Post Austerity Debt Deal: Demos Partners with Rebuild the Dream for Launch of New "Contract For American Dream"

WASHINGTON DC-- In the wake of an austerity debt ceiling deal that will cost 1.8 million jobs in 2012 and do nothing to address inequality and the decline of the American middle class, today the Rebuild the Dream Campaign – with the support of partner organization Demos – announced a new Contract for the American Dream. 

“Today, Demos is proud to join the American Dream Movement as a policy partner to advocate for the ideas that will ensure that there is a robust, diverse and broad future middle class in America. The Movement recognizes that our nation can’t afford to jettison the structures of opportunity that created the great American middle class generations ago,” said Heather C. McGhee, Director of Demos’ Washington Office and co-editor of a series of policy background papers released with the Contract.  “The Contract’s 10 ideas form a platform that, taken together, will ensure that America’s greatest days are still to come.”

The Contract is a crowd-sourced document, created by people – from think tank experts, including staff at Demos, to college students, retirees, workers and stay-at-home parents – who submitted over 25,000 policy ideas online in July.  Over 125,000 Americans participated online and in person at 1,600 house meetings last month, casting 6 million votes on each others’ ideas.  The Rebuild the Dream Campaign then distilled 10 leading ideas to form a Contract for the American Dream. Demos provided policy background expertise and co-edited a series of fact sheets, to be released today, on each of the 10 ideas in the Contract.

View the full Contract here: bit.ly/q04o19

View a video of the Contract here: bit.ly/oJVWYR

The Contract represents a sharp contrast with the anti-government, anti-tax austerity vision represented in the debt debates of recent weeks. Members of the American Dream Movement will take the Contract directly to members of Congress during the August recess to demand "Jobs Not Cuts", beginning with hundreds of actions around the country on August 10th. 

Two weeks ago, over 25,000 citizens allied with the American Dream Movement held 800 rallies across the country to protest the final debt deal that sacrifices America’s future middle class to protect tax breaks for today’s millionaires, billionaires and large businesses.  

###