Gov. Perry Pushes ALEC-Backed Agenda To Privatize Texas Universities

ThinkProgress: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), a potential presidential candidate, has been quietly pushing initiatives that would transform the state’s public university system into a business-style model driven by “efficiency and profitability,” The Washington Post reported today.

The reforms Perry is seeking to implement are favored by one of his top campaign donors and the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an affiliate of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is a conservative public policy organization that often drafts model legislation for use in state legislatures across the country, and Republicans in several states have used its model legislation directly.

NPR Profiles Gov. Perry's Prayer Rally

On Saturday, Gov. Perry, who is widely expected to enter the race for the White House, is hosting a religious revival in Houston to pray for what he calls "a nation in crisis."

Late last year, shortly after he won his third term, Gov. Perry began to envision an event that is now called "The Response."

"With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis, people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God's help," said Perry. "And that's why I'm calling on Americans to pray and fast like Jesus did."

Listen to the Story from NPR Morning Edition (4:24) Correction - The audio and a previous Web version of this story incorrectly identified James Dobson as being "of Focus on the Family." Dobson was the founder of that group but is no longer associated with it and is a Family Talk radio broadcaster.

An event spokesman, who is a former Perry speechwriter, says the daylong affair will be filled with prayer, inspirational messages, Scripture readings and praise music. The event is being held in the 71,000-seat Reliant Stadium, normally used for rodeos and NFL games, but so far only 8,000 people have reportedly registered for the prayer rally.

Perry invited all his fellow governors. The only one to accept was Sam Brownback of Kansas, but he is now backing away. His office says Brownback is "on vacation," and if he goes, "it's at his discretion and on his dime."

While the governor claims it's nothing more than a Christian prayer rally, the event has touched off a holy war among critics.

"I mean, when you talk about the religious right, this is the fringe of the fringe here," says Dan Quinn, communications director of the Texas Freedom Network, an Austin-based watchdog group that tracks the far right in Texas.

"This is clearly, when you look at it, religious extremism and naked partisan politics," Quinn says. "I think it's one of the most cynical displays of using faith as a political tool we've seen in a long time."

Cantor: Entitlement Promises ‘Frankly, Are Not Going To Be Kept

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said he is ready and willing to slash entitlements like Medicare, because, in his opinion, Americans have to “come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many“:

What we need to be able to do is to demonstrate that that is the better way for the people of this country.

"Get the fiscal house in order, come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that, frankly, are not going to be kept for many. [...] The math doesn’t lie," said Cantor

[In the 2010 midterm election campaign Republicans nationwide ran as protectors of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on false claims that the Democratic legislative agenda threatened those programs.

Republicans charged that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obama Care) passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010 endangered senior citizen's Medicare and Medicaid coverage.

Believing Republicans when they said they would protect seniors from the Democratic legislative agenda threatening the social programs seniors voted in large numbers in the November 2010 election to give Republicans majorities in the U.S. and many state legislatures.

But Cantor’s pronouncement is maybe the most explicit explanation that, under the GOP’s vision, Republicans will renege on their 2010 mid-term election campaign promise to "protect Social Security and Medicare" on false claims that American can not afford those government run social programs.]

Of course, the affordability math would look much better, particularly on Social Security, if the GOP were to back off its insistence that the government not collect a single dime in new revenue.

Jacob Hacker, political science professor at Yale University, has called the GOP’s scheme to raise the Medicare retirement age “the single worst idea for Medicare reform” since it “saves Medicare money only by shifting the cost burden onto older Americans caught between the old eligibility age and the new, as well as onto the employers and states that help fund their benefits.”

Gov. Perry’s Legislative Agenda Bears Strong Resemblance To ALEC’s Corporate-Backed Model Bills

On July 15th this blog published an article about the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC's) connection to Texas law making. ALEC is a “corporate front-group” that represents the interests of big-name corporations by drafting legislation for state lawmakers. ALEC, which has the support of conservative heavy-hitters like Koch Industries, Walmart, and ExxonMobil, has written close to 800 model bills as templates for legislators on a wide range of issues.

