The Deficit Zealots and Their Media Enablers

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



The Deficit Zealots and Their Media Enablers
by Jonathan Tasini

Wednesday 17 of February, 2010


I understand why many people do not expect much from most of the traditional media--particularly The New York Times. People don't get the sense that the traditional media can get out of its own insular thinking to do hard, independent reporting about the facts.

The newest drumbeat being pushed by the traditional media is the great "fiscal deficit" scare. Today's headline in the Times is emblematic:

Senator Even Bayh's comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A: The unwillingness of the two parties to compromise to control a national debt that is rising to dangerous heights.

After decades of warnings that budgetary profligacy, escalating health care costs and an aging population would lead to a day of fiscal reckoning, economists and the nation’s foreign creditors say that moment is approaching faster than expected, hastened by a deep recession that cost trillions of dollars in lost tax revenues and higher spending for safety-net programs.

The problem, in my opinion, is not that the two parties do not want to compromise. It is that actually they hold the same view--that the fiscal deficits are a great danger and that "painful" cuts await us. If you argue over the same terrain, of course, you can't compromise

But, they aren't dealing with the facts. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14719