30 Comments

The GOP excels at the long game. In the 80s, Grover Norquist's No New Taxes pledge was part of his plan to hamstring the government by reducing the money it could raise. In the 90s, Newt Gingrich weaponized the debt ceiling limit to derail the Clinton economy, and since the 2000s, Mitch McConnell has overseen the routine of cutting taxes for Republican presidents, and then claiming the government is broke (out of money) when a Dem is in the Oval. Meanwhile, the media sees all of those trees but swears there is no forest.

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“It’s sort of fun to watch their chaos,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said of the Democrats.

As he holds up a middle finger to all of his constituents who will be impacted by this.

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If font size is any indication, the WP thinks a bunch of stubborn health care workers who think being told to get a vaccine or a weekly test is an assault on their personal freedom should be the news header of the day. Oh yeah, and the "congress" is diddling around with something about money that nobody understands or cares about. Yet.

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And the word went out to all candidates, declared and undeclared: "You pay our bills you're gonna get primaried." How is countering that, in any rational context, a Democratic concern?

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Joe Scar o rough speaking the truth about the debt limit, “(the debt limit is) McConnell’s debt, McCarthy’s debt; Rs spent more $ than Dems under FG and now they don’t want to pay their own bill....”. J. Lemire, AP on AM Joe states it’s ‘McConnell’s hypocrisy....”. Holy moly. Maybe someone’s listening!!!!

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Had Congressional Democrats refused to raise the debt ceiling under Trump, the Republicons, the media, and even many Democratic voters would have declared Congressional Democrats to be traitors and hounded them from office. If Republicons prevent the debt ceiling from being raised under Biden, the Republicons, the media, and even many Democratic voters will declare Congressional Democrats to be traitors and hound them from office.

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The facts don't matter when you're trying to protect your sources and maintain access.

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The "Opinion Debate" they've been pushing for months—it's boxed and appears amid individual columns—is enraging:

"Will the Dems face a midterm wipeout?"

They have a list of four columns from January 21, 2021—not even 24 hours after Biden took office!—onward, hectoring and musing on the big losses that await Democrats. Journalistic malpractice, considering the Times did not call for Trump's impeachment.

All the Times—which still sets the tone for most mainstream outlets—does is criticize, blame, and mock the Democrats. It's incredibly destructive and defeatist.

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Cottle’s piece in the Times is egregious. What’s harder to tell is how much the Times is skewing the comments they allow to be posted - and when.

There’s a pile-on effect with comments that get posted first if you look at them ranked by reader picks - and many people apparently do. Those that establish an early lead tend to stay on top; those that get posted later tend to get swamped.

I don’t know how much of this is intentional - some of mine never get approved or only show up hours after I submit them. I wonder how much is simply comments coming in faster than they can be reviewed.

I do notice certain names appear near the top of reader picks on a regular basis. How that happens would be interesting to see explained.

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I am at a loss to understand how Republicans think that allowing COVID to ravage their voters in the states while national Republicans crash the economy is a winning strategy for 2022.

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The GOP is the Party of "Hud," best captured by Academy award winning actor Melvyn Douglas (as Homer Bannon) in this scene where he expresses his contempt for his own son with this observation: "I was sick of you a long time before that."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gVa4FAikBg

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Maddow deftly handled this issue last night. Either she or her guest, former U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Montana, likened the GOP's position to running up a big credit card debt, then refusing to pay it. No matter one's politics, how is this right? How does the media blame both sides? Following this story makes me wonder whether my wife has slipped a reality-altering something in my coffee. How hard is it to just report the facts and makes sense for readers?

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This sort of bloodless reporting on the debt ceiling and possible default from Our Failed Political Press reminds me of Chris Matthews’ Hard Ball show (long cancelled) where he would have on pundits to discuss actions like this from an amoral position of, “Did/will it work?” That’s all he ever asked.

I don’t know what the Republicans game is here, except to have some sort of general 2022 ad saying that Blue Team are big spenders (but the GOP is going to do that, regardless). So in the Chris Matthews tradition, will it work? Is it worth it to put out of work up to 6M people and crash the world economy for one bullet point on an ad?

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Kevin Drum has a sample of headlines that may be of interest. https://jabberwocking.com/headline-watch-debt-ceiling-edition/

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