WASHINGTON - Government leaders past and present gathered in Washington to do what they do best about the nation's deficit woes: talk.
At an annual "fiscal summit" Tuesday in a capital city that seems almost comically unable to function, much less take action to trim benefit programs and defense spending or raise taxes to close a crippling budget gap, a crowd of the converted listened to Washington elite: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, members of a failed deficit "supercommittee" and the chairman and top Democrat on the House Banking Committee.
The summit is hosted by Pete Peterson, who has staked $1 billion of his Wall Street fortune on a foundation dedicated to educating the public on the perils of the deficit.