets]

4. DNA

Peter Peterson makes me think some people have a "I've got mine, fuck you" gene.