Today, Think Progress published an article detailing the close correlation of Gov. Perry's legislative initiatives with the legislative bills written by the American Legislative Exchange Council and circulated to affiliated conservative lawmakers in all fifty states.

ThinkProgress analysis of documents recently released by the Center for Media and Democracy show that ten of Perry’s recent initiatives mirror either ALEC model legislation or policy recommendations from ALEC’s state affiliate, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle' Includes Crowded Homeless Shelters, Low-Wage Jobs, Worker Deaths

HuffPost: It was 105 degrees outside late last week when Vanessa Surita, 24, planted herself on the sidewalk and stretched her legs. Her young daughter sat in a stroller within arms length, outside the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH. Her needs were great: housing, a job, a high school diploma.

LiveScience: Record Heat Unlikely to Cool Climate Change Debate

No state in the union was safe from July's blistering heat wave, according to data from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center.

The horrible July heat wave, lasting weeks in some cities, the entire month in others, affected nearly 200 million people in the United States at some point. Preliminary data show that 2,712 high-temperature records were either tied or broken in July, compared with 1,444 last year, according to the NCDC. At least one weather station in all 50 states set or tied a daily high temperature record at some point during July.

Romney Judicial Advisor Robert Bork: Civil Rights Act Is ‘Unsurpassed Ugliness,’ But Criminalizing Contraception Use Is OK

Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) announced Robert Bork will co-chair his presidential campaign’s “Justice Advisory Committee.”

President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1987 to replace Justice Lewis Powell. President Reagan, a staunch conservative, had already appointed two justices -- moderate Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 and conservative Antonin Scalia in 1986, the latter at the same time that William Rehnquist, also a conservative, was named to replace the retiring chief justice, Warren Burger.

Right-wing backers of the Pres. Reagan had been disappointed in 1981 when Reagan chose the more moderate O'Connor over Bork, but accepted the fact that O'Connor's nomination was Reagan keeping of a campaign promise to put the first woman on the Court. But, for Powell's replacement ultra-conservatives pressured the Reagan White House to nominate Judge Robert Bork, a known conservative then serving on the District of Columbia Federal Court of Appeals.

Thousands Of Texas Teachers Will Not Have Jobs To Return To In The Fall

Throughout the month of August, The Texas Tribune will feature 31 ways Texans' lives will change come Sept. 1, the date most bills passed by the Legislature — including the dramatically reduced budget — take effect. Check out the Trib's story calendar here.

The Texas Tribune - DAY 1: Thousands of Texas teachers will not have jobs to return to in the fall:

Just a month before the end of the school year, Bryan McClintock, a special education teacher with the Little Elm Independent School District, was told that his contract would not be renewed in the fall. McClintock had anticipated he might be laid off because he has only taught for two years. He saw the writing on the wall during the special legislative session, when lawmakers passed a school finance plan that cut $4 billion from districts statewide.

Though legislators encouraged administrators to keep as much money as possible in classrooms, the majority of public education dollars are spent on personnel — meaning job cuts can't be avoided. During the legislative session, The Associated Press reported that up to 100,000 of the state's 330,000 teachers might lose their positions. Officials at the Texas State Teachers Association estimate that about 12,000 teachers have lost their jobs so far, and they warn more teachers could be laid off in the second year of budget cuts. The Austin Independent School District has already given pink slips to nearly 500 employees.

Read the full article @ The Texas Tribune .

A new Gallup poll finds, overall, that only 34 percent of Americans express a great deal of confidence in the nation's public schools, continuing a record low that began in 2005. In the 1970s and 80s, that number never dipped below 40 percent. Forty-three percent of Democrats said they were confident in the school system, compared with 19 percent of Independents and 33 percent of Republicans. People tended to rate their local schools better than the overall system. See the poll's full results here.

