The deeper you go, the darker the joke gets
by David Atkins
Many progressives are cheering the AP finally getting around to rhetorically asking if the GOP is trying to sabotage the economy to hurt the President’s re-election. Fine insofar as that goes. But go beyond the headline, and a quick read of the article is depressing in what it says about the state of the media. Let’s take a brief look:
The latest Democratic complaint came after House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that when Congress raises the nation’s borrowing cap in early 2013, he will again insist on big spending cuts to offset the increase. Boehner, R-Ohio, continues to reject higher tax rates, which Democrats demand from the wealthy.
That led Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to say Boehner is virtually assuring another debt-ceiling crisis as bad or worse than the one that shook financial markets nine months ago.
“The last thing the country needs is a rerun of last summer’s debacle that nearly brought down our economy,” Schumer said in a statement. In an interview, Schumer added: “I hope that the speaker is not doing this because he doesn’t want to see the economy improve, because what he said will certainly rattle the markets.”
Boehner responded in a statement: “Republicans have passed nearly 30 bills that would help small businesses create jobs and we are waiting on Senate Democrats to vote on these common-sense measures. The failure to act on these jobs bills, as well as our crushing debt burden, is undermining economic growth and job creation.”
Democrats say Republicans loaded their jobs bills with provisions certain to doom them in the Senate, such as restrictions on unions and on regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
He said. Then she said. But then he retorted. And then she responded. Do journalists even bother to report actual facts anymore, or do they just dutifully transcribe whatever the press secretaries tell them to?
But it gets better (worse, really):
Regardless of whether Schumer’s suspicions are right, there’s evidence that unceasing partisan gridlock and the prospect of big tax increases and spending cuts in January are causing some companies to postpone expansions. Even small economic slowdowns are bad news for Obama, who is seeking re-election amid high unemployment.
The Washington Post this past week compiled a list of military contractors, hospitals and universities that are delaying hires and bracing for cuts, partly because of fears that Washington’s partisan divisions will not abate.
Wait, what? Let’s deconstruct this. Lack of hiring is blamed on two things: 1) partisan gridlock, and 2) austerity. But since some sort of austerity package is the one thing that the “moderates” in both parties seem to agree on, wouldn’t the gridlock help the hiring picture? And about those tax increases, the President has actually been promoting lowering the corporate rate while closing as many of the supposedly complicated loopholes as possible. Anyone with an ounce of political acumen knows that the GOP will probably win seats in the Senate if not control the body outright, which means that it will be functionally impossible to raise taxes on the wealthy or on the corporate sector, anyway. And since corporate profits are at record high with little hiring on the radar, what difference exactly would a minor boost or siphon on their bottom lines make, anyway?
Seriously, journalists are paid to ask questions and get answers. Charles Babbington at AP, the guy who wrote those paragraphs, clearly didn’t bother to ask himself the first question about what he was writing. Instead, he lazily reprinted topsy-turvy ridiculous conventional wisdom as it were fact, embedded in a he-said-she-said sandwich free of any factual analysis.
And this, in a story progressives are cheering about.
The media in this country is screwed up beyond repair.
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