This is an extremely important moment not only in the fight to preserve the social safety net, but for the future of the country. Nancy and Eric are both critical figures in this fight, and have bravely led it in the face of incredible opposition, at tremendous personal sacrifice. I cannot say enough good things about them, their courage and their moral integrity.

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Cenk Uygur on Democratic response to the Boehner-Obama deal.

Reports circulate that President Obama may agree to a massive all cuts debt ceiling package, creating a lot of anger and a sense of betrayal because Obama will fold on his demand that any debt ceiling package contain at least a small amount of new revenue. I can’t understand the amount of anger though because [...]

The headline is somewhat misleading because nobody really knows the state of the debt ceiling debate as far as I can tell. It’s unwinding in the midst of more chaos than anything I can recall on Capitol Hill. The complete leadership vacuum is stunning.

The number of Americans now depending on the use of credit to buy the basic necessities has increased significantly. This is one of the scariest stories I have seen in a while.

I was one of 2700 people who pledged to visit  members of congress on July 19 and let them know I won’t vote for anyone who votes to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits. I went to Capitol Hill and visited some 40 offices with FDL readers weedpicker and Noel Q, who acted as cameraman. I gave each office a copy of our handout on Social Security and Medicare (PDF), and told them that 50,000 people had pledged not to vote for anyone who voted to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.

I also let them know that “benefit cut” also included voting for a Chained CPI, raising the retirement age, or the creation of any kind of commission with the ability to write legislation that would bypass normal Congressional procedure (aka Catfood II).

In a classic example of weasel words from the AARP, they have come out strongly against changing the cost of living adjustment (COLA) as part of the Gang of Six proposal, but made sure to leave the door open to supporting it in the near future. From AARP press release about the Gang of Six: [...]

I have, and always have had, tremendous respect for Cenk Uygur. His contract with his audience is that he will never put himself in a position where he cannot say what he really thinks.  And in turning down MSNBC’s offer to host a weekend show so he could give his audience a fair appraisal of what happened, he honors that contract.

With less than two weeks until President Obama’s August 2nd deadline for raising the debt ceiling, there seems to be no coalescence around a single solution. If anything, the scope of ideas being discussed seems to grow wider not narrower. There is the $4 trillion grand bargain offered by President Obama. This deal was rejected [...]

he lack of any lobbying effort by the banks perhaps explains why things have gotten so chaotic. What Congress and the White House are accustomed to doing is taking their policy directions from corporate lobbyists, and then arranging the stagecraft so that they give the appearance we are operating in a democracy while working towards a predetermined end. Playing “pass the hot potato,” so to speak. Without that direction, all they know how to do is play out a crude game of brute force politics.

It may well be that the banks just stayed out of it for too long thinking everything would be fine, and now the game has taken on a life of its own, and intercession is impossible.