Deficit Reduction: the Great Distraction

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/deficit-reduction-great-distraction-1337089527

This is the week of the third annual Deficit Fest, the event sponsored by Wall Street billionaire Peter G. Peterson. At this event, many of the people most responsible for the current downturn come together to tell us why we should be worried about the deficit at a time when 25 million people are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work altogether and millions face the prospect of losing their homes.

Past deficit fests included exchanges where Peter Peterson and former Treasury Secretary and Citigroup honcho Robert Rubin mused about their comparative net worth. We also got to witness President Clinton bemoan the fact that the Democratic and Republican leadership in Congress teamed up to prevent him from cutting Social Security. Had Clinton gotten his way, millions of seniors would be getting by on Social Security checks that are more than 10 percent smaller than what they now receive.

Peterson is also known for his sponsorship of the “Economic Sleepwalk” tour, which was officially billed as the “Fiscal Wakeup” tour. This involved sending a group of policy wonks around the country to complain about the budget deficit at a time when the housing bubble was growing to ever more dangerous levels. While some of us were doing our best to warn of the imminent disaster [2002], Peterson was using his money and political connections to dominate media space at a time when the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio was actually falling.

But why harp on the past? We should be focused on the future.

And one of the items that this group would like to see in our future is a deficit deal like the one proposed by Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson, the co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit commission. (The Bowles-Simpson plan is inaccurately referred to on the commission’s website as a report of the commission, ironically on a page titled “Moment of Truth.” In fact, it is only the report of the co-chairs since it did not receive the 14 votes needed to be approved as an official report of the commission.)

[DCKit]

1. Illegal Wars vs. Social Programs

Yeah, tough choice.