Al Gore says GOP is in debt ceiling denial

Former Vice President Al Gore weighed in on the deficit debate Monday, writing that some Republicans are living in an "alternative version of reality."

Gore wrote in his official blog, "A significant number of Republican and Tea Party Members of Congress apparently hold the view that there actually would not be consequences for global markets or the U.S. economy if we defaulted."

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Monday in an op-ed for Bloomberg that default now is actually better than putting off default until later. "The U.S. will default on its debt sooner or later, and it is certainly preferable that it be sooner," he wrote, characterizing his perspective on the possibility as "sanguine."

Calling this perspective "absurd" but not naming names, Gore wrote there is an epidemic of "encouraging ideological extremists to construct their own alternative version of reality and defend it against fact-based reasoning." Gore said that as an activist he has seen a similar response to climate change arguments.

Several freshmen Tea Party Republicans have suggested that the Treasury Department's Aug. 2 deadline is arbitrary and the U.S. can safely pass that date without defaulting or any other serious consequences. Most Democrats have argued default is the inevitable result of passing the deadline that the Treasury Secretary has said is the date the U.S. will exhaust its borrowing authority under the debt limit.

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