RebelCapitalist: Financial Information for the Rest of Us

They Have No Shame

Nov 10, 2010 | By: Mr_Blue | Tags: social security, pete peterson

Billionaires on Wall Street have no shame. After destroying our economy and receiving $14 TRILLION DOLLAR taxpayer bailout and all the while receiving HUGE tax benefits are now going after Social Security. The person leading this campaign is Wall Street Billionaire - Pete Peterson. He is funding a huge media disinformation/propaganda campaign called “Owe No” that has as one of its objectives to cut and privatize Social Security.

Pete Peterson was co-founder and chairman of The Blackstone Group - a mega hedge fund. Peterson has donated billions of dollars to a foundation with his name on it called the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. This foundation is the one that has launched this propaganda campaign against the American people. This propaganda campaign is trying to play on Americans’ misunderstanding of and fears about the federal budget deficit. This propaganda campaign will suggest that one solution is to cut and privatize Social Security. And who would benefit from that? Certainly not you or me.

We know about the $14 trillion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street. But, did you know about the “carried interest tax break” that hedge fund managers like Pete Peterson get on an annual basis? This tax break only applies to hedge and other money manager types - you know the types that helped crash our economy. Carried interest tax break works like this - any income, which can be in the millions of dollars, that is earned by these money managers is deemed “carried interest” and that is taxed as capital gains - which because of Bush tax cuts is 15%. That’s right - the income they get from working is considered ‘capital gains’ NOT ordinary income (which would taxed at higher rate - 35%). Wouldn’t you like a tax break like that? There is NO justification other than these BILLIONAIRES contributed to both political parties.

Social Security is NOT broken and did not contribute to today’s budget deficit. But it’s constantly under attack by those who want to profit from it’s demise. Cutting Social Security only ensures poverty for millions of retirees. Privatization of Social Security only benefits Wall Street and BILLIONAIRES like Pete Peterson.

Good luck.