Running On Empty: How The Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "When the towers fell, I was out of town attending a corporate board meeting (which promptly adjourned) and spent the rest of the day watching..." (more)
Key Phrases: benefit outlays, fiscal projections, entitlement reform, United States, White House, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For years, Peterson, secretary of commerce under Nixon and author of Gray Down, has been a compelling Cassandra, warning that the mix of growing debt, an aging population, and deficits in Social Security and Medicare portend disaster. Now, he laments, Republicans pursue reckless supply-side economics and Democrats, assuming a repeal of Bush's tax cuts would enable new government spending, are unwilling to consider limits on entitlements. Citing study after study, the author shows that it is a failure of leadership, not knowledge, that has let deficits loom. Beyond that, add the new burdens imposed by September 11—and the fact that European countries, aging like us, likely will have less money for security and international aid. Peterson attacks 10 partisan myths, among them that means-testing federal benefits will shred the safety net; that the elderly are poorer than children, that Americans are overtaxed and that using tax cuts to shrink government can work. What went wrong? He blames interest groups, individualism, short-termitis and generational change. Peterson offers concrete solutions: among them: index Social Security to prices, not wages; use the federal employees' health plan as a model; force Congress to include unfunded retirement obligations in its balance sheet; and pursue more nonpartisan politics, such as free TV time during campaigns. A self-described "fat cat," Peterson is willing to bear an "affluence test" for Social Security; he challenges leaders to revive JFK's call for civic responsibility.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Peterson takes the role of an extraordinary flight attendant preparing 290 million passengers for a hard landing--but the landing he anticipates involves not jetliners hitting the tarmac but rather the entire American economy spiraling into insolvency. Basing his conclusions on one inescapable economic reality, Peterson argues that twin deficits in trade and government spending now require an astounding infusion of $4 billion in foreign capital every day just to avert economic meltdown in this country. And foreign investors are growing weary of propping up the U.S. economy while American political leaders ignore the perilously unbalanced government budget. Unfortunately, Peterson finds both major parties locked into pathologically rigid ideologies of denial. While Democrats push for ever-larger entitlements for ever-more interest groups, Republicans press for ever-deeper tax cuts. Neither party will initiate the reforms--succinctly outlined here by Peterson--essential to safeguard the country's long-term financial health. Sobering, urgent, and evenhanded. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Seveth Printing edition (July 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374252874
• ISBN-13: 978-0374252878
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #378,641 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

209 of 222 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Cow! "Insider" Speaks Truth, Tars Both Parties, July 14, 2004

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Edit of 16 Apr 08 to add more links on the bad and the good.

Edit of 17 Jan 07 to add links.

This extraordinary book should be read in tandem with Lewis H. Lapham's Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy and perhaps also William Greider's The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism as well as Jonathan Schell's The Unconquerable World.

I find it extraordinary to have the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, which I have always considered to be an old man's club of established elites, largely out of touch with 80% of the real world (that is to say, the 80% that has almost nothing in the way of wealth, health, or rights), step up to the plate and speak truth.

This book addresses the second core issue in America's future, i.e. the twin deficits that are not only going to kill the business of America, but also deprive the children of America of their future. (Lapham addresses the first: restoration of honest democracy). In combination, the $7 trillion deficit in federal spending, and the $500 billion a year trade deficit, with roughly $2 billion in foreign loans being required every single day to keep America afloat, both suggest that we are snorting political cocaine and every one of us is a damn fool for allowing two political parties to get away with selling us down the river.

As the author points out in the Preface, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautions its own master, the USA, that it is in danger of becoming an insolvent Third World country, running up bills that "would require an immediate and permanent 60 percent hike in the federal income tax, or a 50 percent cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits," we cannot say we have not been warned.

The author is balanced, focused, deliberative, and earnest. He carefully explains how both the "mainstream" political parties have completely abdicated all responsibility, and completely betrayed the public interest in their eagerness to sell legislation to the highest corporate bidders.

There is one grievous flaw in the book. In concluding that we can only survive by educating ourselves and then finding our voice, the author neglects to address the fast means of achieving short-term fiscal recovery in tandem with campaign finance and electoral reform: the elimination of subsidies, tax fraud, and tax relief for corporations. We have close to a trillion in unwarranted and unsound subsidies to poor agricultural, fisheries, forestry, and minerals programs where every dollar in subsidy is yielding high long-term costs to the taxpayer citizen; we have over $50 billion a year in documented import-export tax fraud ($25 rocket engines going out, $3000 toothbrushes coming in--advanced money laundering and tax avoidance); finally, the corporate share of federal tax revenue has dropped from 32% to 6% in the past twenty years, with corporations like Halliburton paying $15M in taxes on billions in profit--easy to fix: pay taxes on the profit declared to the stockholders.

This is a serious and important book, and it also helps explain why the election of 2004 does not really offer America any choices. Both candidates are from Yale's Skull and Bones, and neither of them is likely to confront the Wall Street elite and betray their secret society. As the author points out, both Democrats and Republicans have betrayed the people of America--the individual voter-constituents, and absent a popular revolt that demands a coalition government committed to electoral and campaign finance reform, I see nothing but trouble ahead as the America Republic continues to fail, and the American charade grows in its dangerous totalitarian and elitist manifestation.

