A Tea Party Debt Ceiling Ad

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Amy Kremer, the chairwoman of the Tea Party Express and co-founder of the American Grassroots Coalition, wants to take the fight over raising the debt ceiling directly to the people. Her coalition has been secretly cooking up a new TV ad designed to simplify the debate into tea party terms any school kid could understand. In an email Thursday promoting the “big reveal,” Kremer says that the ad is the first the fledgling group has done. Of course, the ad hasn’t actually made it on to TV. Kremer’s group needs a lot more money to move the ad from YouTube to your tube, and she’s asking for donations to make that happen.

The ad plays on the tea party movement’s favorite theme, which is that, by failing to rein in the national debt and radically cut spending, we are pushing the burden onto future generations. It’s a pretty slick production for a group with no money, but so far, it doesn’t seem to have hit the viral sweet spot. (Kremer got a lot more attention—and criticism—after she declared on Fox News that the tea party would back whichever candidate the GOP nominated, including Mitt Romney.) The video had only been viewed 364 times by Friday shortly before noon. Check it out here:

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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