How journalists have botched the debt-ceiling story
The last few years, I’ve written occasionally about the trials, triumphs and reinventions of America’s conservative moment. It is a dramatic story, in many ways far more dynamic and dramatic than Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008.
The GOP stumbled into an electoral abyss three years ago.
Rather than seek the middle or try to find a moderate message that would give them new traction — the strategy adopted by conservatives in Britain and Canada — Republicans pivoted hard to the right.
This transformation of one of America’s two great parties has once again redefined our national politics and it is the single key factor shaping the current debt-ceiling debate in Washington.
To their credit, Republicans are no longer particularly shy about trumpeting the triumph of their right wing.
Once upon a time, the GOP found it necessary to talk about “fringe” ideas such as re-adopting the gold standard, ending Social Security, or defaulting on our national debt in code language.
They spoke with some ambiguity about their desire to roll back reforms in American society — from the existence of a sturdy social safety net to the creation of an Environmental Protection Agency — that were once bipartisan accomplishments, considered mainstream for decades.
Indeed, not since the days of Barry Goldwater has the right felt so comfortable trumpeting their clear, unambiguous message, even when polls clearly show that voters want something different.
Eighty percent of Americans want tax hikes to be part of a budget balancing effort? It doesn’t matter. Revenue increases are off the table, period.
Whatever you think of the GOP’s ideas, you have to admire the fact that this is a party driven by faction with a clear message, a distinct vision.
Which is why it’s so troubling that so many reporters and editorial writers have taken such pains to suggest otherwise.
Article after article frames this conflict as if it were playing out between a traditional center-left Democratic Party and a traditional center-right Republican Party.
That simply isn’t factually true any more.
For proof, one need only look to the statements of Republican leaders themselves.
Sen. John McCain was the GOP’s presidential standard bearer just three years ago. He felt called upon this week to describe the conservative movement’s ideological stance as “worse than foolish” and “deceiving.”
“It’s unfair,” McCain said on the Senate floor. “It’s bizarro.”
On an interview program Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner said that a lot of conservatives in his own ranks are refusing to compromise on budget talks because they “believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment.”
The old GOP, which generally drifted in an ideological range between Dwight Eisenhower on the left and and Ronald Reagan on the right, would never have used the threat of economic chaos as a lever to advance their agenda.
The idea is unthinkable.
This acknowledgment that the new Republican Party is a very different animal from the old Republican Party isn’t new within the GOP.
A couple of months ago, no less perceptive a political observer than Newt Gingrich blasted conservatives for rallying around budget proposals that represent “right wing social engineering.”
“I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate,” Gingrich said, during an appearance on Meet the Press.
In the end it was Gingrich, not the right-wing faction of his party, who was forced to recant and apologize. A man who defined the Republican Revolution a generation ago, has now been left behind as the party trends more and more conservative.
It’s time for journalists to simply accept this version Republican Party at face value and quite trying to shoehorn it into a suit of clothes that hasn’t fit for a very long time.
That doesn’t require them to be biased, or ideological in their coverage. It simply requires them to report factually, accurately and straight-forwardly about the GOP’s agenda.
Tags: economy
NPR is to blame as well, trying to fit the standard “both sides are equal” frame to this story. I argued back in vain to All Things Considered as they tried to say that the Reid and Boehner plans were equally flawed after their CBO analysis. Never mind the actual difference in numbers, that distinction was said at the end, with the throwaway comment “it’s just a complex numbers game”. Really? How about you take a minute or two to EXPLAIN the numbers? Stop reporting on the horserace, and do the real analysis I thought NPR was capable of.
End of rant. Sorry Brian, read this post and that popped back into my mind.
You (reporters) will be called biased by those rightwingers whether you are or arent if you dont simply sing their praise. Explaining the numbers (verplank) is biased.
Brian, it is difficult not to be biased when people like Cantor seem to be biased over just about everything done over the past 100 years.
