"Fix the Debt" is temporarily toast
They'll be back in 2015, no doubt.
http://www.nationofchange.org/without-any-grassroots-austerity-group-withered-1393771409
The austerity mania that plagued our political system for four years is finally subsiding. The latest sign is President Barack Obama’s decision to nix the Social Security cuts he had previously included in his budget proposal.
This was a body blow to the most powerful pro-austerity force in Washington — the Fix the Debt campaign. Starting in 2012, this fake grassroots — or “astroturf” — organization had deployed more than 100 CEOs to try to persuade the nation that our economic survival depended on expanding tax breaks for big corporations and slashing earned benefit programs.
Fix the Debt once boasted a budget of $40 million. Today, it’s shedding staff and going into hibernation, having failed to win any of their top priorities.
Their demise proves that deep pockets don’t always prevail in Washington. Through creative jujitsu, non-moneyed interests can turn extreme wealth and privilege into an extreme liability.
For the past two years, my organization, the Institute for Policy Studies, has exposed the absurd hypocrisy of the CEOs at the helm of Fix the Debt. First we pointed out that many of them lead companies that have used tax havens to avoid paying their fair share to Uncle Sam. That’s a blatantly counterproductive maneuver for anyone on a mission to “fix the debt.”
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