Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
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Debt Ceiling? What Debt Ceiling?
Posted: 8/1/11 08:50 PM ET
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Debt Ceiling , Debt Ceiling Agreement , Debt Ceiling Bill , Debt Ceiling Deal , Debt Ceiling Talks , Debt Ceiling Vote , John Boehner Debt Ceiling , Obama Debt Ceiling , Media News
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First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn't mean they're wrong.
They're right about our Debt being a bad thing.
They are right about our Deficit being a bad thing.
They are right about having a balanced budget.
They're even right about taxes (although that really wasn't part of their initial platform exactly).
I've always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny. Especially since we get almost nothing back compared to every other civilized country. Now Hedge-fund guys and other billionaires paying 19 percent is another matter entirely, but that's an issue of tax reform and closing loopholes and no one objects to that. What the Tea Partyers are not correct about is connecting these things to the Debt Ceiling. But you can't really blame them. They didn't know there was one.
How should they know what's what when they, like most of America, look to Cable TV News and Radio Talk Shows as their exclusive sources of information?
When people are looking for a place to point the finger after this disaster or near disaster they should look no further than the Media.
When did their job become spewing out contradictory information 24/7, serving no one except for their aggravatingly plentiful and endlessly annoying advertisers?
All they had to do was have an objective, truly knowledgeable expert available to explain the facts to the general public to help them understand that even though the Tea Party people are saying things that make sense emotionally, the real facts are these -- If the debt ceiling isn't raised, obligations will not be met because this money we're talking about, which we don't have and need to borrow, has already been spent.
And all the Mary Matalins and Rush Limbaughs of the world that are telling us Aug. 2 is a meaningless date, made up by a Left Wing conspiracy, are wrong. You know, wrong. As in let's separate the educated facts from the mindless opinions. As in enough with the so-called balanced reporting already. Tell us the damn indisputable truth!
This time it's the so-called Right mouthing untruths, next week it'll be the Left. Makes no difference to me, I'm a staunch Independent and always have been, does it matter to you who's lying?
As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the Media's power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.
Since we can't have real democracy, or jobs, or a decent wage, or money that has any value, or affordable education, or real health care, or more importantly real health, at least let us have the emotional satisfaction of hating the right people for the right reasons!
The Media has become just another meaningless bureaucratic institution that exists solely for the purpose of keeping the population distracted and diverted by the use of a constant barrage of bad news, intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep us from thinking, acting, and organizing, but mostly to remind us about those starving children in Africa, keeping us grateful that our miserable lives aren't any worse.
