Glenn's Beck outrage will not be dissuaded by facts
August 11, 2010 8:39 pm ET by Christine Schwen
Glenn Beck devoted almost the entire first segment of his show to his outrage over the passage of the Educations Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act, proving that he can manufacture outrage out of thin air, and clearly demonstrating why he should not be trusted to factually report on, well, anything, really.
Beck's problem with the bill, which provides $26 billion to states to help them preserve teacher jobs and pay for Medicaid, is that Washington won't admit that they have a problem with spending. He declared that the day Washington politicians admit they have a problem with spending will be "the day that monkeys fly out of my butt."
Then, showing the national debt on screen, Beck chillingly suggested that in passing bills like this one, Washington will "make our children a slave" to debt. He later claimed that "American taxpayers, you, had to shell out another 26 billion dollars" in order save the teachers' unions that won't make concessions:
Twenty-six billion dollars would be a lot to add to this year's deficit, except that this bill doesn't add to the deficit. In fact, as the Boston Globe reported, according to "an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion over a decade."
How did the bill manage to provide $26 billion in state aid while reducing the deficit? By closing tax loopholes, and ending the increased aid to the food stamp program provided by the stimulus bill. Minutes later, Beck complained about some of those very same cuts that help the bill reduce the deficit:
So, Beck spent more than 20 minutes ranting about the cost of a bill that reduces the deficit. Even his ridiculous accents and shock-jock like stunts are more believable this manufactured outrage.
Just kidding.
So the whole concept of PROVABLE FACTUAL INACCURACY is utterly irrelevant to you? That, quite frankly, does more to discredit anything you say than your ideology ever will. But I guess you're just following in the footsteps of Beck who said (and I AM quoting) "You've got to believe in SOMETHING... even if it's wrong".
Hah! No proof needed when you have the correct ideology, now that is a real classic!
That's like saying "Scientists repeat factual talking points, and Creationists repeat mythological talking points. How can the scientists correct them when the Creationists are on your side of the debate?'"
You seem to be getting stupider all the time.
Wow such modesty. I wish i could be more like you.
Remember the Tea Party motto: "Socialism for me and not for thee."
So, Glenn, as I think I've asked some conservatives before, you're talking about the State governments turning down this money (which would be utterly stupid, but then again, look who is pushing this), I ask you sir, will you stand by your convictions?
Such as, Glenn, stop using ALL resources that are provided to you through federal monies. A small list would be, local police (receive a lot of federal funding), the roads, the fire department, flying anywhere, driving on interstates, and so on and so forth.
The reality is that these components of this bill are not an integrated hole that cannot be separated. No, they are a but of distinct pieces that were simply packaged together in a creative way so that the Dems and their mouthpieces in the media and places like Media Matters for Democrats could trumpet that the bill reduces the deficit and be technically accurate. However, intellectual honesty would compel you to note that, since these pieces could easily stand alone without any single one of the other pieces, that the bill reduced the deficit is a misdirection. The reality is that this is new spending that bails out public employee unions with no integrated way to pay for it. If you were in an accounting class and matched this revenue to these costs, the professor would give you a big fat F. But in Washington, you do whatever it takes to spin things so you can spend, spend, spend on those that are on your side. This is known as buying votes with our tax dollars.
So, once again, MMFD is wrong. Beck sees through this smoke screen and points out the intellectually honest reality behind the spin. Granted, he has an element of entertainment and did offer a dry analysis as above, but, despite MMFD's bluster, he is pretty much dead on in his analysis. No surprise.