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House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said something interesting this week that caused a minor stir, in part because of the basketball reference, but I found it interesting for some other reasons.
Here's what the #3 Republican in the House had to say to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren about the fight with President Obama over the budget:
"How can a president not want to balance the budget? How does he forget what he said? One of his first goals in the first four years was to cut the deficit in half. Now he doesn't care. He doesn't even produce a budget," McCarthy told Fox News. "I'll bet you this. I bet you he spends more time filling out his March Madness brackets than he does writing a budget."
Now, I suspect the congressman came up with the snarky little quip about college basketball, was eager to deliver it on Fox, and didn't give the substance of his argument a whole lot of thought.
But so long as the quote made the rounds, let's give it a little fact check.
* "How can a president not want to balance the budget?" Well, it's really not that complicated -- with high unemployment and a sluggish recovery, President Obama doesn't see deficit reduction as a top priority. It's a position most economists heartily endorse. Perhaps the better question is, "How can a House Majority Whip not want to focus on economic growth?"
* "How does he forget what he said? One of his first goals in the first four years was to cut the deficit in half." Yes, and this year, the deficit will be cut to nearly half of what it was when the president took office four years ago. McCarthy is one of the 6% of the country that knows this, right?
* "Now he doesn't care." Actually, he does care -- probably too much. It's why Obama keeps offering Republicans multi-trillion-dollar debt-reduction Grand Bargains, much to the chagrin of his base.
* "He doesn't even produce a budget." I know these issues can sometimes get confusing, but President Obama has produced -- and continues to produce -- a budget every year. Congress gets plenty of copies, and if Kevin McCarthy lost his, the whole thing is always posted online. How is it that a member of the House leadership isn't aware of this?
Budget fights might be more productive if lawmakers brushed up on the basics. A little homework can do a long way.
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Steve, its all about the sound bites. He probably knows all of that he just chooses to ignore it and substitute his own reality.
McCarthy knows that FoxNews is only interested in anti-Obama sound bites that it will send out to all of its media outlets. It doesn't have to be truthful. FoxNews knows truth but it is more interested in Koch-Rove-Ailes propaganda.
Remember: 80% of all media is owned by a few .1%ers.
Remember: That media domination permits massive censorship. A surprising number of cable companies do not carry MSMBC in many markets. Two Time-Warner cables that I saw in New York did not have MSNBC. FoxNews refuses to show Obama in favorable settings, they have "alternate programming."
Remember: That media domination permits massive circulation of the McCarthy-type lies. Many McDonalds, among others, have FoxNews on its in-store tv all day.
WHEN ARE THE PROGRESSIVES IN THIS COUNTRY GOING TO BE UPSET ABOUT THIS MEDIA MONOPOLY AND CARTEL? THE RIGHT HAS ALMOST DICTATORIAL CONTROL IN MANY PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.
Those damn facts always get in the way of political memes.
Sadly, they don't get in the way quite enough.
It's a racist dogwhistle to the Tea Party base.
In fairness, the deficit is cut to half (almost) as a percentage of GDP, and not in total dollars. President Obama did not promise it as a percentage of GDP, nor as total dollars.
That said, it's still a pretty amazing thing that in the midst of the second greatest downturn of the past 125 years (or longer) the deficit is shrinking.
Did he really say "how does he forgot..." ??
Typically there is a (sic) thrown in there when someone misspeaks. I looked into it a bit further and it is transcribed incorrectly. He said "forget" on the air and FoxNews transcribed it as "forgot" on their website. Whatever.. I'm CDO. It's like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but in alphabetical order, as it should be.
Proofreading on the blog ain't got a priority.
Well, as all good Republicans know, black guys would rather play or at least think about basketball than work.
I am not an economist, but I am crazy enough to try and start my own business and participate in this grand game of capitalism. Funny, I seem to have a problem. My business, started from a garage, and a bankruptcy and with no silver spoon in my mouth. during the first week of September, 2008,. yeah.. THAT WEEK... With a meager 5k invested, it became a success, or at least was one until it grew so fast I actually needed a loan for fixed and liquid assets that would actually legitimize my business model and create a self sustaining, self growing, employee hiring entity. Just because I am bankrupt does not mean my business is not a success. It will not be unless i go into further debt. I need to be in debt. just like this nation needs to be in debt, rebuilding our infrastructure, our education system (how and what our children learn). This nation needs to be in debt, it owes millions upon millions of us a more fair and available chance at economic freedom. .I'm talking to the 1% who only ten years ago I learned one extremely important and valuable lesson. It takes money to make money....How pathetic you would abandon that principle just because you don't like who is sitting in the White House. I am ashamed of big business, yet I would love to own one. I am ashamed of banks, yet I need one... I do not resent wealthy people. I resent greed. I am ashamed at the Republican strangle hold on our country. I am a small business owner and dream the American Dream,.. from the looks of it ,.. bigger and clearer than any Republican I know.. especially the ones I see on T.V. Hey Republicans the secret to success is not always a quantifiable equation. It has to do with intangible pride, and trust in ones self and the spirit to succeed. . Just like I have pride and faith that our nation could do well with a healthy INVESTMENT in its self. I should have a business loan.. just like you need to focus on a thriving ECONOMY,..Free up the banks.. have faith in the people who are loosing faith in you. we are the solution.. not you. the debt you say is killing us is a fat lie.. you know it.. . sincerely; Tom Yarnes a baffled 47%r
And considering that all that money gets borrowed with no intention of repayment, you'd think this would be easy, no?
