No matter what political beliefs they hold, nearly all parents—99 percent of Republicans, 96 percent of Democrats, and 93 percent of independents—expect their children to go to college, the survey found. That resounding endorsement makes clear that Santorum is all but alone in his opinion that only snobs encourage all kids to go to college. 

With a dragging economy creating a perfect weapon to defeat Obama, why are Republican candidates focusing so much of their time on issues that have no basis in reality?

technipol:

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? 

“We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

It’s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poor’s ”Research Update” — the actual report on what they did and why — published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress — and even the Gang of Twelve — will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis.   Perhaps it’s just lazy — the bullet points at the beginning of the report don’t mention the Republicans or taxes, but instead just say, for example (part of one of six quick bullet-points): 

“[T]he downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges”

In order to figure out that one of the reasons why is that “Republicans in the Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” a hard-working reporter would have to read to page four of the eight-page report.

It’s just too much effort for most reporters? 

Although they do also mention this in the very first sentence of the report: “We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.” (Italics mine)

Or could it be that many reporters — and virtually all of the television talking heads — are themselves relatively high income-earners who don’t relish the idea of higher taxes?

Or could it be that reporters are afraid that if they report the actual language of the S&P Research Report, then Republicans will punish them by denying them “access” — i.e. refusing to show up on their programs — which is the career and show kiss-of-death for radio and TV programs that rely on big-name politicians to work?

I don’t know the reason, but it’s fascinating to see all the huffing and puffing about the S&P downgrade of America’s debt that all seems to be working so hard to avoid mentioning that critical sentence.

Inquiring minds want to know”

—Thom Hartman

Update: This is a pretty sloppy job by Thom Hartman and by me for reblogging it.

Several MSM outlets mention the Republican call-out by the S&P, as Richard Adams at the Guardian corrected me:

Bloomberg 

BBC

Reuters

Guardian

Shame on me for taking Thom at his word and the fact he doesn’t bother to cite specific MSM.

abcnewsradio:

“Mr. President, it is clear that assigning a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed by Congress is a debatable issue, and could be challenged in court. That being the case, our request is that, out of an abundance of caution, you affix your signature to S. 990 by personally re-signing the enrolled bill,” the letter reads. “Furthermore, we ask that you commit to ending the practice of using an autopen to sign bills passed by Congress.”

(Source: abcnewsradioarchive)

logicallypositive:

evilteabagger:

soupsoup:

shortformblog:

• $250billionincrease in deficit over the next ten years if the GOP succeeds in repealing health care reform
• $32million more people would be uninsured, too. Three cheers for repeal! source

» This isn’t according to Congressional Democrats. It’s not according to the White House. No, these numbers come from the third party, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Republicans have cited CBO numbers in the past, too, so this isn’t an example of a biased report coming from a politically-motivated source. It’s just the facts, ma’am.

Deficit spending by three, successive Republican administrations accounts for $9 trillion of the total debt. 82% of our national debt was created by Republican administrations. Anyone who thinks Republicans are interested in lowering the debt have no concept of history.

Nancy Pelosi added over 5 trillion dollars in just 4 years. Well let’s look at the last 3 Republican Administrations shall we? Reagan was the 1st, who had a Democratically controlled House for 6 of the 8 years of his administration, Bush Senior had a democratic House for 4 of his 4 years in office, and during Bush Jr’s presidency the GOP lost their House possession in 2006 (source). If you pay extra attention to that graph you’ll also notice the GOP House that came to power under Clinton was the first GOP House since the 1940s. The House of Representatives plays a much larger role in the deficit because the House of Representatives holds the power of the purse.

anyone who thinks Obamacare is feasable after clearly seeing the budgetary atrocities which are MEDICARE and MEDICAID

The largest run up of debt prior to the past two years was the 2003 to 2006 Republican controlled congress. The point is not that Democrats are absolved of any responsibility, the point is that Republicans are not any different and were just as reckless when they last held power. I can say with a pretty strong degree of confidence that they’re both saying one thing and doing another. History lays this all out but somehow people don’t bother to check facts and instead eat up the rhetoric coming from both parties talking points, parroted by obedient bloggers and partisan controlled news networks.

(Source: shortformblog, via rigatonideology)

shortformblog:

• $250billionincrease in deficit over the next ten years if the GOP succeeds in repealing health care reform
• $32million more people would be uninsured, too. Three cheers for repeal! source

» This isn’t according to Congressional Democrats. It’s not according to…

(Source: shortformblog, via antigovernmentextremist)