Same shit, different week. As summer drones on, the elected elite continue arguing about the wrong issue. The problem is not the debt ceiling. The problem is massive unemployment. And those elected to represent us in Washington DC aren’t doing a damn thing to fix it.
I love speaking with Howie Klein because he’s informed and engaged on all of it. Howie, who blogs at Down With Tyranny and runs the Blue America PAC (along with Digby and C&L’s John Amato), was out of the country on vacation for a while. So today, we were able to catch up on the debt ceiling situation, Obama’s move further to the right, the 2012 Congressional races, Rupert Murdoch’s legal problems, and the closeted homosexuality of Marcus Bachmann and Rick Perry – among other things.
As we do each Monday morning, I was joined by Crooks and Liars‘ Nicole Belle in the second hour of the show to recap the Sunday talk shows. Here’s what she brought us today:
Obviously, the debt ceiling continues to be the major topic of conversation. Not jobs—which would be actual Americans’ concern—but the debt ceiling. Now White House Budget office head Jack Lew scored the most appearances on the Sunday shows with three, but he had to appear followed or in conjunction with the Republicans who have completely held the country hostage for partisan gain.One of those Republicans is Lindsey Graham, who has gone on the record that he will not vote to raise the debt ceiling—a vote that he has made more or less procedurally 10 times in the last 10 years—unless there is a balanced budget amendment. The “Cut, Cap and Balance” talking point that all the Republicans have started to adopt is – surprise, surprise! — basically the Ryan Plan 2.0. Graham—who knows the Republicans are losing the messaging war –adopts a new scare tactic: warning that the US is in danger of being just like Greece. Which, if might be a decent analogy if there was any similarity whatsoever. However, maybe we can look to how austerity measures in Greece have exacerbated the problems of the economy immeasurably.
Part of the problem of the entire debt ceiling debate is that the average American doesn’t really understand what the debt ceiling is or how it does or does not relate to the deficit, the budget and all of the shenanigans in Washington. For this, I think you can squarely place the blame on the media. The media never gives us the real information, never provides context. Take, for example, the Meet the Press roundtable, where they try desperately to turn this into a “both sides do it” argument instead of acknowledging that the same vote the Republicans have not had a hard time voting for 10 times in the last 10 years are suddenly clutching their pearls over raising the debt ceiling. This is not a case of intransigent ideologues on both sides of the aisle. This is one side taking the country hostage in a completely disingenuous way.
No one watching Fox News should actually expect to get informed—studies have shown that Fox News viewers are consistently among the least informed in the country. But I found Liz Cheney to be particularly intellectually dishonest in blaming “Obamacare” for all the country’s economic woes. Luckily, John Podesta was there to set her straight that the Bush Tax Cuts, Medicare Part D and two unfunded wars might have had something to do with it.
Beyond the debt ceiling debate (which I still think is complete kabuki theatre, because I cannot believe that Wall Street will allow the GOP to cause the country’s full faith and credit to be in default), the most schadenfreude-licious story out there has to be the implications of the Murdoch empire as more and more revelations come out about hacking and bribing law enforcement. Jim DeMint, one of the tea party leaders, predictably defended Murdoch, saying Congress shouldn’t investigate. So it’s okay for a foreign entity to hack into Americans’ voicemails (as they are alleged to do with 9/11 victims) according to this self-described “defender of the Constitution”? Of course, Fox News couldn’t actually ignore the story any more, especially on their media spotlight show. But Jim Pinkerton blamed this on those damn liberals in the White House and their agenda.
And finally, because I’m still shocked that he hasn’t been laughed off the national stage yet, Herman Cain appeared on Fox News today. Possibly to push his presidential campaign, but possibly to promote his newly released gospel album, I’m not really sure what the justification for booking him is. But Cain is never going to give up a chance to show just how hateful and anti-American he can be. Ironically for an African American man living in the South, he thinks that redlining communities to exclude Muslims and mosques is absolutely an acceptable freedom.
We also premiered a new weekly feature today, courtesy of Main Street Insider. It’s the 90 Second Summary, which today tells us about the “Cut, Cap and Balance” Act…