Media Matters:
Fox News is encouraging Republicans to once again hold up a routine increase in the debt ceiling to exact spending cuts in deficit reduction negotiations with Democrats, though the same tactic previously cost the government billions and resulted in a credit-rating downgrade.The word "though" in that sentence is incorrect. It should be "because."
Fox News is encouraging debt-ceiling brinkmanship because a prolonged fight over the debt ceiling would cause harm to the economy -- harm that Fox News thinks would be blamed on Democrats, because the president is a Democrat, and because the people at Fox and other Republicans have portrayed Democrats as the party of government.
This is not recklessness -- it's calculation, or possibly miscalculation, based on naked self-interest.
See also my previous post.
5 comments:
Yeah, this way the Republicans could create a committee, let's call it the 'Super Committee'. This committee would be charged with coming up with a package of cuts, and if it failed, then the cuts would be automatic, affecting both domestic and defense. This would force the 'Super Committee' to be serious and get things done.
Sounds like a great plan, a sure-fire way to cut spending.
I wonder why this has never been tried before?
Let's stop calling them "Republicans."
They ain't - at least not any more.
They are "The Nihilist Know-Nothing Party."
Or, the Groucho "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" Marxist Party.*
*My apologies to the great Groucho for associating him with this band of cruel sociopathic thugs.
The take away, I think, is that it's not about ratings anymore, it's not about generating advertisment revenue.
I'm inclined to think it's indifference to American interests, rather than hostility/calculated disregard, that causes the GOP to behave this way. But obviously I am just guessing, and you could be right and I could be wrong. Plus, there's probably little difference in practice.
reflection: At some point, indifference really crosses over to hostility. When you say "I'm willing for you to get your hand chopped off so that I can have an extra scoop of foam on my latte", that can claim to look like indifference, but it's really not, because you pretty much have to regard the person you're imposing suffering on as less than human.
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