Giving Context To A Week Of Budget Conversation On Cable TV

OutOfContext.comFeb 5th, 2010, 2:45 pm

• “The deficit for the budget year (2011) is projected to reach a record $1.56 trillion. The President, who inherited $1.2 trillion of that from his predecessor, saying his priority (is) getting and keeping the economy on track.” (Countdown with Keith Olbermann – 2/1/10)

This week, President Obama released his record setting budget for 2011 and the blame game continued shortly after. Keith Olbermann tried to present the numbers in an impartial manner, but immediately tried to blame the mess on President Bush. He slips #43 into the conversation, but the animosity is present in his tone. At what point does the Obama administration, or at least the left-wing media, plan to take responsibility for handling the current crisis? Everyone knows that Bush screwed up, but that’s why the people elected Obama. Right now, this country needs to spend its way out of this mess while there is still money to spend. The USA needs more ownership and more answers. There’s never a shortage of opinions, but we have a lot of those too.

• “Mr. President, everybody has a boss and your boss is China.” (The Glenn Beck Program – 2/2/10)

Glenn Beck is up in arms about the national debt, particularly the staggering amount of it that is owed to China. When the government bailed out the banks, Beck was apprehensive because the government inherently gained a certain degree of control over the banks. The greater problem, however, is that the United States government had to borrow this money from China, which has now, according to Beck, given China similar control over the United States. Beck explains that China is not the type of country one would want as their boss, citing China’s export of lead-painted children’s toys and poison dog food. Most alarming to Beck was the White House lowering the priority placed on intelligence collection in China. He believes we may be paying for all this borrowing not only with money, but with our freedom and security. The whole situation has many Americans panicked and missing the good old days when China was merely an ever-present but innocuous purveyor of plastic chotchkes and doodads.

• “How do we know we’re at the point where nobody is going to buy our paper – we’re going into debt, but we’re going so far into debt that people aren’t buying our debt anymore?” (Hardball w/ Chris Matthews – 2/1/10)

Chris Matthews doesn’t hide the fact that he’s a Democrat. Just last week we found out that Matthews likes Barack Obama so much, he doesn’t even remember that he’s black sometimes! On Monday, however, left-winger Chris Matthews had White House resident heartthrob Peter Orszag, from the Office of Management and Budget on his program, and he didn’t hold back. Matthews, like every other American is concerned about the budget and the ever-growing deficit, and he wants answers. He hammered Orszag on the state of the economy, and essentially questioned whether or not the White House knows what they’re doing with America’s money. The American deficit, which is reported as high as $14.3 trillion, is getting so far out of control that even the country’s greatest allies are beginning to stop offering support. Not long ago, the United States economy was like the New York Yankees; a juggernaut which saw occasional setbacks but could continually rise from the ashes and compete with any foe. These days, the economy is more like the Washington Nationals; disorganized, underachieving, and at the end of the day, showing little sign of any immediate change.

•“The paradigm and the entire economy (the bankers) believed in was fictitious, it was razzle-dazzle, and we are now back on our heels. President (Obama) needs to go to China like a high school student asking for his allowance.” (Eliot Spitzer, The Colbert Report – 2/2/10)

Eliot Spitzer is known for two things: his crack downs on malfeasance in the financial sector and his affinity for high priced prostitutes. Given the current state of the economy, there may soon be a dramatic increase in both of these. Spitzer, who seems to be slowly clawing his way back into the public’s good graces, joins the list of people wary of our nation’s increasing debt to China. He has been critical of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and senior adviser Larry Summers. Just as he blames bankers for creating the economic problems our country faces, Spitzer also blames the flawed policies of Geithner and Summers, for not righting these problems. Spitzer criticized them for giving bailout money to banks without demanding the banks change any of their policies and practices. Bonus points to “The Spitz” for describing the economy as “Razzle-Dazzle”, which was the one-time stage name of Ashley Dupre.

•“Unemployment was racing out of control faster than a Toyota Camry through your grandmother’s garage door.” (The Colbert Report – 2/3/10)

National debt and car accidents do not necessarily provide the most hilarious subject matter, but somehow Stephen Colbert was able to combine them into a satisfying topical joke. Due to various issues causing unwanted acceleration, Toyota has recalled over four million vehicles in 2010. The out of control speed of these Toyotas drew an easy comparison to soaring unemployment rates by Mr. Colbert. We have been hit by one of the fastest increases in job loss in American history. In just five months, unemployment shot up a full two points from 7.4% in December to 9.4% in May. At this point, all we can hope is that President Obama’s economic policies can stop our runaway economy better than Toyota has been able to stop their runaway cars.

• “(The Obama administration) believes it can run up a massive debt and somehow pay for it all down the road, primarily by raising taxes.” (The O’Reilly Factor – 2/2/10)

The Federal budget for 2011 will add $1.3 trillion to the national debt, and Bill O’Reilly is not happy about it. The United States already owes $13 trillion, with the interest on this debt amounting to hundreds of billions more every year. The Federal Government will be spending $3.8 trillion in 2011, 35% of which will be borrowed. President Obama cites a need to invest in our countries future, increasing spending to fund green projects which will change how energy is used and how the economy runs, and to rebuild infrastructure. O’Reilly asserts that Obama is merely putting off the inevitable massive tax increases while our increased spending and national debt will come back to haunt us. Essentially, O’Reilly is accusing the President of gambling with America’s future. But as every true gambler knows, you gotta pay to play, you can’t make money unless you spend money, and in matters of national debt and roulette, always bet on black.

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