Al Gore likens Tea Partiers who doubt seriousness of debt debate to climate change skeptics
With just a week to go before the United States risks defaulting on its loans, former Vice President Al Gore is warning Americans not to let "ideological extremists" take control of the congressional debate over raising the debt limit.
In a blog post on Monday afternoon, Gore argued that an increase to the debt ceiling is being held up by "a significant number of Republican and Tea Party Members of Congress apparently hold the view that there actually would not be consequences for global markets or the U.S. economy if we defaulted."
This view, Gore said, is "of course, absurd," and speaks to a greater problem within American political discourse: "Dramatic changes in the way we communicate with one another about issues affecting the common good have diminished the role of reason and fact-based analysis, encouraging ideological extremists to construct their own alternative version of reality and defend it against fact-based reasoning," he wrote.
The longtime environmental activist went on to liken skepticism about the seriousness of the debt ceiling debate - and the consequences of default - to that surrounding climate change.
"Notwithstanding the unanimous opinion of every National Academy of Science in every major country in the world, every professional scientific society in fields related to the study of the climate crisis and 97 percent of climate scientists in the world, many ideologues cling to the view that these facts are wrong, that scientists are perpetrating a hoax, that they are either greedy for more research dollars or secretly promoting the expansion of government, and that authorities such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are more reliable than the global scientific community in analyzing the impact of global warming pollution," he wrote.
Negotiations over raising the debt ceiling remain at a standstill, as Democrats and Republicans continue to spar over various possible bills for reducing debt and approving an increase - none of which appear to have the sufficient support to pass through Congress.
Leading Tea Party Republicans on Monday spoke out against the plan recently put forth by House Speaker John Boehner, which they say fails to go far enough to reduce the debt.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he opposed the Boehner plan, and that "only a Balanced Budget Amendment will actually solve our debt problems."
"Cut, Cap, and Balance is the only plan on the table that meets this standard," said Jordan, one of 38 conservative lawmakers who earlier this year signed a pledge to vote against any debt increase that was not attached to an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget. "Only a Balanced Budget Amendment will actually solve our debt problems."
President Obama, meanwhile, is taking his argument for a "balanced" debt limit agreement to the American people: In a Monday night prime time address, he urged voters to call their members of Congress in support of a deal that "asks everyone to give a little without requiring anyone to sacrifice too much."
