Enough is enough.
Speaker Boehner's decision last week to walk out in the middle of negotiations with President Obama was the last straw.
The time has come -- at long last -- for America's super-majority to stand up against the extreme, hostage-taking tactics of the Tea Party minority in Congress.
Tea Party Republicans would rather shred America's safety net and also risk tanking America's economy than raise taxes one penny on their super-wealthy donors and corporate backers.
This Tuesday at noon, everyday Americans will finally have the chance to be heard, across America, at the local offices of every member of Congress. The American Dream movement -- which includes dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals who are standing up for the middle class and working class families -- is calling for emergency mobilizations across the country tomorrow.
We will thank many of our elected leaders, especially Leader Nancy Pelosi and the more than 70 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) who have stood strong by the middle class, in the face of this madness. We will ask others to step up as champions and support the CPC letter.
And for those who are threatening our whole our economy to win tax breaks for millionaires, we will hold signs and stand outside their offices -- using peaceful pressure to shame them into siding with the vast majority of Americans.
The stakes are clear: millions of people are now facing catastrophic economic harm, unless Americans stand up and force the GOP to relent in its reckless drive to destroy essential middle class programs.
The GOP is holding the American Dream itself hostage.
If the Republicans carry out their threats, for the first time in history, the greatest nation on Earth will be in default on our obligations.
Defaulting on our debt would be a disaster for our nation -- and for every single American. The jobs of half a million Americans would almost certainly disappear. Loans for college or homes could be almost impossible to get. We might have to stop sending Social Security and Medicare checks to people who need them. Our men and women in uniform could stop getting paychecks.
Worse: our great nation would lose its perfect credit rating. That would add billions of dollars to our deficit because other countries would charge us more interest on our loans.
This is literally insane. And if you are shocked, appalled and outraged, you are not alone. The vast majority of Americans are opposed to the both the goals and the tactics of the Tea Party minority in Congress.
Ordinary Republicans know that the Tea Party is dead wrong.
That number includes the majority of REPUBLICANS. Even David Stockman, who was one of the chief architects of Reaganomics, has said that America will need tax increases. The Economist magazine agrees with him; so does David Brooks. No surprise there: so do 55 percent of all Republicans. That's right, the majority of all Republicans think the Tea Party minority has gone too far.
The Tea Party position is so crazy and extreme that its caucus literally would have to throw out Ronald Reagan (who raised the debt ceiling 18 times), for being too liberal on the question of taxes.
People that extreme should have no moral or political standing to threaten America; they should attempt to impose their bizarre worldview on the rest of us. But that is exactly what they are doing.
The idea of a working democracy is now at risk.
It is time for DC to listen to the voices of regular people, again. Two-thirds of Americans want a budget deal to include getting rid of special tax breaks for millionaires and big corporations. Two-thirds of us believe Republicans in Congress have acted irresponsibly in pushing us toward a default crisis.
Americans know that no single political party has 100 percent of the power in our country, so no single party can have things 100 percent its way.
At a certain point, everyone must put the needs of one's country above the preferences of one's party.
The Tea Party minority is perhaps the first faction in American history to seize complete control of a political party -- and then act with complete and utter disregard for those basic American political traditions.
To get their way, they are willing to hold the American Dream itself hostage -- putting an economic gun to all of our heads and jeopardizing the financial future of 310 million people.
Since the Cold War, no foreign enemy has ever posed this kind of threat to America. No foreign power could possibly do the kind of damage that the Tea Party minority is threatening to inflict on the American people.
Hands off Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare
Leaders like former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Bernie Sanders have set a fine example in standing up to this nonsense. So have Congressional Progressive Caucus chairs Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Raúl Grijalva.
They should not stand alone.
Our democracy has been hijacked by a small group of extremists. The American Dream is in peril. It is time for the super-majority of Americans to be superheroes and rescue our economic future.
I will see you on Tuesday.
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The majority of the American Public want the unsustainable trajectory of our spending (debt) stopped, and stopped now. He's right, Nancy Pelosi and her CPC should be held up as true leaders of the People. Leaders of the People into a debit situation from which they may never recover! And to hold up Berney Saunders-an avowed socialist-as example of good governence, well if that's what he thinks.
