There's a bad taste in the collective mouth of Democrats around the country - one day after the Republican-written debt-limit deal that slashes away at programs assisting working and middle class families around the country became law. And to make matters worse - with this Republican-manufactured debt crisis resolved...for now at least - and Democrats finally able to get back to work doing what Americans worry most about: - stimulating the economy and creating jobs - Republicans decided to shut down the House of Representative and go on a five-week vacation. Once again - putting the economy on the back burner. So what happens next? What can Democrats do now to make job creation the top priority again - and how can this Tea Party Republican momentum in Congress to harm our economy be reversed?

If a plane falls out of the sky this month - blame Speaker of the House John Boehner and His little buddy, Eric Cantor. Within hours of passing their job-killing - economy-destroying - Ayn Rand-loving debt-limit deal - Republicans shut down the House of Representatives and flew back home to enjoy a five-week long vacation. Unfortunately - they left some unfinished businesses behind in Washington - namely - funding the Federal Aviation Administration. And less than an hour ago - Senate negotiators also gave up trying to end a stalemate over temporary funding for the FAA until Congress gets back from its recess in the fall

Nearly five months after the earthquake and tsunami - Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is still spewing radiation. Yesterday - Tokyo Electric Power Company said it detected the highest radiation levels to date at the crippled nuclear facility - recording ten thousand milliSieverts an hour - the maximum level the devices can even measure. The measures were taken just outside ventilation stacks in reactors one and two - reactors we saw explode in the weeks after the quake and tsunami. So what's going on here? Could the nuclear crisis in Japan ACTUALLY be worsening after 5 months? Here to shed some light on this issue is Kevin Kamps - Nuclear Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear

Unfortunately - adding jobs is the LAST thing this debt-deal will do. As the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute estimated - thanks to deep spending cuts - this deal will cost America 1.8 million jobs - and suck $241 billion out of our GDP. Unlike Obamacare - this debt-limit deal IS ACTUALLY a "job-killer." And it was passed on the same day that we learned growth in our manufacturing sector hit a brick wall. Manufacturing fell 5% in July - down to its lowest levels in 2 years - signaling a double-dip recession is just around the corner. So did President Obama just hand Republicans what they wanted in this debt-deal - a bill that will crash the US economy before the 2012 elections? Here to offer some answers is economist Richard Wolffe - Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts - and Author of Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.