One point of contention though, if you have a business and borrow money, the idea is to make more money, enough to repay the loan and some profit. When the Govt borrows money, it's just gone never to be seen again.
Oh well, it's free money right?
Tom,
You are speaking waaaaay too much sense for conservatives. I appreciate your story. I had been in a similar situation when I owned a restaurant.
I think most of us here understand this basic truth...
A balanced budget does not create a healthy economy...a healthy economy creates a balanced budget.
Hang in there!
SSDD
Government is not a for-profit business. It never was, never will be. How very, very weird that you think otherwise.
Tom, You have accidentally touched on the reason that the US economy does better when Democrats are in Washington than when republicans are. Democrats understand the concept of investing, of spending money now on something that will make more money in the future.
Conservatives can't wrap their brains around that concept. They focus entirely on the money spent right now, and are incapable of even imagining that the future will provide more money because of the money spent today. They can't see that spending money on creating conditions favorable to production will return more money in the future. While the government isn't in the business of earning a profit, it is in the business of seeing to it that our economy works, and you can't do that with last century's infrastructure, the previous century's education, and the wealth distribution of the century before that.
McCarthy's a Central Valley white dumbass from Bakersfield. How can you expect him to know anything?
It's not that the Congressman isn't aware of this it's that he was on FOX and he doesn't want his constituents to be aware of it...why tell the truth when a lie sounds so much better
Yep, he'd be better off reminding people that every time the Pres does a budget Senate Democrats unanimously vote it down. It's a much better sound bite.
And the difference is that House republicans won't even acknowledge that the White House HAS a budget so they don't have to even vote...
At least the Senate pretends it works for a living
Obama has to beware of falling into a trap Republicans are setting. They're pushing on "deficit reduction," but what they REALLY want is to get rid of the "Big Three"--Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That's why they keep demanding "entitlement reform," even when there are much better routes to cutting the national debt.
Members of parties sincerely interested in reducing the deficit and debt don't push us into two unnecessary wars and finance those on the national credit card, or give huge tax cuts to upper income taxpayers as revenues are falling.
MPGUY,
I am all for entitlement reform. However, I would target Oil Depletion Allowances, Carried Interest, Short Term Capital Gains, Big Agra Subsidies. While Medicaid is an entitlement, it works fairly well, mostly supporting seniors in nursing homes who aren't allowed to own any assets, poor children who need inoculations to go to school, and the permanently disabled.
The insurance policies, SS and Medicare haven't had a rational increase in "premium" ever - what's with the SS cap? Why is Medicare prohibited from negotiating drug prices? We already allow big Pharma to write off 60% of their R&D expenses. Isn't that enough?
McCarthy gives Bakersfield a bad name. They are better than him.
" I bet you he spends more time filling out his March Madness brackets than he does writing a budget."
Does the Congressman know that a president does actually physically write the budget? That is what advisers are for.
"President Obama has produced -- and continues to produce -- a budget every year. Congress gets plenty of copies, and if Kevin McCarthy lost his, the whole thing is always posted online. How is it that a member of the House leadership isn't aware of this?"
He's not the only one; every time I turn around another Republican is saying that the president has not produced a budget on time in five years. There's even a petition ("no budget, no pay"--http://hq.nolabels.org/page/s/031513-p) that would cut the president's pay if he doesn't publish a budget by Feb. 15.
Sounds like the usual word games the Rs always do.
And their "followers" lap it up like good little pooches. Only most pooches are usually much more adorable than some of these trained guard/attack dogs for the upper incomes.
Lots of the pooches don't even know that the bones they get tossed don't have any meat for them, but they ate the steak and left nothing but a dry bone. But they get their ears rubbed and beg for more.
Been forced to watch the CPAC ongoings since there is no "informative" news on any other station, and it strikes me, and I hope a massive number of others that Democrats are taking a lot of uppercuts on the chin and bashing all over their collective body! What I want to know is when are the liberals going to stand up for their Democratic ideology and be proud to be liberals. And give the Republican thugs equal and reciprocated whack's back? I'm tired of Obama being denigrated by the likes of the mentally deficient racist Palin and vacuous Bachmann and the same scripted other zombie TeaPartiers!
Rachel,
Hope to hear you speak about this in a future show.
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