With bailouts such as Bear Stearns and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac there could not be a better time for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to come along with the backing of $1 Billion (from Peter G. Peterson) and the insider expertise of David Walker (former Comptroller General of the United States) to help citizens and policy makers to take a serious and informed look at the financial crisis that is coming our way from decades of reckless spending and fair promises from our government. Actually there is one better time that they could have come along – before our Republican Congress decided to test the political power of acting like tax-cut and spend Democrats. We are at least 10 years further from a solid fiscal footing thanks to their reckless spending.
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Thanks for the link. I read through the entire presentation. It’s extremely sobering. The foundation isn’t promoting any feel-good plan; just a fairly blunt message about what needs to be done to the the US Government’s financial house in order.
We can only hope that their campaign succeeds in getting people to pay real attention to this matter so that it rises to the level of politicians actually having to do something about it.
But I was a little disheartened that they hoped their campaign would be like Al Gore’s global warming campaign. For starters, Gore is a former US VP that uses his stature and fame to promote his message. But he has discredited himself with a significant core of Americans because of his penchant for being over-the-top. Also, his cause has produced few (if any) of the results it purports to seek. I hope the Peterson Foundation uses a different model and has much better success.
You have to admit that Al Gore was very successful at making global warming the issue of the day. In that way I would hope that the foundation is like Gore with their issue. So far they have an eye-opening message by simply sticking to the cold, hard facts. I am hopeful that simply spending $1 Billion in various kinds of advertising will blanket the nation in their message and get the issue of sound fiscal policy and our current precarious (at best) position front and center in the public debate.