Virtual Summit

Will the deficit commission find ways to keep the public out as it contemplates Social Security and Medicare cuts? It’s happened before. The pieces may already be in place for it to happen again.

“Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors,” sang the late, great recording artist Charlie Rich. Evidently, that’s the one thing Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, agree on when it comes to the president’s deficit commission. more »

Today, Peter Peterson and his foundation convened a closed-door meeting of Wall Street billionaires and millionaires at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building in D.C.

Peterson is a former CEO of Lehman Brothers and former chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He underwrites the foundation with his own money, and his agenda is not a secret.

Peterson says the coming retirement of baby boomers is a threat to the economy and the federal budget. He wants to see significant cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits, and would prefer a stream-lined process via a commission to implement these changes to "reduce the deficit." more »

I worked at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) for 6 ½ years. During this time, the credibility of my work and that of my colleagues was often impugned by describing EPI as "labor backed." This was partially true, we got 20-25 percent of our funding from unions. However, the clear implication of this identification was that our ties to labor called our integrity into question in a way that large amounts of corporate tied money did not affect the integrity of other think tanks.

I am reminded of this because I was at the Peter G. Peterson's Foundation deficit fest this morning. I left as Peter Peterson took the stage with Robert Rubin. The hypocrisy around this sight was more than I could bear. Actually, I left because I had work to do, but this sight was still pretty painful.

Peter Peterson and Robert Rubin are both enormously wealthy men. (They joked about dividing their lunch tab based on their net worth.) They are lecturing the country on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for retirees who have a tiny fraction of their wealth. Many of the victims of the cuts that they would push are people who are already struggling.

This would be difficult to accept in any case, especially since there are ways to get the long-term deficit down to size that don't involve nailing middle income and/or poor people. However, it would be hard to find two people who have benefited more from taxpayer handouts than these two individuals.

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The Washington Post (a.k.a. Fox on 15th Street) told readers that: "Official forecasts suggest that without sharp changes in federal spending or tax collections, the United States could enter into a downward spiral of indebtedness that by the end of this decade would erode the country's ability to educate its children, care for the elderly or mount a robust national defense."

Wow, that sounds really dire. It would have been great if they gave a source for this one because that is not what the standard sources say.

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Who stands to benefit if the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Cato Institute, and other anti-social insurance think tanks continue to control the discussion about Social Security and Medicare? At a recent conference of the retirement insurance industry, all sorts of "concern" was evinced by speakers who could possibly have ulterior motives.

For example, here's Robert Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global (LL Global is the nonprofit parent company of LIMRA and LOMA, two Conn.-based trade associations consisting of more than 1,200 insurance and financial services companies):

Clearly, the current entitlement programs are unsustainable. Americans are going to have to take more responsibility for their financial security — especially in retirement.

How convenient for Mr. Kerzner and his listeners. more »