Politics

Van Jones building left-wing Tea Party, says the country ‘isn’t broke’

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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Former Obama administration green jobs czar Van Jones is trying to build a liberal “Tea Party” movement by denying the federal budget crisis.

The left-wing champion launched his liberal Tea Party movement, which he’s dubbed the “Rebuild the Dream” movement, at a Thursday night event in New York City. (Time magazine cover features shredded U.S. Constitution, asks if it still matters)

“We are being lied to,” Jones said. “We are not broke. We’re the richest country in the history of the world.”

The “Rebuild the Dream” website once echoed the same meme. “MoveOn Civic Action & The Other 98% teamed up to keep the message going: We Are Being Lied To,” read the movement’s mission statement on rebuildthedream.com. “The country isn’t broke and the last thing we should be doing is gutting workers’ rights and cutting vital services American families depend on.”

The website took that paragraph down sometime between June 13 and now. On June 13, The Daily Caller asked Jones to provide examples and statistics to prove the country “isn’t broke.” Jones never responded.

Jones told the Washington Post he thinks liberals can “do what the tea party did.”

“They stepped forward under a common banner, and everybody took them seriously,” he said. “Polls suggest there are more people out there who have a different view of the economy, but who have not stepped forward yet under a common banner.”