Peter G. Peterson and the Slick Move to Privatize Medicare and Social Security

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Did you think that should have read Paul Ryan? No. He is just the messenger.

I wish I had a billion to toss around to get my message across. Of course, my message is one of peace, tolerance, compassion, non-destruction of the environment, and helping those in need. But it seems there are a few people out there who use their deep pockets to propagandize, like the Koch brothers. But today, I will focus on someone many do not know about but someone from my past political experience: Peter G. Peterson

Just a note: Richard M. Nixon was our 37th President who resigned in disgrace for facilitating the breaking of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel in 1974. see note below.

Brief Bio On Peter G. Peterson
Peter G. Peterson (born June 5, 1926) is an American businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, author, and politician whose most prominent political position was as United States Secretary of Commerce from February 29, 1972, to February 1, 1973 under Richard Nixon. He is most well-known currently as founder and principal funder of The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which he established in 2008 with a $1 billion endowment. The group advocates for reductions in federal deficits and debt, through redirection of Social Security funds and cuts in federal entitlement programs.

Ok, so you see this man is another force against Medicare and Social Security.

The group advocates for reductions in federal deficits and debt, through redirection of Social Security funds and cuts in federal entitlement programs. Peterson is everyday Americans worst enemy as he would like to see billions of Americans pay into Wall Street for their retirement versus the Social Security TRUST FUND where it is all safe and sound. Wall Street is tied to corporations. So, essentially, employees money would be deducted like it is now and go to support corporations rather than into government bonds. I am firmly against that idea. I do not want my life and my savings directed to companies I may not like because many of them are polluters, like Koch Industries who own Georgia-Pacific who makes Angelsoft Toilet Paper and Vanity Napkins. Also, if I contribute to a mutual fund, how do I know a company in that fund is not contributing to political parties I do not support!

In New York Times, January 2010…..The Supreme Court decision last month allowing corporations to spend unlimited money on behalf of political candidates left a loophole that campaign finance lawyers say could allow companies to pay for extensive political advertising while avoiding the disclosure requirements the court appeared to leave intact.

Yes, indeed. IF your retirement contribution was made to a mutual fund YOU could unknowingly be supporting corporations who you are ideologically opposed to. These corporations may be anti-labor, anti-gay, anti-civil rights, anti-environment, etc. This is a big, HUGE deal. These corporations are lobbying today, right now to redirect billions that would normally go to the Social Security Trust Fund and to Medicare and instead go to…. corporations.

Both Strategies Are the Same
You see the plan is to privatize our Social Security retirement account, switch it over to Wall Street. We would be offered a “variety of plans” to choose from, just like Paul Ryan suggested yesterday for Medicare. The Medicare proposition here is not billions, but TRILLIONS. Ryan stated the government would “save” $5-6 trillion over the next 5 years. That would ALL go to corporations because that will be where Americans will have to go to pay for their health insurance. IT IS A MASSIVE REDIRECTION OF WEALTH TO CORPORATIONS.

Oh, and by the way, here is the connection between Peterson and Ryan.

SourceWatch reports: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Reform was initiated by President Barack Obama and parallels the Clinton-lead Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform of 1994. It strongly mirrored the 1994 charge to cut “entitlement” spending (spending that aids individual citizens) as the way to cut the deficit, rather than other kinds of spending that benefits corporations.

The Commission not only has many of the same players involved in the Bill Clinton-initiated 1994 effort to dismantle so-called “entitlement spending,” but more significantly, it is rife with those who were involved with the Peterson Foundation-funded America Speaks town halls. This includes the likes of Paul Ryan, Judd Gregg, and Kent Conrad, all of whom, not surprisingly, also partook in the Peter G. Foundation-lead April 2010 “Fiscal Summit,” also known as America’s Crisis and A Way Forward.”

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Paul Ryan is a rising star of the right-wing. His only weakness is that he is from Wisconsin which is now ground zero for fighting the Koch influence and other right-wing radicals who backed Republican state representatives who voted to strip collective bargaining rights from public union employees and weakened public education in the state. Unwittingly, they have galvanized the left, liberals, progressives, democrats, and labor.

See how this works folks? We must fight this corporate influence tooth and nail. Corporatism is a danger to an open democracy.

Note:
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, on August 9, 1974, the first and only resignation of any U.S. President. It also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of several Nixon administration officials. Source: Wikipedia

Related: SourceWatch
Peter Peterson (Peter G. Peterson) is a controversial Wall Street billionaire and former Nixon appointee who uses his wealth to underwrite PR campaigns against Social Security and other social safety net programs, hyping concerns about the federal deficit (although not targeting for budget cuts substantial military spending or other spending that benefits corporations).

He is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Blackstone Group and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to Forbes, Inc., Peterson has a personal net worth of nearly $2 billion, and he is ranked the 182nd richest person in the U.S. and 488th richest person in the world, as of 2010.

He is the former Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the founding Chairman of the Institute for International Economics (IIE), and the founding President of the Concord Coalition. He is also the former chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973-1977) and its successor firm, Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb (1977-1984). Before Lehman, he worked briefly in the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, as Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs (1971) and as Secretary of Commerce (1972). He also served as a chairman of Nixon’s National Commission on Productivity and as the U.S. Chairman of the “U.S.-Soviet Commercial Commission.” Before that, from 1963-1971, he was chairman/CEO of the Bell and Howell Corporation.

On Nov. 9, 2010, Peterson launched OweNo, an ad campaign to convince America that reducing the the federal budget deficit should be the nation’s top priority.

This ad campaign deploys a website, http://www.oweno.com/, and TV ads, as well as other tactics. Its mission statement reads: “OweNo is a national public awareness campaign whose mission is to educate Americans about the causes and consequences of the projected growth in federal debt levels and engage them in a national movement to address these important fiscal challenges. America faces a growing crisis — our $13.6 trillion federal debt is expected to grow to astonishing levels in future years, threatening the economic health of our nation, and particularly our nation’s most vulnerable citizens and the next generation who will inherit our debt. But if we act now to put together a plan for our fiscal future – and if we work together across party lines to implement it – we can start to fix the problem, live within our means and create a better nation for our kids. The American people have the power to make a difference. That’s why the Peter G. Peterson Foundation launched OweNo, a nationwide public awareness campaign. Through the campaign, we seek to educate Americans about the consequences of our soaring debt and deficits and build consensus among concerned citizens of all political persuasions on the need for a plan that embodies sensible solutions. And, most importantly, we will engage people across the country in a movement for change, empowering them with the information to make a difference by calling on Washington to put a plan in place that addresses our growing fiscal challenges.”

SourceWatch click here