I guess if it were 200 years ago, all problems could be solved with pistols at 6 am. At least that way the clowns would only be killing each other.
We are witnessing a tragedy of radical conservative ideas willing to trash the country for what they claim are ideals. It border on being un-American and is possibly treason.
Also, there is absolutely nothing to admire about this new breed of so called Republican conservatives for letting all the vile hang out unless you also want to admire the brazen statements made over the years by members of the KKK.
If journalists reported factually, accurately and straight-forwardly about the GOP’s agenda they would say the GOP agenda is as radical as the sharia law they denounse. Even Boehner admits those to the right of him are seeking chaos that would destroy the government as we know it in the hope that their far right agenda will then be imposed on the country. These people are flat out terrorists. If a group was holding the US hostage and threatening our credit rating like Cantor, Paul and their Tea Party buddies are, the FBI and SWAT teams would round them up pronto.
Better late than never, I guess.
In my view, the press has been doing a very poor job of clearly explaining reality since 9/11. I think partly they were cowed by the Zeitgeist of fear, partly they helped to create it. Fear makes people stupid; stupid people are like sheep; wolves prey on sheep.
Great article Brian. I give you credit for recognizing these facts but also reporting them. Speaking as a republican, this is not so much about the debt ceiling but more about the size of government. Democrats have always pushed for more and bigger government. The Republicans have always pushed for less government. What is different now is the influence the economy and the unemployment rate are playing. In the past many Republicans were not ready to dig their heels in. Elected officials are now hearing otherwise from their districts. Mr. “Hope” has failed. The young people who worked hard for his election can’t find jobs. I once thought he would easily win a second term. People don’t like the direction the county is going in the the Republicans present a different path…right or wrong.
You are all assuming that what Brian is saying is that reporting needs to be more critical of the Right wing/ or libertarian ideals presented in the current Republican activist party. I don’t think he is nor should he, I think he is correct though it needs to be more accurate.
For example I think it is accurate to say that some Republicans want to dismantle some social safety net programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. Maybe that needs to happen, maybe it is nuts, but it would be more accurate to report it as true.
I think in particular in this debt debate it would be more accurate to report that there is a segment of Republicans who want to see a default because in their minds a default is better than the status-quo.
Before all you nay sayers check thumbs down, check out the latest CNN poll which shows the majority of Americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction and the same majority blame the Democratic Party. The media is not real eager to report this poll. In spite of the media attempts to make this deadlock appear to be the Republicans fault the public isn’t buying it!
I’m in my fifties, and have worked my whole life, knowing that the Social Security system would protect me from the starvation and slavery of the 19th century. My parents were old enough to remember the Great Depression and the horror and mass suffering left them scarred. I grew up in a world that felt that it could do better than that.
I remember the vision of Kennedy, who challenged us to DO something, with the promise of great things to come. I remember Lyndon Johnson who saw inequity and worked to help those at the bottom to climb up. Heck i even remember Carter, who said “put on a fricken sweater…fuel is expensive”. Oh yeah… I remember Nixon, who tried to steal an election and got caught. His cronies have held a grudge, and have carried the evil from those days into the Bush years. We currently suffer from their deeds.
Now the Republicans, like some back-street thug with a habit, want to put their greedy hand into MY pocket. They want to shake me down for enough change to fund another war, ’cause the 6 trillion that we gave to Bush and his friends to spend in Iraq just wasn’t enough. The fear mongers and war mongers have us right where they’ve hoped to and the collapsed economy is part of the plan.
It’s not just our Social Security. It’s not just the retirement funds, or the hard won union benefits, or the protections for workers or the environment. The Republicand aren’t satisfied to only rob those with good incomes. They’re going after the poor too.
I don’t need Medicare or Medicaid, but my neighbors do. How can we spend on the military and the craziness in the middle east, and let the folks right down the street sink into the mire?
