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The August 2nd deadline to raise the debt national debt ceiling or risk default is only 9 days away. Over the weekend Senate Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner announced each party will introduce competing proposals. Talks between the President and Republicans came to a contentious end Friday when Boehner announced he was walking away from the table. Republicans are now looking at a two-stage plan that increases the debt ceiling for six-months, with a second raise conditional on deeper spending cuts. Democrats will propose a package of cuts totaling about 2.7 trillion, much of those reportedly coming through reductions to projected spending. Late last week, tensions between the Democratic party and President Obama was exposed after reports surfaced that an all cuts, no revenues, budget deal was imminent. Democratic Senator Barabara A. Mikulski described her colleagues’ reaction, “[When] we heard reports of these mega-trillion-dollar cuts with no revenues, it was like Mount Vesuvius… Many of us were volcanic.” No such deal materialized, and the party quickly fell back in sync with the President. However dissatisfaction with continual compromises from the White House grows. A CNN poll phone poll conducted July 18 – 20th found that 13% of respondents disapproved of Obama’s performance overall because he has not been liberal enough – up nearly double from May. Over 200,000 people have signed the Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s pledge to withhold 2012 campaign donations and volunteer help if a debt ceiling deal includes to cuts to social security, medicare or medicaid. MoveOn.org, FireDogLake.com, and the SEIU have also launched petitions and call-in campaigns to show public opposition to social safety net cuts.

GUEST: David Dayden, writer at FireDogLake.com