That’s the question that readers are undoubtedly asking after seeing this piece on President Obama’s budget proposals. The piece featured three separate cites from Maya MacGuineas, who is the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. (One cite included unnamed “others.”) The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has received substantial funding from Peterson and his foundation over the years.

This is the danger, the follow-on to the American Jobs Act. As Jon Walker reported, there are signs of support for raising the Medicare retirement age coming from a variety of corners, including the American Hospital Association, who are trying to save themselves from trigger cuts on reimbursement rates by sticking it to 65 and 66 year-olds. The report from Ways and Means Committee Democrats that included raising the eligibility age as an option is bad news too.

This is an extremely important moment not only in the fight to preserve the social safety net, but for the future of the country. Nancy and Eric are both critical figures in this fight, and have bravely led it in the face of incredible opposition, at tremendous personal sacrifice. I cannot say enough good things about them, their courage and their moral integrity.

If you’re an FDL member, you should have received an email invitation to the webinar. If you didn’t, contact Ryan Cook at (202) 506-3907 and he will make sure you get one.

If you’re not a member and would like to become one, you can join here for as little as $45/year and we’ll send you an invitation.

Okay, that’s not true. Peter Peterson has not promised to give up anything, but he will stand to gain tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in additional pocket change over the next decade thanks to the Senate Gang of Six’s new tax breaks.

The major sale of sale of bonds would displace other bonds that the United States might want to sell in the financial market. This would lead to higher interest rates on U.S. debt. Therefore Mr. Peterson is contributing to our deficit problem.
That may seem more than a little silly to readers, which it is. Yet, this is the same way in which Kessler says that Social Security will be creating a fiscal burden.

Instead of being “surprised” by the June (lack of) Jobs Report, it seems the economists were “stunned” by the numbers.

Unemployment is officially at 9.1% (roughly 14M people) and underemployment is nearly double that. Social Security has been one of if not the most effective government program of all time, yet all we hear out of Washington is how there must be “shared sacrifices” (from all but the very richest of us of course) so Social Security must be “on the table” for budget discussions, even though Social Security has not contributed one dime to the “problems” with the budget.

Yves Smith set off a firestorm in her criticism of several progressive groups that have joined forces with Pete Peterson to whip up deficit hysteria. There are three issues that need to be addressed.

More Americans say that the cost of war has contributed a “great deal” to the deficit (60%), as opposed to those who say the same about domestic spending (24%) in a recent Pew poll.

A blog post published last week on Naked Capitalism raises an interesting question – what exactly is the Roosevelt legacy? For us at the Roosevelt Institute, we believe it is based in engaging in dialogue and promoting progressive people and ideas. It is also about encouraging young people to get involved in public service and public policy debates.