Examples of this style of governing aren’t hard to find. Look to the Caribbean and places like Haiti. Look to Africa, look to the former Soviet states. This is an easy direction to allow things to slip and we are slipping even as we sit here.
I actually think many journalists have accurately characterized the “new” Republican Party as a group for whom compromise is difficult when a good number of the party’s members are perfectly ready to “jump off the cliff [of default] just to prove their ideological purity”. I do fault journalists for not emphasizing the exact size of our annual deficit while at the same time reporting over how many years these promises “three trillion”or “four trillion” in cuts will be spread. Four trillion over ten years, for instance, is only 400 billion each year, and that is only one-quarter of the deficit!
Brian: well said.
What if they held the debt-ceiling to Aug 3rd and no one came?
This is great. Call Obama’s bluff. Call Boehner’s bluff. Call Reid’s bluff. Call ABC, CNN, NPR, et al, all their bluffs.
Go tea party!
We may even get some GOP leaders with a backbone out of this.
Tony Goodwin says:
July 28, 2011 at 10:10 pm
“I actually think many journalists have accurately characterized the “new” Republican Party as a group for whom compromise is difficult when a good number of the party’s members are perfectly ready to “jump off the cliff [of default] just to prove their ideological purity”. I do fault journalists for not emphasizing the exact size of our annual deficit while at the same time reporting over how many years these promises “three trillion”or “four trillion” in cuts will be spread. Four trillion over ten years, for instance, is only 400 billion each year, and that is only one-quarter of the deficit.”
And, keep in mind, many of those cuts are just reductions in the growth rate of spending.
i hope big business got what they wanted when they backed the tea party.
But the tea party is not in charge. They are one segment of one party who has a slim majority in one house of congress. 2/3 of this government is owned by the Democrats, how useless are they? Bush is gone, long gone, how long can we keep blaming before we have to look at the incompetence of the Liberals and Democrats to do anything but whine like little babies.
I have to agree with you Mervel. Obama should have let the Bush tax cuts expire and we wouldn’t have been in this position now. Maybe he will find some guts, invoke the 14th Amendment and proclaim the debt ceiling null and void.
Paul Krugman is a follower of Brian: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/opinion/krugman-the-centrist-cop-out.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Mervel, I agree about the shortcomings of the Democrats. They have achieved so little because they’ve tried to steer toward the middle always. It’s a weak and cowardly direction, with no backbone or passion, and therefore no progress.
We can still blame Bush for the current problems. It was the Republican to gut the fiscal power of this government just in time to hand it off to the Democrats, knowing that it would hamstring them for years. You don’t think it was a coincidence that McCain lost do you?
I think the two-party system is dying. I’m so tired of the same old pulling back and forth between the republicans and democrats…with no forward movement ever.
Wow, I really do agree with you Knuckle. I think that was the first sign of trouble.
“You are all assuming that what Brian is saying is that reporting needs to be more critical of the Right wing/ or libertarian ideals presented in the current Republican activist party”
Not at all. I for one want the facts reported. Which party has the numbers on their side? Which party is most responsible for the national debt increase? What policies are most responsible for the national debt? What reasonable policies would solve the problem over a reasonable period of time without causing an economic disaster?
If the facts show that Democrats are at fault, I’ll be the first to speak out against them.
from the Paul Krugman article:
“Republicans have, in effect, taken America hostage, threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of government”
Mr. Krugman, what do you call it when Obama racks up $3 trillion in debt in 2 years? Four times the rate of his predecessor.
During those 2 years, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House.
Republicans have had 1/2 of 1/3 of government for less than 1 year, Mr. Krugman.
It’s time for a change of reporters.
If the facts show the republicans are at fault (and they do), the facts are biased.
The other option of course is that Obama and the Democrats are not stepping up to solve this problem because they also see political advantages to a debt crisis and default.
JDM: Well stated! Couldn’t agree with you more.