Why have the American people lost confidence in our public school system? Because so much of what the read about public schools is negative.

Monster Heat Wave - Mandatory N. Tx Water Restrictions Coming

The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and all surrounding counties through Thursday.

The sweltering month of July has come to an end, but not before over 2,000 records were broken by high temperatures. The Huffington Post reports that some cities hadn't seen this kind of heat in 140 years.

Texas has experienced one of the worst droughts on record, the elderly and athletes alike continue to suffer from heat stroke, and large amounts of warmth and moisture were trapped under a "heat dome" that brought high temperatures and thick air to much of the U.S.

A huge and intense high aloft has plagued north Texas with triple digit heat for more than a month. Monday will be the 31st day in a row of 100+ heat at DFW. It's the second longest 100-or-better streak on record bettered only by 1980's 42 days. Dallas-Fort Worth temperatures are expected to hit 107 or 108 for the next three days, triggering an excessive heat warning that lasts at least through Thursday.

Pres. Obama's Message On The Debt Deal

In a message to supporters, President Obama outlines the agreement he reached with congressional leaders to meet our financial obligations and reduce our debt.

The graph below, from the White House represents the President's explanation of the deal. Text at the bottom of the graphic states, "Social Security and Medicare will be protected from cuts."

President Barack Obama announced an 11th-hour deal with Congress to avert an unprecedented default on US debt payments, which would have sown chaos across the global economy.

With just two days left before the United States would run short of cash, Obama and his Republican foes said after round-the-clock negotiations that they had reached a framework for more than $2.4 trillion in spending cuts.

"I want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default, a default that would have had a devastating effect on our economy," Obama said.

"This process has been messy; it's taken far too long," Obama told a hastily convened evening press conference. "Nevertheless, ultimately, the leaders of both parties have found their way toward compromise."

But, the package still needs approval from Congress, which could vote as early as Monday. Leaders of the Democratic-held Senate and Republican-led House of Representatives were working to rally polarized lawmakers.

The plan faces opposition both from the conservative "Tea Party" movement, which favors sweeping spending cuts, and liberal Democrats who want taxes on the wealthy before any thought of cutting social welfare programs.

As described by Obama and congressional leaders, the deal would raise the country's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by at least $2.1 trillion. It would also make more than $2.4 trillion in spending cuts in two steps, including through a special new committee required to submit proposals by November 23.

Progressives Recoil At Reported Debt Ceiling Deal

Progressive groups are speaking out against the debt ceiling deal currently being hashed out in Washington. The response from two of the nation's largest organizations goes essentially like this: really?!?

Progressives are more than a little upset that the deal does not include taxing the rich, a line in the sand Pres. Obama drew early on.

They're casting the deal outlined on the Sunday morning talk shows as a huge win for Republicans -- and (yet another) agonizing defeat for the middle class.

"Seeing a Democratic president take taxing the rich off the table and instead push a deal that will lead to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefit cuts is like entering a bizarre parallel universe," said Stephanie Talyor, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "One with horrific consequences for middle-class families."

In cutting a deal with Congressional Republicans that places Democratic legacy programs—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—at risk while cutting essential programs for working families, Obama and Democratic leaders in the Senate have moved to the right of the American people and opened Democrats running in 2012 to counter Republican messaging that it was Democrats who cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and essential programs for working families. [That strategy worked for Republicans in 2010 and they are counting on that strategy to work again in 2012.]

Krugman: The President Surrenders

By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: July 31, 2011 NYTimes

A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.

In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.

more @ The NYTimes

Mainstream Media Conservative Bias

Yesterday, an American Dream Movement rally, demanding a debt deal that “protects seniors and makes corporations and the rich pay [their] fair share,” drew a significantly larger crowd than a Tea Party rally a day earlier.

Both were held on Capitol Hill, both focused on the same ginned-up debt ceiling “crisis,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find the Beltway media noting the difference in crowd size—or even reporting on the progressive rally at all.

