The only questioning Obama has had to sweat was via Mexican produced UNIVISION . .. Not from compliant US media outlets to whom he was willing to grant interviews . . . hell, not even directly from his Republican challenger. Why is that?
There are some things I am puzzled about…actually quite a few, but maybe I’m just easily puzzled. Much is said in conservative circles about “low information” voters, nearly all of whom support Obama. I’m sure there are many of them. I know quite a few. However, I’m possibly more concerned about the apparently large number of certain “high information” voters (they consume a lot of information but is it only from sources where that “information” is carefully sifted and spun to support and reinforce a liberal world view? see most of “mainstream media”, NPR, et al).
Then there are the “mal-” information voters (some of these may absorb a lot of information, some not so much. But what they do absorb is all “bad”; it is distorted, often maliciously so, aiming not to promote constructive debate but to create villains and destroy reputations of their ideological opponents; see MSNBC, Media Matters). Alarmingly, you seem to find a disproportionate number of voters of both kinds among the affluent and the “well educated”.
In addition, it seems to me that there is a serious “blackout’ of important information which no one seems to be motivated to communicate. Or maybe I’m just mistaken:
1) A lot of press, commentary, and debate about the fiscal cliff. Most of it, unsurprisingly comes from Democratic party leadership and liberal media personalities, and, as part of the “civil discourse” they’re famous for, it focusses on those dastardly Republicans who just don’t like a black guy in the white House. It seems almost all the discussion is around the failure of “congress’ to reach “compromise”. The popular narrative is that Republicans are so hung up on “no tax cuts for the rich” that they are willing to let the economy go over the cliff. All the polls seem to show that the overwhelming majority of Americans do blame the GOP. No suggestion that Obama’s stubborn refusal to consider just extending the “Bush-era” (it used to be the Bush) tax cuts for all plays any role in the deadlock. Also, there is no mention of the fact that for the past 8 years plus we have heard only about the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” and how they “were not paid for”. Now Obama wants to extend the overwhelming bulk of those cuts with no mention of how “they will be paid for”. And, it now appears from Obama’s own words and actions that it was the “poor and middle class” who benefitted by far the most from those Bush tax cuts. Mr. Obama, his fellow Democrats and many in the media have said repeatedly that it will be the poor and the middle class who will be hurt the most if all of the “era’s” tax cuts are allowed to expire.
The media seems to see no irony…more accurately, hypocrisy… in that position by the biggest critics of the Bush tax cuts!
2) Why is NO attention on the part of the “mainstream” press given to the FACT that the Democratic Senate has refused for four years, in violation of the law (for which there is no penalty…huh?), to pass a budget. Why isn’t Harry Reid castigated daily for his comments that he will not even allow a budget to be voted on because it would be “silly”, politically, for Democrats to be thus forced to identify funding and spending cut priorities?
Yes, I know it is the “mainstream press” but nevertheless, are not even “high information” liberals a little bit disturbed by such a corrupt and malevolent stance by their Party leaders?
3) Related but additionally, the “debate” about the fiscal cliff, at least to my knowledge, just does not include ANY reference to spending cuts. They just aren’t talked about…at all ! Obama’s laughable “offers’, Boehner’s Plan B…practically nothing is said about spending cuts certainly not real spending cuts. (I thought that spending was a major part of the problem…silly me).
4) To me, the following is the biggest undiscussed, most obscured issue of this entire dismal episode in the ongoing decline and eventual destruction of this country.
Am I the only one who has noted that we are seeing the FOURTH CONSECUTIVE $800 billion “stimulus” program this year? And, if I am not completely nuts, why have I seen virtually no reference to this at all…has anyone?
In 2009, the $780 billion stimulus bill was enacted. My understanding is that, with this bill, the economy would be “jump-started” big time…funding bundles of shovel ready jobs…roads, bridges, all manner of infra structure projects. Of course we heard the promises of unemployment thus not going above 8%, blah, blah.
The following year congress failed to pass a budget but did agree to a “continuing resolution” which increased spending by the Federal government a few percentage points…but it was a few percentage points above the previous year’s spending, WHICH WAS BASED ON THE $800 BILLION SPENT ON THE STIMULUS PROGRAM! In other words, the ‘Stimulus” program was sold as a “one time” shot in the economy’s arm to get the economy rolling again. Of course we now know that it didn’t…those “shovel ready” jobs as Obama and Immelt joked, weren’t so “shovel ready”. We also know that all that money was actually spent helping profligate states continue their crazy spending another year and to give unions anything and everything they’ve craved for decades.
Nevertheless, the following year(s), the $800 billion is in the federal spending “non”-budget and being added to each year with continuing resolutions. And, why doesn’t anyone wonder, “where in the hell is that money going?” There’s apparently still no “shovel ready” jobs, there are many more food stamp recipients, there is perpetual unemployment compensation, there continues to be “reparation payments to blacks and females who were allegedly denied opportunities to be farmers. Obama now wants some more money for infrastructure and the economy is no better.
In my simple mind, I thought a “stimulus” program was a one shot, one year program. $800 billion was a very hefty effort to jump start the economy and the following year, federal spending would revert back to the levels it was before the “stimulus’ jolt, with some percentage increase over the baseline spending before the stimulus. Not what happened and why trillion dollar deficits are occurring each year.
Am I wrong about this? If not, do you agree that this has not been highlighted, or even mentioned by the media, including FOX News and, if at all, even by Rush or Hannity or any other Conservative pundit?
If widely disseminated, would any Obamaites change their view toward this fraud at all? And, if not, is it all over for the Great Experiment, which was America and capitalism, and the “sanctity” of individual freedom? DLH