Mervel: There is no question they see the political advantages. The Dems had control of Congress and waited to see what would happen at the mid-term elections. The polls indicated they were in trouble. Raising the debt ceiling would only hurt them more. By waiting they now can blame the Reps and use the media to carry their message.
Sorry JDM, Obama hasn’t greatly increased spending. Sure the deficit has grown, but largely from the lack of revenue due to the Bush tax cuts and corporate tax dodgers. Unfortuneately Obama has continued the two wars Bush started. Plus there was the financial crisis that was started by Bush/Republican policies and the bail out of wall street that was started by Bush and continued by Obama with Republican approval.
I do think it would be interesting to see what would happen if Sen. Reid and Rep. Boehner simply allowed a debt ceiling increase to come to the floor of each house.
No budget cutting, no tax increases, just the same debt ceiling increase that both parties have approved dozens of times in recent years without fuss. I wonder if it wouldn’t sail through…
–Brian, NCPR
The democrats are gutless and too willing to compromise. As KDM points out, they had control for 2 years and kept hoping Snow and Collins would support them so they had a filibuster proof majority. They should have rammed through more of their ideas with a simple majority like the republicans did early in the Bush years. They created their own mess. Obama should grow a backbone and simply raise the debt ceiling on his own. I heard somewhere this was done back in the 1930 something.
JDM and Gary- It was a recession (the Bush recession). During recessions, revenue goes down and expenditures go up – thus the deficit increases. Mr. Bush’s deficit increases were during good times, when we should have been paying things down and putting aside a rainy day cushion for inevitable downturns. Mr Krugman’s argument at the time of the recession was that deficits during the recessions should go up even further with more spending to get the economy going again. If you remember, we almost went into a major depression.
There is no doubt that the republicans are holding the American economy hostage. Some (mostly the tea party ones) actually believe that going off the cliff would be a good thing. They are being used as “point and shoot” devices, but they are out of control. This is a very dangerous situation.
Obama has increased spending, there is no denying that. But how is that money being spent? Should be easy enough to find out, after all, it’s numbers. The increase rate of spending has been almost completely in two areas: Medicaid and Income security (I’m guessing this is unemployment benefits). In every other area of spending, it’s below what Bush II was spending.
You can look at an analysis of what policies have caused the current economic problems. Two unpaid for wars (one unnecessary), an unpaid for medicare drug benefit (unpaid for and in which it was made illegal for the government to bargain for lower drug prices), and a huge tax cut. As I understand it, the wars and the drug benefit are no longer “off budget” and are now being paid for.
I could be wrong, but I believe these are facts. I wish journalists would get off their lazy butts and provide some investigative reports rather than taking the easy “everyone is equally at fault” way out.
“I do think it would be interesting to see what would happen if Sen. Reid and Rep. Boehner simply allowed a debt ceiling increase to come to the floor of each house. “
Brian, you have to keep in mind that in the new US Senate nothing can be done unless you have 60 votes. I highly doubt Senate republicans would allow such a vote to come to the floor of the Senate.
It may be time for everyone to just turn their backs on government at all levels and fend for themselves.
Remember, a recession is when your neighbor is out of work and a depression is when you are out of work. Also remember that during the Great Depression, some people went broke while others made a fortune.
While it is true that it is always a possibility that you could get hit in the crossfire, the odds are you won’t.
Final thought. The only sure fire way for any level of government to create jobs is to hire more people to work for the government. You can throw all the money you want from the government to private businesses but there is no guarantee that money will create jobs that continue to exist after the money runs out.
Pete, what about government spending money on infrastructure repair? Wouldn’t that increase the number of private jobs in many industries? What about money being spent on space exploration? Now that we have several private companies involved in launching material into space, that should increase jobs. What about spending monies on green technologies? More private industry jobs? Just saying.
“What if they held the debt-ceiling to Aug 3rd and no one came?”
