After winning control of the House, Republicans forced what has proven to be a disastrous change in conversation from job creation to deficits.

And they have held the need to raise the debt ceiling hostage to push their hard right agenda. Historically, Republicans have voted to raise the debt ceiling almost 3 dozen times since Ronald Reagan took office.

It is only under this president they have chosen to put at risk the entire U.S. economy and America's working families to promote their ideologically driven agenda.

It is difficult to know exactly how we got to this point, but like "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men reminds us: follow the money.

According to media reports and analysis from MapLight.org, a group that examines campaign contributions, much of Wall Street and Big Business favor eliminating the politics from debt ceiling talks (though they favor the deficit-focused agenda).

For example, the Chamber of Commerce has called for a "clean" debt ceiling bill before moving on to deficit reduction talks. It is odd to see such a position as "reasonable," in the current light. Still, the Chamber wants steep cuts in public programs that do not directly benefit their members – government intervention that helps Big Business, on the other hand, well that's OK.

Ideologically driven political organizations aligned with far right business and right-wing ideologues, however, have pushed for this impasse and have orchestrated much of the GOP's actions in this showdown.

For example, the Club for Growth, a wealthy, ideologically driven PAC that supports candidates who commit to opposing tax increases for the rich and corporations and work to end Medicare, Social Security and most other social programs that aid working families, has given millions of dollars over the past decade to politicians who happen to favor holding the debt ceiling (and American working families) hostage to push this agenda.

In fact, Club for Growth has given 10 times as much money as the Chamber to these politicians, MapLight.org found. Other business and hard-right political groups who favor steep cuts for working-class families include the National Association of Manufacturers, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Heritage Foundation.

Of the top 20 recipients of more than $5.3 million since 2001 from these business groups who favor elimination of Social Security, Medicare, public education and so forth, 19 are Republicans. Some are recognizable as Tea Paty-come-latelys like Michele Bachman, who says she refuses to vote to raise the debt ceiling, and Marco Rubio who is scrambling to explain away his role in bringing the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse.

Others are staunch establishment conservatives who have expressed their desire to bring down the Obama presidency from its beginnings.

For $5.3 million and the hope of power, these politicians have put a risk every single job in this country, every small business, every home, all of the safety net, everything American working-class people have built. It's criminal.