Robert Kuttner says budget cuts will be one of the early and defining battles of the next Congress.
The mastermind behind the austerity effort is investment banker and former Nixon Cabinet official Peter G. Peterson. He’s written four books over two decades, warning that Social Security would crash the economy — though the culprit turned out to be financial deregulation of the sort that helped create Peterson’s fortune as a private-equity mogul. Peterson, who cashed in his stake in the private-equity investment firm Blackstone just before the collapse, is spending a billion dollars through the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to promote the austerity gospel.
