Irrelevant Republicans Being Ignored!
The liberal media is giving all their attention to the tax and spend Democrats!
Via the memeorandum aggregator, I found this bizarre story on Newsbusters (“LOPSIDED: Dems Swamp Republicans (115 to 16) on Evening News Budget Stories“):
Is there any surprise our national debt keeps climbing when the voices calling for fiscal responsibility are almost completely drowned out by the national media?
In the network evening news show coverage of stories about the infrastructure bill, increasing the debt ceiling and President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” spending boondoggle Republican voices were almost completely shut out.
MRC analysts looked at 30 stories on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening programs covering the most recent budget debates from September 23 to October 10 and discovered a whopping disparity in soundbites with Democrats overwhelming Republicans by a 115 to 16 count.
Yes, viewers of these programs were seven times more likely to hear from hardcore big spending Democratic lefties such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Pramila Jayapal than Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell or Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Leaving aside that the Republicans seem to be committed to “fiscal responsibility” only when Democrats are in the White House, this seems a rather bizarre critique. One party controls the White House, House of Representatives, and (nominally, at least) the Senate. The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has made it abundantly clear that there will not be a single vote from his party for raising the debt ceiling or in support of the reconciliation package.
So, of course the coverage is almost exclusively about the internecine debates within the majority party. The opposition party has intentionally made itself irrelevant to the process.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,,, gasp….. wheeze…. Considering the fact that DEMs intend to pay for everything they put into the BBB thru increased revenues, and the GOP intends to block EVERYTHING that needs be done, the GOP are once again being fiscal terrorists.
There is absolutely no such thing as a “fiscally responsible Republican” anywhere in the US congress.
In GQP Newspeak, “deficit” now means “any money spent by the government outside of the defense budget.”
It would be a great day for this country if everyone would accept the FACT that Republican fiscal and economic policies DO NOT WORK!!! They have NEVER worked!!! Republican economic theories are WRONG!!!
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
BTW – this is a fact, it is not an opinion.
It is borne out by the historical record.
And the magical thinking of electing a six-times bankrupt, failure of a businessman, was also a Republican failure.
I don’t know that “irrelevant” is the right word to describe making it “abundantly clear that there will not be a single vote from [their] party for raising the debt ceiling or in support of the reconciliation package.” Belligerent, uniform obstructionism is certainly relevant in a two party system with nearly balanced representation. I understand that it is difficult to make obstinacy an interesting story, but ignoring the fact that the Republicans have chosen to abdicate any responsibility is letting the GOP off the hook.
In an OTB thread yesterday I quoted Eugene Robinson as noting the whole spectrum of governance now resides in the D Party. While this disparity in coverage is, to some extent, inevitable, it’s also exactly what GOPs want. It’s unlikely Biden will be able to produce rainbows and unicorns, or at least not equally for everybody. Failures and problems get way more coverage than successes. And the GOP plan is to lay low and hang any problems on Biden and the Ds. Most of the economy’s problems right now are symptoms of rapid recovery: clogged ports, mild inflation, difficulty hiring, high gas prices. But they’re mostly reported as stand-alone problems.
Republicans are at each other’s throats. Election officials attacked by legislatures, school board members attacked by mobs, Trump threatening to endorse primary challengers against incumbents, McCarthy kowtowing to the TeaParty caucus, business donors bailing, demands for fraudits in states Trump carried easily, various anti-Trump GOPs mumbling about third parties, etc. But you see about seven Dems-in-disarray stories for every GOPs-are-revolting story.
There are reasons I habitually refer to the “liberal media” of your subhead as the “supposedly liberal MSM”.
I’ve often noted in these threads that a big problem with GOP pols is that they believe their own bullshit. They say something ridiculous, like tax cuts pay for themselves, for short term political gain. But they see themselves, despite the evidence, as the good people, the virtuous people, so they must not be liars, and they decide whatever they said must be true. Or maybe it’s just living in their epistemic bubble. Maybe tax cuts really do pay for themselves if you look at it just right.
Scott Lemieux over at LGM expresses this thought succinctly,
As I’ve said on numerous occasions when referring to people like @JKB and @keef, liars have nothing to contribute. The entire GOP is now committed to huge, vile and anti-American lies, as are all its little mouthpieces. They emit nothing but vapor and foul smells.
@Michael Reynolds: Could you please tell me some of these vile lies that are being propagated by the GOP? Im not instigating, This is a legitimate question. Thank you.
@Kyla Meyers: Where would you like to start? It might be easier to determine if there’s anything they’re telling the truth about at all.