Wednesday’s conservative rally, organized by the Tea Party Express, was a bust: only about fifty people showed up...

In contrast, Thursday’s American Dream rally—organized by MoveOn, Rebuild the Dream, AFSCME and AFGE, and featuring speakers like Van Jones and Representatives Keith Ellison and Jan Schakowsky—clocked in an estimated 450–500 people. Neither Politico or CNN mention the progressive American Dream rally.

In fact CNN talked up the Tea Party rally both the day before it took place and afterward—when it spun the measly crowd (and its own pre-event notice) by writing: “Don't be fooled by the tiny turnout at the Tea Party rally on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The conservative movement doesn't much need rallies anymore. November 2010 changed all of that.”

Read the full story in The Nation.

Related:

• The Democratic Strategist: Krugman's Smackdown of Mainstream Media Groveling to GOP 'Extortion'

Krugman: Proposed Debt Deal Will Cost Jobs And Revenue

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is very disappointed with President Obama and the Democrats for allowing the Republicans to control the messaging frame of the debt debate. Krugman warned during his comments on ABC's This Week Sunday morning that the proposed spending cuts in a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling would end up hurting the economy.

“These spending cuts are even going to hurt the long-run fiscal position, let alone cause lots of misery, said Krugman on ABC's This Week Sunday morning. Then on top of that, we’ve got these budget cuts, which are entirely — basically the Republicans [saying], ‘We’ll blow up the world economy unless you give us exactly what you want’ and the president said, ‘Okay.’ That’s what happened . . . We’re having a debate in Washington which is all about, ‘we’re going to make this economy worse, but are we going to make it worse on 90% of the Republican’s terms or 100% of the Republican’s terms?’ And the answer is 100%.”

Krugman insisted, “from the perspective of a rational person, in other words, a progressive on this stuff, we shouldn’t be talking about spending cuts at all now.”

Krugman’s grim forecast, as a result of Democratic “compromises” with Republicans, which focus on spending cuts, is that the American economy will experience worsening unemployment and general misery in the future.

DailyBeast: How Republicans Screwed the Pooch

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said he could explain the problems with the economy in less than 2 minutes, 15 seconds
—and he did it (with illustrations to boot).

Republicans say they want to save the country from Obama’s reckless spending. But as Paul Begala argues in the editorial below, it’s the GOP’s policies that have driven the nation into the ground.

But too few Democrats—and almost no media commentators—have countered the mendacious right-wing storyline.

Politico published a piece outlining the vast disparity in the ad war over the debt ceiling. Republican-aligned groups have run over $21.2 mil lion in attack ads highlighting Democrats as irresponsible drivers of the national debt, and elevating the debt ceiling as a top priority. Meanwhile, groups on the left have spent only about $30,000 on ads calling out Republican responsibility for the debt.

In this case Republicans broke the budget, but they are making Democrats own it - as usual.

"How Republicans Screwed the Pooch,"
By Paul Begala Published: July 30, 2011 Newsweek/Daily Beast

There it sits, lonely and forlorn on my shelf. A leather-bound copy of the 1999 Budget of the United States of America. A gift from President Clinton to the folks on his team, it was the first balanced budget in decades.

But it wasn't supposed to be the last. Indeed, experts projected surpluses as far as the eye could see. $5.7 trillion in surpluses, to be exact. The surpluses were so strong that deep into the future—in 2009—the entire national debt was going to be zero. For the first time since Andy Jackson was president, the United States of America would not owe a dime.

It didn't quite work out that way, did it?

Debt Ceiling Crisis: America Held Hostage by Republican Party Extremists

By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: July 28, 2011 NYTimes

The facts of the crisis over the debt ceiling aren’t complicated. Republicans have, in effect, taken America hostage, threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of government unless they get policy concessions they would never have been able to enact through legislation. And Democrats — who would have been justified in rejecting this extortion altogether — have, in fact, gone a long way toward meeting those Republican demands.

