In a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Peterson argued that "spending cuts must play a lead role in any solution to our long-term structural deficits." That's an ideological statement that can't be found anywhere in "the math." For revenue, Peterson's go-to solution was a consumption tax that would disproportionately harm the middle class.
No cut is too cruel for the Peterson crowd. A Peterson-backed group praised the draconian spending cuts in Donald Trump's budget proposal last year, writing, "The President deserves credit for setting a fiscal goal and working to meet it."
But it chastised the Republican for failing to apply an equally heavy hand to Social Security and Medicare.
Testing MeanThe policy heart of the Peterson agenda is means testing: of Social Security, Medicare, and other vital government programs. The Concord Coalition, which Peterson co-founded, pioneered the idea of means-testing Social Security benefits and reducing them for anyone making $40,000 per year or more. The idea quickly spread to Medicare and other universal programs.
It sounds reasonable, at first. Why should rich people collect taxpayer-funded benefits? One answer -- because it's an insurance program -- can be hard to convey, but is nevertheless important.
Voters forget that means-testing is a slippery slope. Once it's applied to vital programs, it can be ratcheted down until most Americans are excluded from them. Should we means-test public high schools? Elementary schools?
Means-testing works for anti-poverty programs. But under social insurance programs like Social Security, everybody contributes and everyone is eligible for benefits (with limited exceptions).
For 50 years, both political parties favored these kinds of universal programs. Peterson changed that.
When people are debating means-testing, they're not asking a more obvious question: If we're so concerned about giving "free rides" to rich people, why don't we just raise their taxes?
Supporting CastPeterson assembled an ensemble cast of characters to push his message. Ex-senator Alan Simpson became a key spokesman, primarily because he shared Peterson's gift for making a heavily ideological agenda sound like blunt truth-telling. Erskine Bowles, David Walker, and a coterie of economic and policy consultants also filled the ranks.
Peterson recruited media figures, too, through his "Fiscal Summits" and other events. Prominent journalists were offered hosting and guest appearances at Peterson events (and were presumably paid for them) At least one received a board seat on a Peterson organization, while at the same time "objectively" covering Peterson-style initiatives. (I reported on Lesley Stahl's conflict of interest in 2013.) Journalists were also given talking points to help them sound knowledgeable about fiscal policy.
Politicians of both parties embraced the Peterson agenda for years. Bill Clinton, who received Peterson funding on the road to the White House, turned the Democratic Party in a more Peterson-friendly fiscal direction. Clinton emphasized deficit reduction, privatization, and means-testing as president, while over-praising the skills of the private sector.
Reaching the SummitClinton was a regular highlight at Peterson's Fiscal Summit presentations, which feature the self-satisfied musings of privileged individuals who think they're being brave for proposing policies that would pummel other Americans. These events typically treat even the worst political hacks, like John Boehner, as if they were statesmen. Paul Ryan, that empty-headed master of the Potemkin PowerPoint presentation, owes much of his undeserved "policy wonk" reputation to his hobnobbing with the Peterson crowd.
As president, Barack Obama followed in Clinton's footsteps. As the nation grappled with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Obama began his presidency by appointing Peterson acolytes Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to co-chair a commission. That commission wasn't tasked with addressing soaring unemployment, or lost middle-class wealth, or the foreclosure crisis brought on by Peterson's colleagues on Wall Street.
Instead, the Simpson/Bowles Commission was charged with reducing government deficits -- and cutting Social Security, too, even though that program is forbidden by law from contributing to the federal debt.
Peterson won, again.
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