The Solution to the Budget Deficit: The Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit

[Wetzelbill]

The Solution to the Budget Deficit: The Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit
Monday 23 February 2009

by: Dean Baker, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Peter Peterson is coming to get your Social Security and Medicare. Peterson was the commerce secretary in the Nixon administration. He then went on to make billions of dollars as one of the top executives at the Blackstone Group, a private equity fund. Mr. Peterson is known as one of the top beneficiaries of the fund managers' tax break, through which he personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars.

Mr. Peterson has been using his Wall Street wealth to attack these social insurance programs for decades, but he recently stepped up his efforts. Last year, he spent $1 billion to endow the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to further his efforts.

In politics, it's not easy to counter the impact of $1 billion. In addition to its money, the Peterson crew enjoys the support of many important news outlets, most importantly The Washington Post, which pushes his line on both its editorial and news pages.

In fact, The Post even went so far as to identify Peterson's foundation by its boilerplate, an organization that "advocates for federal fiscal responsibility," instead of telling readers of its political leanings, the normal mode of identification for such organizations. (The Center for Economic and Policy Research was established "to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives.")

http://www.truthout.org/022309A

[hfojvt]

1. I just read a shorter version of that on Dean's blog.

Although, I am not sure why "advocating fiscal responsibility" is not neutral. I generally advocate for fiscal responsibility too. Except I think we can get there by returning to pre-Reagan tax rates on people like Peter G. Peterson. :evilgrin:

[Wetzelbill]

2. Oh yes, that one's called "The Peter G. Peterson Fiscal Responsibility and Deficit Reduction Act"

:)

[hfojvt]

3. sorry I seemed to have killed your thread

Either that or social security is a boring topic.

[Wetzelbill]

4. well nothing is sexier than crunching

numbers and talking policy. :)