Annual Gov. Ann Richards Dinner Next Saturday Aug. 6

The annual dinner honoring Governor Ann Richards, sponsored by the Democratic Party of Collin County, is set for next Saturday August 6, 2011. Click to the DPCC website for details - reservation deadline is Mon. Aug 1, 2011.

Governor Richards is admired as a person who stood up for everyday citizens in Texas throughout her life. A video at the bottom of this article presents Richards speaking at the 1988 Democratic National Convention where, in the first 16 minutes of the speech, she explains why it is important that our elected representatives in government stand up for everyday citizens.

According to Shawn Stevens, Chair of the Democratic Party of Collin County, 'that is why the 2011 Richards Dinner planning committee selected, "Standing Up for Everyday Citizens," as the theme for this year's fund raising dinner.'

In keeping with that theme several people widely regarded for taking a principled stand for everyday citizens have been invited to address Richards Dinner guests this year, according Mr. Stevens. Stevens today announced that several ranking members of the Texas Democratic Party are confirmed to join Wisconsin Democratic State Senator Jon Erpenbach, better known as one of the "Wisconsin 14," next Saturday to speak at the annual fundraising dinner.

Joining Wisc. Sen. Erpenbach at the speaker's podium will be Texas State HD-103 Representative Rafael Anchia, Texas State HD-116 Representative Trey Martinez Fischer and Texas Democratic Party state Chairman Boyd Richie.

Data Shows Deeper Recession, Sharper Slowdown

Reuters - The "Great Recession" was even greater than previously thought, and the U.S. economy has skated uncomfortably close to a new one this year.

New data on Friday showed the 2007-2009 U.S. recession was much more severe than prior measures had found, with economic output declining a cumulative of 5.1 percent instead of 4.1 percent.

The report also showed the current slowdown began earlier and has been deeper than previously thought, with growth in the first quarter advancing at only a 0.4 percent annual pace.

Read the full story @ Reuters

In the weeks after Obama won election in 2008 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he intended to delay Obama's proposed $1 trillion economic stimulus legislation and use his 40 Republican Senator cloture vote filibuster power to block all Democratic legislation.

Within two months of taking the oath of office, Republicans had convinced Pres. Obama to compromise and ask for half the amount of stimulus that his advisers thought necessary and substitute additional massive tax cuts for corporations and the rich in the place of infrastructure spending as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Most economists now say the 2009 stimulus plan was slow to kick in, did little to promote American job growth and unnecessarily added to the deficit because the ARRA indeed provided half the amount of infrastructure stimulus spending needed and the added tax cuts did not enticed corporations to reinvest their massive profit gains in U.S. based business growth and job creation.

Republicans continue to claim only more tax cuts for billionaires and mega-corporations will fix the flagging economy. But, will yet more corporate tax cuts really promote job growth in America? As a share of GDP, the U.S. has the second lowest tax rate, behind only Iceland. This statistic flips on its head the often-repeated Republican charge that America has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world (which is only true on paper). In 2009, U.S. corporate taxes had fallen to only 1.3 percent of GDP, from 4 percent in 1965.

Conservative Think Tank Trys Climate Skeptic Damage Control Over Record-Setting Heat Wave Headlines

As a record heat wave grips the U.S. with new record temperatures set daily this summer the conservative messaging network of think tanks and media outlets continue to try to convince people its all just natural and normal.

Forbes Magazine this month published an OpEd titled, " New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism." This OpEd is now being picked up and reprinted in newspapers around the U.S. as a "new finding," rather than just a republication of old discredited claims.

Why Americans Are So Angry

Wall Street Journal Op-ed - Reposted at Friends of Bernie.Org
Thursday, 28 July 2011
By Senator Bernie Sanders

The rich are getting richer. Their effective tax rate, in recent years, has been reduced to the lowest in modern history. Nurses, teachers and firemen actually pay a higher tax rate than some billionaires. It's no wonder the American people are angry.

