I have decided that I will be able to attend an American Dream House Meeting on Saturday, July 15, 2011.

The email that I have just received has a link to the agenda for the meeting and a link for organizing a rapid response Congressional action on Monday.

Professor James Galbraith of The University of Texas, says we’ve entered “a tragic moment” in history where our elected officials are more apt to put ideology before the good of the entire country.

“This is not the way we should be perusing these issues,” he tells Aaron in the accompanying interview. “We run the risk, first of all, of turning our government into a series of blackmail negotiations, where the full faith in credit of the United States government … becomes a kind of football for the various political agendas: the Republican agenda but also the President’s agenda on a long term deficit deal.”

But Washington politicians have it “totally wrong,” according to Galbraith who believes austerity measures amount to “a wanton piece of cruelty” on lower income Americans. Furthermore, he argues America’s long-term deficit problems are “completely disconnected” from current U.S. borrowing costs, which he notes remain relatively (and historically) low.

“My view is we’re in a tragic moment where public policy is doing real harm on a pretense of accomplishing something that’s absolutely not going to be accomplished,” Galbraith says.

Over the years I have read and enjoyed some of what Prof. Galbraith has written. This is the first time I have seen him and heard him speak. What a refreshing point of view.