Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said he could explain the problems with the economy in less than 2 minutes, 15 seconds
—and he did it (with illustrations to boot).
But too few Democrats—and almost no media commentators—have countered the mendacious right-wing storyline.
Politico published a piece outlining the vast disparity in the ad war over the debt ceiling. Republican-aligned groups have run over $21.2 mil lion in attack ads highlighting Democrats as irresponsible drivers of the national debt, and elevating the debt ceiling as a top priority. Meanwhile, groups on the left have spent only about $30,000 on ads calling out Republican responsibility for the debt.
In this case Republicans broke the budget, but they are making Democrats own it - as usual.
"How Republicans Screwed the Pooch,"
By Paul Begala Published: July 30, 2011 Newsweek/Daily Beast
There it sits, lonely and forlorn on my shelf. A leather-bound copy of the 1999 Budget of the United States of America. A gift from President Clinton to the folks on his team, it was the first balanced budget in decades.
But it wasn't supposed to be the last. Indeed, experts projected surpluses as far as the eye could see. $5.7 trillion in surpluses, to be exact. The surpluses were so strong that deep into the future—in 2009—the entire national debt was going to be zero. For the first time since Andy Jackson was president, the United States of America would not owe a dime.
It didn't quite work out that way, did it?