See also on the bad:
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

See also on the good:
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

96 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-Provoking Book About Our Current Dilemma!, July 16, 2004

By	Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Over the last several years, former Secretary Of Commerce Pete Petersen has become something of a cottage industry in and of himself, writing several books, appearing as a pundit on talk shows, and acting as chairperson for both the Blackstone Group and the prestigious Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). Here he continues the caustic warnings he first articulated in "Gray Dawn", a polemic ranting against the potentially devastating consequences of the graying of the American population and the stress this demographic factor would have on growing federal deficits, the aging population itself, and on the national debt. He amplifies those warnings by making a rather alarming set of observations as to the consequences of the reckless and foolhardy policies of the current federal government, policies that combine the worst elements of supply side `voodoo economics' with continued growth in federal entitlement programs.

The mix, Mr. Petersen argues, may become a disastrous witch's brew with catastrophic results both for the domestic economy and the continued well-being of the American people. He saves his most strident criticism for the style of morally questionable leadership currently in vogue, a reckless world view that seems to shamelessly trade immediate and permanent tax cuts for the very wealthy for a mounting tidal wave of debt for our children and their heirs. In detailing his grievances with current policies, Petersen cites a series of common partisan myths, including the notion that the majority of the elderly are poor, that more elderly than children are poor, that Americans are over-taxed, that providing tax cuts for the rich can successfully shrink government, and that imposing so-called "means-testing" for federal benefits will be catastrophic for the needy.

The author places the majority of the blame for our current set of problems upon the shoulders of a variety of forces within contemporary society, from interest groups and their lobbies to an almost pathological concern with short-term results, to the cult of individualism we all seem to suffer from, and, of course, to generational change. He views a number of strategies as potentially helpful in abating the negative set of circumstances we are ensconced in; indexing social security benefits to prices rather than wages, extending health care to all using the plan offered to federal employees as a model, and forcing Congress to include unfunded retirement obligations in the balance sheet (thus ending the thirty five year old sham of never mentioning to the American people the reason we have such a serious shortfall in social security funds in the out-years is because the federal government has consistently and quite deliberately violated the provisions of the Social Security law by spending the extra funds collected every year rather than investing them in accordance with federal law and allowing the investment income to grow). This is an interesting and thought-provoking read, and one that is sure to be the topic of continuing debate. Enjoy

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Cow! "Insider" Speaks Truth, Tars Both Parties, July 25, 2005

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It (Paperback)

UPDATED 15 Dec 07Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches

This extraordinary book should be read in tandem with Lewis H. Lapham's Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy and perhaps also William Greider's The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy as well as Jonathan Schell's The Unconquerable World.

I find it extraordinary to have the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, which I have always considered to be an old man's club of established elites, largely out of touch with 80% of the real world (that is to say, the 80% that has almost nothing in the way of wealth, health, or rights), step up to the plate and speak truth.

This book addresses the second core issue in America's future, i.e. the twin deficits that are not only going to kill the business of America, but also deprive the children of America of their future. (Lapham addresses the first: restoration of honest democracy). In combination, the $7 trillion deficit in federal spending, and the $500 billion a year trade deficit, with roughly $2 billion in foreign loans being required every single day to keep America afloat, both suggest that we are snorting political cocaine and every one of us is a damn fool for allowing two political parties to get away with selling us down the river.

As the author points out in the Preface, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautions its own master, the USA, that it is in danger of becoming an insolvent Third World country, running up bills that "would require an immediate and permanent 60 percent hike in the federal income tax, or a 50 percent cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits," we cannot say we have not been warned.

The author is balanced, focused, deliberative, and earnest. He carefully explains how both the "mainstream" political parties have completely abdicated all responsibility, and completely betrayed the public interest in their eagerness to sell legislation to the highest corporate bidders.

There is one grievous flaw in the book. In concluding that we can only survive by educating ourselves and then finding our voice, the author neglects to address the fast means of achieving short-term fiscal recovery in tandem with campaign finance and electoral reform: the elimination of subsidies, tax fraud, and tax relief for corporations. We have close to a trillion in unwarranted and unsound subsidies to poor agricultural, fisheries, forestry, and minerals programs where every dollar in subsidy is yielding high long-term costs to the taxpayer citizen; we have over $50 billion a year in documented import-export tax fraud ($25 rocket engines going out, $3000 toothbrushes coming in--advanced money laundering and tax avoidance); finally, the corporate share of federal tax revenue has dropped from 32% to 6% in the past twenty years, with corporations like Halliburton paying $15M in taxes on billions in profit--easy to fix: pay taxes on the profit declared to the stockholders.

See also the more recently published book by John Bogle, Wall Street mutual funds giant, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, in which he singled the author of this book out for special praise. What this means is that Wall Street and the "elite" now realize, as Dean Garten from Yale tried to tell them in The Politics of Fortune: A New Agenda For Business Leaders, we are all in this together, government is hosed, labor is vital, morality and integrity are non-negotiable foundations for mutual prosperity. 2008 could be the foundation year of the 2nd American Republic.

See also (with reviews):
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders