"A Government Shutdown And Debt Ceiling Guide For Journalists Who Don't Want To Be Complete Idiot"

[TomCADem]

The Sunday news shows are replete with examples of journalists trying to push a false equivalence narrative suggesting that Democrats are equally at fault for a shut down and that Republicans are doing Democrats a favor by considering an increase in the debt ceiling or funding the federal government. This is not gridlock. This is GOP nihilism at its worse.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling_n_4004408.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The only thing I'd add to this is that anyone who suggests in the future that raising the debt ceiling constitutes a "concession" to Democrats is also committing malpractice.

Among the many examples Fallows cites of journalists employing these best practices is the Sept. 27 edition of the Diane Rehm show, in which "panelists Ruth Marcus, Janet Hook, and Todd Purdum all said with a bluntness unusual for a D.C.-based talk show that we are witnessing the effects not of gridlock but of one party's internal crisis." Check it out here.

Naturally, this is a 100 percent accurate take on the matter. This is the GOP's intra-party crisis, not a congressional one. Democrats don't receive any benefit from avoiding a shutdown or a default. Nor do they impose anything on the GOP by calling for a government that continues to run, or a global economy that continues to exist. Republicans are free to stage debates, make arguments, attempt to pass laws, try to strike bargains, and seek redress in the normal cycle of campaigns and elections. At the moment, their party is having a difficult time deciding if it wants to stick with traditional American governance, or swap it out for a series of violent threats on the nation's economic security.

This should be a really easy story to get right.

[chowder66]

1. From the original Atlantic article cited

* The FAA, the FDA, our research organizations, all other public programs from monitoring air quality to modernizing computer systems to staffing the military -- they're all wasting time and money now because of indiscriminate "sequester" cuts and preparations for possible shut-down. For the foreseeable future, the air traffic will keep moving and other functions will go on -- just more stupidly and wastefully. We have that much social capital still to burn.

But: As the WaPo points out, flood relief for Colorado is already being delayed because of shutdown threats. Just within the past week I've heard from people in the scientific establishment about researchers they've had to lay off because of stop-and-start funding; from people in the aviation world about safety upgrades that are being delayed; from someone working with the IRS about a postponed computer upgrade; from diplomats about delayed visa processing; and on through a long list. It's survivable, but it's stupid, and eventually we use the margin up.

** The debt-ceiling vote, of course, is not about future spending decisions. It is about whether to cover expenditures the Congress has already authorized. There is no sane reason for subjecting this to a repeated vote. And there is no precedent for serious threats not to honor federal debt -- as opposed to symbolic anti-Administration protest votes, which both parties have cast over the years. Nor for demanding the reversal of major legislation as a condition for routine government operations.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/your-false-equivalence-guide-to-the-days-ahead/280062/

[bvar22]

3. THis is what my rural, conservative neighbors don't understand:

[font size=3]"The debt-ceiling vote, of course, is not about future spending decisions. It is about whether to cover expenditures the Congress has already authorized."[/font]

Thanks to our broken News Dispensers (especially FOX) in the USA,
MOST people I have talked to believe this is about The Government Spending More Money.
It isn't.
It is about paying the bill for what the Republican Controlled House of Representatives have ALREADY spent.

When I tell them this, all I get are glazed eyes.

[chowder66]

4. I feel like just a very few things need to be repeated about this

The democrats gain nothing with this bill. Rinse and repeat.
It is just to fund the already congressional authorized spending for a few months.
The republicans are tacking on issues that should be debated outside of this (which have already been debated in some cases).
The republicans are creating national and potentially international economic chaos due to their own internal infighting.

The republicans are solely to blame for another government shutdown threat that always effects certain sectors as they have to
prepare for a looming shutdown.

And it's pretty damned dishonest for any reporter or news agency to try to say anything different.

[rhett o rick]

2. k&r thanks for posting. nm

[Keefer]

5. Something I don't understand.

What does increasing the debt ceiling have to do with debts already incurred? People keep saying that if we don't increase the debt ceiling, we won't be able to pay the debts we already have. When the debt ceiling is raised, doesn't that allow us to borrow MORE? Shouldn't we have enough money to pay WHAT WE ALREADY SPENT? I don't understand.