Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner announced on Wednesday that in addition to the fiscal cliff deadline at the end of the year, the United States will also hit its borrowing limit on December 31st, meaning the debt-limit will have to be raised a lot sooner than previously believed. Unlike going over the fiscal cliff, which will have very little economic impact in the short-term, refusing to raise the debt-limit and forcing the United States to default, would have immediate and catastrophic effects. Not only would the US economy be impacted, but the entire world’s economy would as well. But that won’t stop Republicans from using the debt-limit as leverage to force the President to agree to steep spending cuts that target working families across America.

Between the manufactured “fiscal cliff” and the Republicans refusal to compromise over the debt-limit, never in our nation’s history has Congress been responsible for inflicting so many economic wounds on our nation. And we can blame the Tea Party for the chaos on Capitol Hill today, as they were elected by billionaires in 2010, they clearly have no interest in governing, and no knowledge of what the debt-limit even is. And in blaming the Tea Party, we also have to blame the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allowed billionaires to spend unlimited money electing these retrograde politicians who are hell-bent on playing disaster capitalism to remake America into a billionaires’ paradise.

-Thom

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Friday's Daily Stack

Quote: "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." -- Charles Dickens.

Hour One: If it's Friday, it's "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too...
Follow Bernie: campaign site.

Article: "Sanders to Chair Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Boehner: ‘God only knows’ how a deal is reached" by Ed O’Keefe and Rosalind S. Helderman.

Speech: "First Inaugural Address", Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 4 March 1933. "let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Quote: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith.

Hour Two: Issues of the day...fiscal cliff, war on labor
- Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers

Article: "How To Make Money Off the U.S. Debt (If Your Name Is Simpson or Bowles)" by Leo Gerard.

Book: "What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" by Thomas Frank.

Law: "Taft-Hartley Labor Act", 1947.

Article: "Study: Booze Damages the Brain, Pot Does Not" by Sarah Seltzer.

Article: "NRA News Conference in Response to Newtown, CT Shooting" by C-Span.

Article: "CODEPINK Protester: NRA Has Blood On Its Hands" by John Stephens.

Article: "More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence?" by Mark Follman.

Site: Hunter School.

Site: New England Salem Children's Village (NESCV).

Article: "Ronald Reagan’s Message for the GOP, ‘Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit.’" by Sarah Jones.

Book: "Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic" by James Gilligan.

Article: "More suicides under Conservative rule", 18 September, 2002.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones, White House Correspondent

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "Text of Obama’s Friday Remarks on Fiscal Cliff".

Article: "Boehner Points — Subtly — Toward A Way Forward After Failure Of Plan B" by Brian Beutler.

Article: "Iowa Court: Bosses Can Fire 'Irresistible' Workers" by Ryan J. Foley.

Article: "NRA Calls For Armed Guards In Schools In Wake Of Newtown" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "Kerry To State Department" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "A Majority Of House Democrats Have Said They Would Vote Against A Bill With Chained CPI" by Zaid Jilani.

Movie: "Deal of the Century".

Article: "14th Amendment", 1868.

Book: "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein.

Article: "Are We Living in a Simulated Universe?" by Justin Mullins.

Article: "2nd Amendment".

Article: "This Week in Poverty: US Single Mothers—'The Worst Off'" by Greg Kaufmann.

Article: "After defeat in California, New Mexico takes on Monsanto and GMO producers" by RT.

Article: "DPIC's Year End Report: Death Sentences Remain Near Historic Low" by Death Penalty Information Center.

Article: "Voter ID Legislation Introduced In Three States" by Scott Keyes.

Article: "Texas Republican Suggests Falling TVs Are More Dangerous Than Guns" by Amanda Peterson Beadle.

Hour One: Shouldn't parents have the right to know which homes are gunowners' homes?
- Curtis Sliwa, Guardian Angels & Host of the Curtis Sliwa Show on New York's AM970-The Answer

Geeky Science - Kindness Key to Happiness and Acceptance for Children

Hour Three: No more billionaires!
- Neal Asbury, Entrepreneur & host of "Truth for America" / Author-Conscientious Equity

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...

It's Friday and it's our last "Brunch With Bernie" for 2012! America's Senator...Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be here talking about all the important issues of the week and he'll be answering your questions too...

Plus, it's Anything Goes on Townhall Friday...what do you want to talk about?

And, we'll have the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...