Those wicked Tea Party folks. Thank goodness for Mark Mardell’s exposure of their fiscal simple-mindedness here. You see they seem to believe that Government should not spend what it does not have and were THAT not bad enough they seem to hold the outrageous view that political representatives should stick to what they promise. Helpfully, urbane Mark is able to excoriate their wacky lunacy and when they claim that THEY are “the only adults in the room” he is on hand to point out that those viewing the US from abroad (Namely himself and other enlightened BBC liberal sophisticates) see them as children. Talk about throwing the toys out of the pram, eh Mark? Obama is running the USA to the edge to fiscal peril in order to secure electoral benefit during his election year. His calamitous stewardship of the economy is sanitised by the BBC and the idea is being projected that it is ALL the fault of the Tea Partiers.
MARDELL UPDATE
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“North America editor Mark Mardell examines the “ideological chasm” which is hindering economic progress.”
A typically unbised comment by the BBC. Clearly they know what’s good for the US, if only the BBC were incharge of US economic policy, everything would be alright.
If only the BBC were incharge of UK economic policy, everything would be alright. Sadly all they can do is their very best to influence economic policy or influence those who influence economic policy.
Thank goodness for the BBC because Auntie always knows best – she reads the Guardian after all.
I hadn’t realised until Mark told me that it was only the Republicans/Tea Party who were being intransigent.
Not strictly (or at all) the subject of this thread but apropos of the photo illustrating this posting what a nice idea that would be for the majority in this country.
I listened fascinated while a holder of a British passport, living here for 6 years – a Rashida Chapti – was interviewed on Today through an interpreter. Apparently Rashida wants her husband to join her here despite the fact that he has no intention of learning English. AFAIAA Rashida hasn’t learnt English either although the Today interviewer was too polite to mention that fact. Dominic Raab was treading on eggs to defend the policy of having immigrants acquire a knowledge of English before they’re allowed to settle here but also failed to comment on Rashida’s language . . er . . difficulty. And Raab is, I’m sure, viewed as “far right” by the BBC.
Mardell is stuck in a groove. He pretends that his reporting on the Tea Party is to give background colour.
This chart is the true “background colour”. Calamitous increases in US debt.
I keep hearing that the US now has to borrow 40 cents on every dollar it spends. With total debt fast approaching 100% of GDP – a Greece situation. But we NEVER hear these basic fiscal facts from the BBC.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/07/some-facts-about-the-debt-limit.php
It now looks as though the revised Boehner Repub bill will pass the House – throwing down the gauntlet to the Senate. While President JellO sits impotently in the wings.
Mardell is wrong – it is not the Tea Party that has brought the US to this situation, it is Obama’s failure of leadership. Even leftie comedians like Jon Stewart are openly critical of President NoPlan.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/27/stewart-did-the-president-just-quit/
David Prieser has nailed this monkey-but Bateson did not include it!
That the greasy syrupy Mardell dares to spout forth on the US and its deficit/debt is a real embarrassment…who but Justin would give this bloke houseroom?
Still the BBC are determined to make a sows pinna from a sows ear…Mardell knows NOTHING apart from what his Beltway cronies-refugees from reality-are telling him to say.
We need a Tea Party here-and the likes of Mardell add to the number who despise him and all that the BBC parrots as “comment” these days.
Go straight to Marx, Gramsci and Monnet-cut out the BBC-and you`ll get all that they stand for!
Some more charts showing the horrific growth in US debt, the way that spending has leapt ahead of revenues forcing borrowing, and the way welfare entitlement programmes have “Growed like Topsy” :
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/27/who-owns-the-debt-ceiling-issue-again/
When a BBC TV presenter is let off the leash and does not even have to pretend to be impartial – here’s the result, direct insults to Boehner and the Repubs from Martin Bashir on MSNBC :
http://bigjournalism.com/pjsalvatore/2011/07/27/martin-bashir-to-john-boehner-go-the-fck-to-sleep/
They are tryuing to get down to ous standards, fortunately they have a Constitution which clearly states what the executive can or cannot do. It also seems as if they have some politicians who know the Constitution and can add up. Oh for some like that here!
As always, everything is seen through the prism of The Obamessiah. They hate Him and the debt equally, intones Mardell, as if hating the President somehow discounts the concern about the debt. That’s his personal bias showing. Imagine a Beeboid trying to scare you about those people who were marching in the last round of protests against the Tory budget cuts by saying that they hate both the Conservative Party and Cameron equally. It’s ludicrous on its face when put that way.
