Facing Up: Paying Our Nation's Debt and Saving Our Children's Future

In this austere blueprint for balancing the federal budget by the year 2000, Peterson--chairman of the Blackstone Group (a New York investment bank), chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Secretary of Commerce under Nixon--advocates withholding, on a sliding scale, a portion of Social Security and Medicare benefits from families with an income above roughly $35,000. He also urges increases in taxability of entitlement benefits, higher taxes on the very wealthy, cuts in military spending, sharing ``peacekeeping'' costs with our allies, and a 50-cent per gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. To cut spiraling healthcare costs, Peterson would encourage or require people to join HMOs; patients would directly pay for a bigger share of their medical bills as a means to discourage casual use of medical services. With Senators Rudman and Tsongas, Peterson founded the Concord Coalition, a group devoted to ``getting the American middle class to take responsibility for America's future.'' First serial to the Atlantic and New York Review of Books; Fortune Book Club alternate; author tour. (Nov.)