Questions at VP Debate Reveal Bankrupt Beltway Thinking

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/12-10



***SNIP

But it’s domestic policy where Raddatz, like Lehrer, blew it. She started by asking about unemployment, which is at least a gesture at the enormous suffering in the country right now. That set off minutes and minutes of rambling, all of which was boilerplate (though the stuff on the green stimulus was interesting, mostly because Ryan lied his ass off).

Then it was straight to “entitlements,” which, in case you weren’t aware of the Beltway CW, Raddatz introduced by saying, “Both Medicare and Social Security are going broke.” That is just absolutely, empirically false. Medicare is fine out to 2024 and easily fixable after that (it’s medical costs, not Medicare, that are the real problem). And Social Security quite literally cannot go broke. It too can be kept solvent for many decades with small tweaks. Neither is a problem until a decade from now.

Of all the requirements for a debate moderators, surely the very minimum is that he or she not introduce factual errors into the discussion. No?

And then it was on to taxes and the defense budget. I kept thinking, “This is exactly the stuff we went over the other night in the presidential debate! Where are immigration, education, innovation, housing, LGBT issues? Where is energy? Where is, God forbid, climate change?”

[Tennessee Gal]

1. That line on Medicare and Social Security "going broke" bothered me, too. nt

[ananda]

2. Agree. The questions were framed..

.. in a very rightwing manner.

First, Social Security and Medicare are NOT going broke.

Secondly, the word "entitlements" is a code word
pandering to racists.

Thirdly, corporatist memes are rife.

We are so screwed by rightwing memes and assumptions.