“Doing the right thing” by trying to pay off bank debts can keep you stressed and on the edge of disaster for years. People who walk away from all debts at the same time usually recover their financial health much sooner.

Earlier this month, Thomas Geoghegan wrote a piece for The Nation telling the Democrats the ten things they could do to really get the base excited, and at the same time do good things for the country. Here’s his list.

Municipal bonds are the next housing crisis. Does the Federal government bail out the states?

Orszag’s maiden voyage at the New York Times entitled “One Nation, Two Deficits,” is full of myths, and that’s the polite way to say it. I’ll review these and comment on each of them one-by-one.

Minority Lead McConnell, can we talk a minute? You are an educated man, so it is probably pretty hard to say some of things you say when defending the tax policies of the Bush Administration and arguing for their continuation. Perhaps your time in Washington has taught you the skill of being able to say any kind of nonsense but really, Senator, you have to know in the back of your mind that enacting legislation to extend the tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy (that 2% of the nation who makes more than $250,000 a year) is going to bring our nation to its knees.

I don’t know you Senator, but I have to think that you don’t really want to face what 3.2 trillion dollars in additional debt will do to our nation. You would have to cut or end social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While that might appeal in an ideological sense, the reality of starving elderly baby boomers, indigent children wearing rags in the streets of our nation is one that even you will not want to see on a daily basis.

I want to share my economic wisdom with the little people here. Unfortunately, someone did my job better than I ever could. Also I break the rules and mention my favorite movie producer.

These last couple of days, I happened to see a couple of pieces by Robert Borosage. The first of these called “Kick the Old and Disabled to Show We’re Serious About Deficits,” is about organizing and fighting back against the deficit terrorist movement to cut Social Security, and reported that Borosage’s organization, the Campaign for America’s Future, “has joined with 50 other organizations (and growing) representing 35 million Americans to form a coalition”, called “Strengthen Social Security.” He also refers to a panel on Social Security at Netroots Nation that will be “inviting the bloggers across the country to help fend off the assault on Social Security, and join the debate about priorities over the next years.” Then he ends with this:

Widespread municipal budget problems.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex) cannot name a single issue on how the Republican Party today differs from the Republican Party during the Bush administration. Watch.

In an exclusive interview, New Deal 2.0 editor Lynn Parramore discusses financial reform with TARP watchdog and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren.