It looks like Jack Cafferty decided to carry a little water for the AstroTurf "tea party" with a bit of fearmongering over our debt and deficit with this dishonest bit of editorializing on CNN's The Situation Room. First of all, repeat after me Jack -- there is no tea party. The so-called "tea party" is nothing more than the far right-wing of the Republican Party that's been with us for ages now, with big monied corporate interests along with your sorry excuse for a "news" channel along with Fox promoting them.

And all of your attempted re-branding here is not going to change that. And if Cafferty wants to blame the problems with our debt and deficit on the current administration, I've got a couple of charts and an article at the New York Times he needs to read -- How the Deficit Got This Big.

Here are the charts from the article.

And here's more from Jon Perr from last year on the drivers of our deficit -- Boehner Lies About Bush Tax Cuts and Deficits.

And from Jon's post, here's another chart for Jack Cafferty.

If Jack Cafferty is really concerned about getting our fiscal house in order, he'd be going after these "tea partiers" for being obstructionists on job creation and for protecting their rich campaign donors from having to pay any more in taxes.

Transcript of Cafferty's remarks via his blog -- Tea Party effect on 2012 elections?:

The national debt is increasing by an astounding $3 million a minute; $3 million. Meanwhile, President Obama and Congress are on vacation.

When the president took office in January 2009, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. Less than three years later, it's $14.6 trillion.

Obama has presided over the fastest, largest increase in the national debt in our country's history, something to be truly proud of.

Under President George W. Bush, the national debt increased by $4.9 trillion, but it took eight years to increase that much.

Obama has the distinction of putting us an additional $4 trillion in the hole in less than three years. And he's still talking about wanting to spend more. It's insane. These rates of borrowing are unsustainable. It is far and away the biggest problem we may have ever been faced with. Eventually, our country's survival will be at stake.

And whether anyone likes it or not, the tea party seems to be the only group that gets it. The group became a force during the midterm elections because of the growing national debt and the refusal of Washington to do anything about it.

In fact, the recent debt ceiling standoff was driven by a group of only 60 tea party members in the House of Representatives.

You can bet that the tea party will continue to ring the alarm bells as we head into the 2012 elections - and it should.

Because just remember this: In the time it would take you to listen to this Cafferty File segment - a minute and a half or so - our national debt increased by more than $5 million.

Here’s my question to you: What effect will the tea party have on the 2012 elections?