Following the sale of his company, Peterson committed $1 billion to deficit reduction and has played both the inside and outside advocacy game.

He opened a foundation bearing his name in 2008 that has funded, among a litany of items, a curriculum for public school classrooms about the debt; a documentary called I.O.U.S.A. about, you guessed it, the country’s fiscal challenges; and a “fiscal wake-up tour” to encourage normal Americans to pressure lawmakers to find solutions to the deficit.

. . .  Peterson decided to commit a chunk of his Blackstone fortune to deficit reduction: a move that has helped to fund many of the brand-name debt groups in town, including the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; the Concord Coalition; Comeback America Initiative; Fix the Debt; and, of course, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.