How a Democrat learned from a Republican

When I was a candidate for Congress in 2004, there was one book I hauled around with me everywhere I went: Peter G. Peterson's Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It. Some people might find it strange that a Democrat like me was so enamored with a book by a man who had spent much of his career working for Republican presidents.

Yet Peterson is no ordinary Republican. Rather, he is an American first and a man of common sense, as well as being an astute businessman. In Running on Empty his message crosses party lines, a way of thinking and analysis that is sadly lacking in both political parties today.

While Running on Empty deals with policy, the following article deals with heart, responsibility and the concept of what one generation owes another. In short, both Republicans and Democrats (as well as independents) need to read and learn from what Peter G. Peterson has to say. — Leigh Pomeroy

You Can’t Take it with You

Blackstone's Peterson made a mint, then chose to give it away to solve U.S. economic challenges.

Peter G. Peterson, NEWSWEEK

The turning point in my life came before I was born. It was the day in 1912 when my Greek immigrant father came to America. He came as a teenager, without a penny or a word of English, and with only a third-grade education.

He took a job as a railroad dishwasher. He worked, ate and slept in a steaming caboose and saved everything he made. With his savings he opened a restaurant, and kept it open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 25 years in my hometown of Kearney, Neb. His hard work and thrift gave me extraordinary opportunities. Had I been born in a different country, at a different time, I would never have had the chances that gave me such good fortune.

I have lived the American Dream—I went to college, worked in the corporate world, served in government and became an investment banker. And that led to a second turning point, on June 21, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. That was the day the Blackstone Group—a private-equity, asset-management and financial-advisory firm that I cofounded—went public. In an hour I became an instant billionaire.

The article is continued here. For more information about the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, go here.