Unmasking the Most Influential Billionaire in U.S. Politics
Unmasking the Most Influential Billionaire in U.S. Politics
Peterson still argues that the typical person bearing such cuts would scarcely feel them. In a video interview posted on the foundation website, he states, “A substantial part of these retirement payments go to people like me.”
Well, not really. The $1.14 billion in Social Security payments that went to recipients earning $1 million or more in 2009 amounted to 17-hundredths of 1% of all benefits paid out.
Walker says Peterson has refined his approach to the deficit over time: “He’s diversifying. He’s funded things dealing with defense and other spending, and he recognizes now that healthcare costs are the main driver” of federal deficits. Walker, whose organization plainly remains part of the Peterson family circle (notwithstanding the bus tour), says that “it’s flat not true that his desire is to slash the social safety net…. But he recognizes, as does any knowledgeable person, that you’ve got to reform those programs as part of a comprehensive grand fiscal bargain.”
Walker’s own initiative, like others carrying the Peterson imprimatur, properly acknowledges that fiscal responsibility requires tax increases as well as spending cuts, though people can argue in good faith about how to balance the two. But the hallmark of Peterson’s worldview is to view social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare strictly as fiscal expense items, ignoring their roots as moral commitments to American citizens that cross generations and unite economic classes.
These programs form the warp and woof of the American fabric. Portraying them, as Peterson does, as “safety net” initiatives that have outlived their relevance for all but the most destitute Americans is an artful way of destroying their universal appeal.