Pete Peterson's Expensive Obsession
From
Jeff Palmer writing at Huffington Post:
You may or may not have heard of Peter G. Peterson, but he has been
trying very hard lately to make you believe your Social Security is in
jeopardy. ... Peterson has spent "at least $458 million," from 2007 to 2011, to make
sure that you feel that you are about to lose your "entitlements" and
that we have to deal with this immediately....
So who is this mystery master of manipulation? Peterson has spent
decades on Wall Street, amassing a net worth of nearly three billion
dollars. He has spent some time in politics, serving under President
Nixon as Secretary of Commerce. He also co-founded infamous private
equity juggernaut Blackstone Group. Sounds like your typical fat cat,
right?
Not exactly. While most of Peterson's cronies make no bones about
their right-wing politics, Peterson really wants you to think of him as
nonpartisan. Peterson is definitely a conservative, but through his
billion-dollar-endowed Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he has made a
gargantuan effort to present himself as a friend of both sides of the
aisle. Peterson has given grants to conservative think tanks such as the
Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. But he has
also given grants to the likes of the liberal Economic Policy Institute,
and Peterson's foundation has brought the likes of Bill Clinton to its
fiscal summit.
By attempting to present himself as nonpartisan, Peterson has been able
to set our nation's agenda. Both Democratic and Republican politicians
are being told by their sources of information that Social Security
needs reform, so Social Security reform has, of course, become a big
political issue. Peterson isn't exactly throwing handfuls of money at
grantees and yelling, "Tell everyone we have to reform Social Security!"
But he is making his priorities our priorities.
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