Stewart: Tea party is the ‘violent, unstable sociopath’ from ‘The Town’

Watch this video from Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show," broadcast July 28, 2011.

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart suspected Thursday that House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had not watched the end of “The Town” before trying to use it to convince tea party freshmen to vote for a plan to raise the debt ceiling.

“You went with the Boston-bank-robbers-in-nun-costumes flick?” Stewart asked.

“Let me see if I understand this metaphor. The establishment Republicans are saying to the tea party upstarts, ‘Hey, you know the violent, unstable, borderline sociopath from ‘The Town,’ who’s useful in a pinch but who’s suicidal single-minded mania will ultimately be his downfall? That’s you guys. And the guy who’s stuck in an uneasy alliance with you, but doesn’t really like you and ultimately saves himself by walking away as you are dying? That’s us. So, do we have your vote?’”

“I’m going to assume most of the tea part coalition has not seen the whole movie,” he added.

World Population to Surpass 7 Billion in 2011

Explosive Population Growth Means Challenges for Developing Nations

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added -- nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations also project that the population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100.

These sizable increases represent an unprecedented global demographic upheaval, according to David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at the Harvard School of Public Health, in a review article published July 29, 2011 in Science.

Over the next forty years, nearly all (97%) of the 2.3 billion projected increase will be in the less developed regions, with nearly half (49%) in Africa. By contrast, the populations of more developed countries will remain flat, but will age, with fewer working-age adults to support retirees living on social pensions.

Read the full story @ ScienceDaily

ASCE: Old Infrastructure Costs U.S. Billions

Washington Post: As Congress debates how to meet the nation’s long-term transportation needs, decaying roads, bridges, railroads and transit systems are costing the United States $129 billion a year, according to a report issued Wednesday by a professional group whose members are responsible for designing and building such infrastructure.

Complex calculations done for the American Society of Civil Engineers indicate that infrastructure deficiencies add $97  billion a year to the cost of operating vehicles and result in travel delays that cost $32 billion.

Nancy Pelosi: 'We Get The Sacrifice, They Share The Wealth'

Majority Of Americans Oppose Cuts to Medicare or Social Security

Large majorities of Americans oppose even a minor reduction in spending on Medicare or Social Security according to the newest Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Sixty-two percent of the country wants no reductions to Social Security and 59 percent wants no reductions in Medicare spending.

The American people really like their Medicare and Social Security.

They are an important part of the social safety net that prevents millions of seniors from falling into poverty.

Latest Ad by the American Future Fund group. Click this link for the Real TRUTH About Who Really Owns America's Debt.

The common conservative messaging echoed in the mainstream media and by many cable news pundits is that the American people actually want a “grand bargain” or a “super Congress” to cut our entitlement programs has absolutely no basis in reality.

It is purely a conservative messaging fantasy created with lots of billionaire conservative money.

The GOP is winning the debate because they have the know how and bucks to message. Earlier this week, Politico published a piece outlining the vast disparity in the ad war over the debt ceiling. Republican-aligned groups have run over $21.2 mil lion in attack ads highlighting Democrats as irresponsible drivers of the national debt, and elevating the debt ceiling as a top priority. Meanwhile, groups on the left have spent about $30,000 on ads calling out Republicans on the debt, with one hitting lawmakers for “recklessly risking default.” That is why it is so important for grassroots progressives to push their own messaging programs.

And, Think Progress writes about, "How Shadowy Right-Wing Front Groups Engineered Our National Embrace Of Debt Reduction Over Job Creation:"

For the entire year, as a sluggish economy sputters by and states continue to struggle with falling revenue, the conversation in Congress has centered solely on spending reduction. Earlier this year, we witnessed looming government-showdown duels between competing spending reduction plans. Now with the debt ceiling debate, the only two options are a choice between a package of painful cuts and a package of deeply draconian cuts. There has been no lively discussion of new policy ideas for job creation, foreclosure mitigation, or how to spur demand, the key driver of economic recovery.