Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.
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Republicans need the political press to do a lot of bad journalism in order to carry out their strategy of forcing through devastating spending cuts by leveraging the prospect of a calamitous default on U.S. debt. They need political journalists to produce wishy-washy “both sides” coverage that hides the party’s ultimate culpability and shields it from blame. And the latest coverage from The New York Times shows that their plan may already be working.
It shouldn’t be difficult to acknowledge that Republicans will be the ones at fault if the U.S. breaches the statutory limit on federal borrowing in June. Members of Congress of both parties routinely voted for clean debt limit hikes during Donald Trump’s presidency, which also saw record debt increases. But with Joe Biden in the White House, GOP leaders startedsaying last fall that they would require significant spending cuts – including to Social Security and Medicare – alongside further debt limit increases if their party won the House.
After they gained a narrow majority, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reportedly pledged “to not raise the debt limit without major cuts” to secure the speakership. The party’s right-wing media allies are loudly cheering them on. House Republicans could, at any time, vote to prevent a global economic catastrophe, but they are refusing to do so unless Democrats give them something else they want.
And yet, here’s how the Timeshandled the GOP’s ransom demand in Friday’s The Morning newsletter:
The bad news: Democrats and Republicans are divided. House Republicans say they want to use a debt-limit increase — and the threat of default — as leverage to cut government spending. Top Democrats have likened the Republican stance to a hostage-taking situation. The sides can’t agree even on whether to negotiate.
Both sides, per the Times, apparently share the blame: The Republicans who are taking the global economy hostage, and the Democrats who are saying that Republicans are taking the global economy hostage rather than just paying their price.
That’s not the only such false equivalency in the piece. The Times put Republican hostage-taking when it controls a house of Congress and Democrats are in the White House alongside a protest vote Biden took as a senator in 2006, when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. From the piece:
But that has changed over the past three decades. Republicans, in particular, have used the passage of bills increasing the limit as leverage to try to force spending cuts on Democratic administrations. Democrats, too, have used it as a political tool: In 2006, Joe Biden, then a senator, joined his Democratic colleagues in opposing a debt ceiling increase to protest the cost of tax cuts and the Iraq war.
The Times added:
A crucial ingredient in this brinkmanship is divided government. Raising the debt ceiling is less of a problem when the same party holds power in both chambers of Congress and the White House. But when the government is divided, it makes the current scenario possible: A Republican-controlled House threatens to block a debt-limit increase that Democrats who control the Senate and White House would like to pass.
But the problem isn’t divided government per se – Democratic Congresses have no issue raising the debt ceiling when a Republican is in the White House, as was the case in 2007-2008 and 2019-2020. The problem is that when the government is divided with Republicans in control of Congress and a Democrat in the White House, the Republicans engage in this reckless behavior.
If Republicans really want to slash spending – including for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – that’s their right. There’s nothing preventing the party from spending the next two years talking about their plans in hopes of winning the White House and Senate and then executing them. Indeed, there’s nothing preventing them from spending the next two years talking about “critical race theory” and girls’ sports in hopes of winning the White House and Senate and then springing their plans on the public.
But they don’t seem interested in trying that, presumably for the same reason that unified Republican governments under Presidents Trump and George W. Bush didn’t lead to massive spending cuts – those cuts would be incredibly unpopular and would likely destroy the party’s political standing.
Instead, the GOP plan for cutting spending is to try to force the Democrats to agree to (maybe even propose) the cuts as the price to avert global economic catastrophe. That sounds insane when you write it out, so a big part of the strategy is trying to prevent the press from doing so. The party’s leaders and its propagandists are busy working the refs.
\u201cDemocrats:\n\n-Want to raise the debt ceiling \n-Refuse to cut spending \n-Use the media to blame Republicans\u201d— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Rep. Jim Jordan) 1674170558
\u201cPresident Biden will not negotiate w/Republicans on raising debt limit in June --rejecting the approach of President Obama when Biden's-then boss was facing the same situation. @thehill. Biden counting on legacy media providing covering fire for him is irresponsible gamesmanship\u201d— Hugh Hewitt (@Hugh Hewitt) 1674211313
There’s no good reason for journalists to do their dirty work.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.
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Rep. Michael McCaul
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On Sunday's edition of This Week, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) defended House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for placing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on the Homeland Security and Oversight Committees, despite her history of peddling conspiracy theories about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
ABC moderator Martha Raddatz asked McCaul:
I want to ask you a very quick question about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was removed from all congressional committees in 2021. Now she will sit on Homeland Security and the Oversight in the new Congress. She doubted 9/11. She doubted a plane hit the Pentagon. She later apologized for that, but she said that in 2018. Should she be on that Committee? You were on that Committee.
At first, McCaul deflected:
I chaired the Committee. These conspiracy theories that people go down, I disagree with this. I'm having to debunk this. This one was a worse violation. 9/11 was not a hoax. It was carried out by al Qaeda. There's no question in my mind.
Raddatz pressed him again:
Should she be on the Committee?
McCaul gave Greene the benefit of the doubt:
On anybody that says that, this is 2018? I will tell you, she has matured. I think she realizes she doesn't know everything and she wants to learn and become, I think, more of a team player. I think it's incumbent upon more senior members to try – look, she's a member of Congress – to try to bring her in and try to educate her that these theories that she has are not accurate.
Raddatz tried a third time for a straight answer:
Would you rather have seen a different choice?
McCaul refused to say either way:
I'm not the chair of that Committee, and I'm not the speaker either.
Raddatz called him on it and ended the interview:
Nice try there. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Goodbye.
Watch below or at this link.
\u201cAsked on ABC if he's okay with 9/11 Truther Marjorie Taylor Greene serving on the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul claims "she has matured."\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1674403943
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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