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A conservative news and views blog.

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Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Sunday, July 31, 2011

America's Rehoboam Moment

Timothy Birdnow

The Media Research Center has analyzed the blame game of the media, and concluded that the reporting on the debt limit is hopelessly biased.

From the MRC report:

http://www.mrc.org/realitycheck/realitycheck/2011/20110726061313.aspx

"On Election Day 2010, then-CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith posed a hypothetical question about newly-elected Republicans to Ann Coulter: “There’ll be a routine vote, for instance, to increase the debt ceiling and the Tea Party guys are going to say, ‘Over my dead body,’ and the government comes to a screeching halt. Then what happens?” The conservative author confidently predicted: “Well, the media will blame the Republicans.”

And that’s precisely what has occurred. A Media Research Center study of the Big Three network evening and morning programs finds that, when it came to assigning blame for lack of a debt ceiling resolution, ABC, CBS and NBC’s coverage has placed the overwhelming majority of the blame on Republicans’ doorstep.

MRC analysts watched all 202 stories on the debt ceiling from July 1 through July 22, looking for statements which assigned blame or responsibility for the failure to reach a settlement. Of the 85 stories that included such statements, the skew was lopsidedly anti-Republican, with 56 stories (66%) mainly assigning them the blame for the impasse. Even though Democrats control both the Senate and the White House, only 17 network stories (20%) suggested they bore more responsibility, a greater than three-to-one disparity (see chart). Twelve stories offered a balanced discussion of which party ought to be blamed."

End excerpt.

This comes as no surprise, but it is good to have actual confirmation in numbers. The fact is, the media hasn't even tried to explain this, prefering to use Democrat talking points as actual hard news.

For those who do not understand the issue (and it does not include regular readers of this website) a quick rundown of this is in order.

The debt ceiling is simply a cap on borrowing. Much like the credit limit on a credit card, it theoretically restricts the amount of money government can borrow - with the intention of controlling runaway spending. It has been disregarded nearly since it has been instituted by Congress. Obama argues that nobody worried about extending the limit in the past, but nobody ever blew money like this in the past, and we are getting to the point where servincing the debt will absorb too much of GDP. There comes a point where you simply cannot keep borrowing. The Tea Party was born of that very thing; many average Americans realize that we simply cannot keep spending more than we take in. That is why the House GOP has made a stand here; there has to be some long-range plans to cut spending.

According to Title 31, Subtitle III, Chapter 31, Subchapter I, subsection 3101, paragraph (b), the debt limit is;

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2008-title31/html/USCODE-2008-title31-subtitleIII-chap31-subchapI-sec3101.htm

"The face amount of obligations issued under this chapter and the face amount of obligations whose principal and interest are guaranteed by the United States Government (except guaranteed obligations held by the Secretary of the Treasury) may not be more than $11,315,000,000,000, outstanding at one time, subject to changes periodically made in that amount as provided by law through the congressional budget process described in Rule XLIX of the Rules of the House of Representatives or otherwise."

End excerpt.

This amount is, of course, grossly out of date as the limit has been raised numerous times since.

What must be understood is that taxes are still being collected on a continual basis - the government is not without income. What is happening is that it can no longer issue new bonds to borrow more money. And the money already in the pipeline is still there.

In the event that the debt limit is reached, the President would be required to give a list of necessary services that he cannot cut, and if the money isn't there Congress could authorize a temporary spending bill.

But this President has refused a temporary bill, because he wants to blame Republicans for any bad things that happen. And he is threatening by innuendo to withhold payments on vital services - like social security or military - to blackmail the GOP House of Representatives. Either they raise the ceiling, infuriating the Tea Party, or they do not and the One can blame them for the collapsing economy. Two agencies have already downgraded the U.S. credit rating and Standard and Poors has said they will downgrade us without serious budget cuts - larger than anyone's plan would entail. As Obama refuses to sign any legislation that makes such cuts he is the cause of the coming downgrade - but he wants to lay this on the Republicans.

And to anyone who knows any economic history raising taxes would be catastrophic; the fragile recovery of 1931 was destroyed by a tax increase, leading the modest depression to become The Great Depression, and this has been the result whenever such action has been taken. Should Obama get his way we would end with an economic armageddon. Tax collections would actually drop as the economy slowed. We would be in worse shape than before.

So the Democrats are prepared to do precisely what they accuse Republicans of doing; they are ready to starve grandma and toss cripples into the ditch for political gain. The media has to know this, yet they continue to lay blame on the real grown-ups in the room.

When King Solomon died, the Israelites came to his son and demanded that the government reduce taxes and quit spending. Solomon's son Rehoboam listened to his Democrat Party advisors and instead offered more taxes and more spending. The result was the dissolution of the Israelite kingdom. This has happened many times in history; governments spend more than they take in because spending is power. The result is invariably the collapse of said nations.

We are at a Rehoboam moment; do we march down to the precipice and leap off or get control of ourselves? The media would like us to leap. So would our President who would prefer being the President of Mankind.

They must be stopped.

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