When Pelosi controlled the House, she managed to lead the Democratic Party to almost total ruin in Congress. Why-because of the out-of-control spending she, and the CPC, instigated, for example health care. Because of their policies the American People rose up and got rid of the big spenders.
I don't know, and he won't say, where his figures come from, but the latest polls show that the people want something done about the National debt. The Tea Party intends to do just that--that's why they got elected.
The dream to choice what school their kids may attend, the dream is to start a business and employ workers without interference from the department of labor or OSHA.
Foreigners came to America because they wanted out of the class societies in Europe. Now the democrats have reintroduced a class society in the US.
2011: USA is crony capitalism, supported by the taxpayer. The land of Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The U.S.A is today what Europeans came fleeing from 200 years ago. Your point would be a good one 200 years ago, but not today in 2011.
Without their help Obama would never have been elected. In return they demanded nothing and got nothing. Still they refuse to hold his feet to the fire.
Exactly how does "Save the American Dream" describe the criminality, violence and gross injustice that is happening in our nation every day and getting worse every day?
Exactly how many people that are worrying about how to pay their mortgage, get their kids through school or whether or not their jobs will be shipped overseas are going to rally to 'save the American Dream"?
Save the American Dream? We passed Hell No! about 5 years ago. A good campaign must tap into the feelings of Americans and make them feel the power they indeed possess.
1. religious belief.
2. racism.
3.fear.
Conquering fear (the fear that the elite use to dominate us) seems an important ingredient in any direct action. The hunger for justice seems to me a much more powerful motivator. Has racism ever been at the heart of any powerful social movement? To me it seems the reverse is necessary to unite people into an effective tool for change.
The Tea Parties are more successful because they're more electorally aggressive. To the best of my knowledge, they have not been optimally aggressive - until recently. According to a newsletter from Tea Party Nation, they are now prepared to throw Republicans under the bus in a GENERAL election. See my diary at FireDogLake, "Tea Party about to cross the Rubicon, become more effective – Wimpy Progressives, watch out!": http://my.firedoglake.com/metamars/2011/07/24/tea-party-about-to-cross-the-rubicon-become-more-effective-wimpy-progressives-watch-out/
The Tea Parties are as serious as a heart attack. MoveOn is a poodle, though, and their real purpose seems to be to get Democrats elected.
They are no longer a tiny misguided social movement but a front organzation for the twisted faction of the power elite and as such, they own the 'oh so hackable' voting machines. In every State I've checked where a right wing radical has suddenly been elected, they have election irregularities and compromised voting machines.
Their propaganda is the best that money can buy and straight off Madison Avenue.
Even when the TPeers don't win, they serve another useful purpose. They perpetuate the myth (created by the ricos and happily perpetuated by a client press) that the nation is divided. They need us to believe that a huge number of Americans want to destroy their own economic futures and pay the rich for being rich. T'aint true.
They know that if we ever figure out how many of us there are and that we have each other's back, it's all over for them.
To say the Tea Party has taken control of a political party, is the same as saying the progressives have taken control of the Democratic Party.
The Tea Party presented a bill which passed the House (Cut,Cap and Balance), which Senator Reid killed without any debate. The Democrats are so fearful of a Balance Budget Amendment, because it would restrict their continuous massive spending and debt buildup.
The mid-term elections was the voice of the people expressing their displeasure, and wanted action taken to control the spiraling spending of the 111th Congress.
An agreement will be reached. Not everyone will be pleased.
Obama's action are just a tactic to warrant his losing support from the far left. His intention is to make it look as if the republicans are at fought. When he does not even have a budget in place since he took over. His Budget he presented in 2010 was voted down by the Senate 97-0, because even Democrats said it was too big in spending. So who is hurting the middle class?
True, but...
A lot of my generation carried around the "little Red Book" of Mao.They are now fully participating members of this capitalistic society.Many own their own businesses and have done quite well for themselves.Its what we call a "phase".
The Tea Party folks are adults who have made a decision to disrupt our country with their nihilistic behavior that is hardly a childish way of behaving since the outcomes are very serious to many innocent people. I think they are extremists and disloyal to the principles of this country.