Misinformation Alert

If you do not believe that the federal budget should be balanced on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor, then you should be forewarned about something called the "Comeback America Initiative." The "nationwide fiscal responsibility bus tour" scheduled to begin Sept. 7 in Manchester, N.H., is being bankrolled almost entirely by Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson. He has pledged to spend $1 billion of his fortune on a campaign to cut Social Security and other vitally important programs while slashing tax rates for the wealthy and large corporations.

"We do have a serious deficit," Sen. Bernie Sanders said, "but it is not because $1,200 a month Social Security checks earned by senior citizens are too generous. The problem is that we gave $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthy and profitable corporations who don't need them while ‘forgetting' to pay for more than $3.4 trillion on two wars and an overly expensive prescription drug program written by the pharmaceutical and insurance companies," Sanders wrote in USA Today on Wednesday.

"Instead of listening to the millionaires and the billionaires funding these misinformation campaigns, let's listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want the wealthiest people in this country to start paying their fair share of taxes and want to close huge corporate loopholes. It is time for shared sacrifice. The middle class has already sacrificed. The wealthy and large corporations have got to start playing a role as well."

Should Social Security and Medicare be cut? Should families making $250,000 a year pay more taxes to help deal with deficits? Take our new poll