Glad you asked, JDM, I think. If what you’re asking is, “What would happen if they didn’t raise the debt ceiling?,” there’s a good rundown in the second half of this (conservative writer’s) blog post:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/what-happens-if-we-dont-raise-the-debt-ceiling/242728/
Bottom line, besides the possibility of old people not getting medicine, is it will end up costing taxpayers more money.
PNElba I don’t object to any of those programs. I just doubt there is the will to spend right now.
Brian,
NPR and PBS are probably the worse offenders in treating everything political as merely a horse race and bending over frontwards not to offend. The solution is easy, you guys can start reporting the news with the bark off to us. Use some of your endowment to hire a good lawyer. Start by telling us the absolute truth in each story on NCPR no matter who will bitch or how loud. You have enough resources and a sophisticated enough audience to try.
Don’t tell us how bad reporting is, start doing it differently. You can start by doing a daily critique of the “Up with people” eternally optimistic PBS pablum like “All things considered”.
NCPR can become world famous by creating a new kind of broadcast news and you have the resources staff and guts to do it. And your members will back you up.
Call it, “Can we talk?” news.
Ellen and Brian, youv’e issue-gummed this long enough.
Cheers,
Jim
Response to a little of all of you.
Yes the Dems are inept. ..But it’s because they can’t handle the burden left by Bush.
I always hoped as a teen there would be a third party when i was an adult….got what i wished for –dissapointed it’s the Tea Party.
Obama didn’t let the Bush tax cuts expire so he could show a sign of willingness to work with the Republicans– he also gave the thumbs up to increased offshore oil exploration about an hour before the Gulf Fiasco.(exaggerating, Bret) imagine if he said no, got a bashing for it, then the oil spill in the gulf occurred? He could said told you so, and everyone would have had to agree. He caved and tried to work the middle, and it bit him.
To create jobs in the depression it is the goverments job, and yes they’re Government jobs, but like we bbuilt the Parks, Highways- we should now repair it all. Entrepenuers have not been trickling the money down.
Obama will, if no agreement is reached, raise the debt limit on his own, like a disappointed parent in his children–” i told you to eat those peas”
The Republicans will then try to figure out how they can, on top of the claim Obama driving the first U.S. default, add “he went over our heads” to the Impeachment outcry.
I’m in my fifties too, tootitemike, and i thought as well the Government would have had by now, their “S**t together man” like some of those older hippie types would say, but as leaders of any revolutionary enlightenment movement, they either havent moved an inch (TOO STONED) or they’ve turned their back on government waaay before now, pete klein, and are all living a self sustained farming/homesteading lifestyle in the Adirondacks bugging a guy like Bret, who doesn’t realize how similar they are.
The fact that it is a recession for one and a depression for another shows how unequal the balance is. In the 30’s not so drastic.
here’s a typical job during the Depresion according to my father (born in 1901) :
Governmentally employed/funded Painters came into a Government office, and painted it yellow. As soon as it could be repainted, sometimes as early as the next afternoon, it was painted again, this time white.
This went on for years, true story from the horses mouth. My father made it through the Depression re-painting freshly painted rooms. He added unfortunately it set up a prototype that Government kept up with when it was no longer necessary. I think that is the origin, epitomey of a “government job” some imagine when they now think of the wasted money our representatives spend. We catalogued regional cusine during the Depression, as part of a mass documentation movement. No experience necessary, just a tummy. Any of those jobs around?
History will show Bush as a poor President, and Obama, though a good President will have taken the heat for an egg basket that was on its way to H*ll for some time. Same thing that happened to Hoover.
My bottom line is i thought ALL these guys were comfortable working within the confines of the honor system (to paraphrase jerry seinfeld)
For almost all of my voting carrer, few politicians were able to engage my suspension of disbelief mechanism in order for me to believe them for any length of time.
The only way I feel let down by the press in this debate is that they continue to view both sides as equal partners.
