quote:

---

Bill Gates Sr., co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, gave a CityClub gathering their money's worth Friday at a luncheon to review the year almost gone.

As a participant on a panel that included Sen. Patty Murray, state Secretary of Health Mary Selecky and Issaquah developer George W. "Skip" Rowley, Gates, along with the others, was asked to tell about someone he'd been impressed by and to say why.

He picked Wall Street big shot Pete Peterson, who, Gates said, has warned against "the pending bankruptcy of the U.S."

---

quote:

---

Gates said he is worried about a lot of things -- the Bush administration's tax-cutting policies at a time of war, the financial problems forecast for Social Security and Medicare and a national debt that appears to be flying off the chart as it is being underwritten by foreign governments.

Now is the time to do something about these issues, "not 10 years from now," Gates said. "But all we hear about is cutting taxes."

Gates also weighed in on the outsourcing of jobs to other countries but did not wring his hands over American losses.

"We need to get over it," he said. "Seems to me it's the only way to raise all ships" and create what he described later as a truly "flat earth."

---