Fareed Zakaria is very unhappy that “The American Left,” by whom he means the vast majority of people across the political spectrum who oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, insist on taking arithmetic seriously. They are refusing to join Peter Peterson and his wealthy friends in the Campaign to Fix the Debt in their crusade to cut these key social insurance programs.

Here’s something you won’t read in Politico, incidentally, at least not while the Campaign to Fix the Debt Debt butters their bread: the companies funding the campaign stand to gain hundreds of billions of dollars if their policy goals get met.