The facts simply do not warrant this, and it should be ok for the press to point it out.
The republicans are being influenced by a segment of their party that ran, and won, on a no-compromise platform. They have signed pledges that, if they honor them, will not allow them to compromise.
There is no meeting in the middle. No bi-partisan solution. No compromise.
And the reason for this is because of the republicans.
The media should be doing what they can to point this out. All they would be doing is reporting a fact… a fact that the tea partiers are proud about.
Yet the media seems so afraid of looking like it is taking sides, that it continues to treat this situation as if both parties are giving the same effort. This simply is not the case, and the media does the issue, and the public, a disservice by not giving us a realistic portrait.
as usual: exactly what dave said.
The New York Times missed the memo on Gabby Giffords’ politeness-speak.
“If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission.”
Meanwhile, the drive-by media piles on to the word “hostage”, as in, “Why Are We the Tea Party’s Hostages? ”
http://tinyurl.com/3m34zxj
Time to get some new reporters.
JDM – we are hostages or rather the debt limit is a hostage.
The Tea Party is modeled after the Anti-Saloon League, which brought us the late, unlamented Prohibition in 1918. Like the Tea Party, the ASL was funded by plutocrats and, by its single-minded focus and its use of the no-booze pledge (CF Grover Norquist’s “no-tax” pledge) became a powerful spoiler in hundreds of local and congressional races. The ASL never elected a candidate of its own, but it bullied enough candidates to enact Prohibition — and introduce the nation to the Mafia, among other wonders.
Read Dan Okrent’s book, “Last Call.”
Two Cents,
I wasn’t suggesting to “Tune in, turn on and drop out.” I was only suggesting/warning that to depend upon the government often leads to disappointment.
As to my family during the depression, they survived doing what they always did. My grandfather made a living as a barber before, during and after the depression, and worked into his 80’s. Also, he walked to work 6 days a week. Managed to keep his home and raise a family.
My grandmother told me she would sometimes provide a meal to someone who knocked on the door looking for help.
I LOVE Brian Mann’s suggestion. Just write a bill to increase the debt ceiling and put it to a vote. Crazy as it may seem, it just MIGHT work!
It is true about depending on the government. We are all looking for security in this life at some level and it becomes easy to rely on what seems like a reliable institution, but its not.
Please note, my previous comment was meant to be said as if in an episode of the A-Team.
Pete Klein, my comment was not a criticism by any means, just an acknowledgement. I get what you post here.
Tune in drop out really is what it might sadly come down to to survive. The turn on is optional, of course.
Sad that the days of one man, as a barber, painter, fisherman or farmer can only seem to raise blisters nevermind a family, no matter how hard he works, or how far he walks. :)
That’s the definition of Depression.
Totally agree two cents. I wish one of us were a Democrat and one of us were a Republican in Congress so that we could talk sensibly and reach a fair and just compromise.
This is the problem. People seem to prefer to talk at each other rather than talk to and with each other.
Peter Hahn:
We may, indeed be hostages, and maybe you don’t take issue with the comparison to Hezbollah.
I was making a point to the people who went nuclear over a picture showing a cross-hair over a map and saying that is what caused Gabby Giffords to be targeted.
Do you remember President Obama’s admonition not to use such talk?
He apparently doesn’t remember, either.
JDM – I don’t know enough about that quote “Hezbollah” to really comment on its appropriateness – context is crucial for this stuff. But on its face, it doesn’t seem to be calling for killing anyone metaphorically. Rather it implies that the Tea Party wing is militant and not interested in compromise. They could have used “hamas” or “ultra-orthodox” as well.
If,what you mean, is that they are referring to a group in terms that imply they are “other than us”, when in fact they are Americans just like the rest of us, then you have a valid point.
Clinton spent $547 million a day.
Bush spent $1.5 billon a day.
Odrama is spending $4.1 billion a day.
No tell me Obama has mad a problem far worse than Bush did.