The pro-business front group that brought fake homeless people to the streets of Washington to highlight the swelling deficit is back today with a $10 million ad campaign, this time showing “Uncle Sam” drowning in debt.
Defeat the Debt’s new campaign appeared last night on Seventh Ave. in New York’s Times Square, just as thousands of people were marching on Wall Street to call for financial reform. The group, funded by non-disclosed private donations, is calling it the second phase of its deficit education plan. It also will be accompanied by new television commercials and newspaper ads. Readers may remember the campaign paid big bucks for a SuperBowl ad showing children pledging allegiance to China.
“America is drowning in debt,” the ads declare as the Uncle Sam actor is shown going under water. It is designed to drive traffic to the Defeat the Debt web site, which shows a ticker of the growing national debt.
The Employment Policies Institute and front man Rick Berman is behind Defeat the Debt. He’s a conservative who is affiliated with many groups working to “defeat” various things, including the Employee Free Choice Act.
