Morning Joe just hosted Pete Peterson, giving him an opportunity to plug his book and spread his doom and gloom about “entitlement reform.” As usual, the reporters present treated Peterson as though he is a Yoda, the Dalai Lama, and their grandfather all in one.

Nobody, for example, asked Peterson about his opposition to health care reform in the early 1990s (“The issue is whether we can afford it. We can't.”) Since then, health care costs have skyrocketed, taking Medicare costs with them. So the failure of health care reform in 1993/1994 not only resulted in tens of millions of Americans going without health care for the past 15 years, it also contributed to the soaring Medicare spending that Pete Peterson insists is a crisis.

All of which suggests a second question somebody should probably ask Peterson: Why should we listen to you?