Did anyone else notice that James Harris, the radio guy we hear talking, is a black man? Is he a racist now? If in a few months’ time Mardell and the other Beeboids are back to telling you that the impetus for antagonism against the President is racism, you’ll know it’s a lie.
So the real problem is that the Tea Party got rid of some moderate Republicans? Hey BBC: the only reason the ratings agencies haven’t already trashed our credit rating is because they’re holding out hope that the Tea Party-influenced Republicans will fix things. And at least one of them – probably Moody’s – will lower the credit rating to AA anyway, because it’s not going to be possible to pass a deal that will cut enough expenditure over the next few years to save it.
And that exposes Mardell’s ignorance, and that he doesn’t actually understand the economic situation, he doesn’t understand what Moody’s and S&P have actually been saying. Instead of talking to his mates at the Washington Post and other Leftoid media, he ought to have been talking to real business leaders and economists not named Paul Krugman or Stephanie Flanders. The result of his ignorance and willful political blindness is that the Today Programme has brought someone in to lie to you about what’s going on.
He brings up Michelle Bachman, and there’s that Tea Party “darling” again. When was the last time any Beeboid called someone on the Left a “Democrat darling”, or “Labour darling” or anything of the sort. They wouldn’t. This is editorializing from Mardell, revealing a specific personal attitude.
“Purity and intransigence”. “Purity” is an alarm word. Racial purity, ideological purity, etc. Mardell is a propagandist here. What about the President’s intransigence? He vetoed a bi-partisan bill. He tried to force last-second massive tax increases on the deal with Boehner, which is why the Speaker walked away and tried to negotiate with the Senate instead. And what about the fact that the Dems deliberately postponed passing a budget before the last election purely for political reasons? Is that not intrasnigence? Mardell is a liar. There is no other way to say it.
“They’re not grown up, they don’t understand politics, they don’t understand how serious this could be for the whole world.”
Mardell has the gall to say we don’t understand, when his own ignorance is so glaringly obvious, and his own lies betray it?
(Comment continued below due to exceeding the character limit, and I don’t feel like making a separate post about this.)
People in Europe and Britain think this about us? I wonder why? Could it be because the BBC is the foreign branch of the White House press office and is telling you all this every damn day? And the Left-leaning European papers are scarcely different when it comes to reporitng on Republicans? Mardell certainly has been telling you this, and this blog is full of evidence that he and his colleagues are guilty of this propaganda.
Raising the debt ceiling isn’t the actual thing that’s going to save us from the credit ratings drop. A real plan with real, significant spending cuts over the next decade – without kicking the can into 2013, which is what Mardell’s beloved Obamessiah is trying to do – is what’s going to prevent it. Only that’s not likely to happen, because Democrat intransigence – and the stubborn anger of the President who won’t sign it – will prevent enough cuts to get things right. The bi-partisan deal the President rejected and Boehner’s offering – not to mention Cut, Cap, and Balance, which the Senate Dems rejected – won’t be enough. And Mardell refuses to acknowledge this, and instead lies to you on the BBC’s flagship radio news programme.
The other thing Mardell doesn’t want you to know (there are so many things I’ve lost count by now) is that the President actually has the authority to selectively pay bills (well, I think techinically He can instruct the Treaury to do it outside the legal framework of the debt ceiling) so we don’t default, even without raising the debt limit one single penny. Our credit rating will still be hurt that way, but there won’t be a default, and no apocalypse. Instead, the President is holding the country and the world hostage by trying to force things His way. This isn’t leadership, it’s a failed dictator lashing out at the people.
It’s a disgrace. A real disgrace. Mardell, I mean. And the BBC allows him to do it unchallenged, because they agree with him and believe in Him.
Mardell is telling Sopel right now how awful the Republicans are. Sopel just said that the Dems plan is “twice as big” as the Republicans’ plan, in that it raises the debt celiing more than $2 trillion, while supposedly reducing spending by the same amount. I’ll believe that when I see it.
Mardell said that a Tea Party member “gleefully” told him that they have “a bayonet in Boehner’s back”. Then he says that only the Dems have giving back a lot in these negotiations, and that the Republicans just want this nasty fight again before the election, as if the President wanting to kick the can down the road AGAIN is nothing.
And as ever, he and Sopel – and by extension, BBC News producers – don’t actually understand that none of this is going to stop the agencies from lowering the US credit rating. Only something that tells them we’re really serious about lowering the debt over the next few years will do that. None of this does.
Easy to read info re USA budget etc: has America defualted…
http://hasamericadefaulted.com/
Mardell’s latest post to accompany his lies and propaganda on Today and elsewhere:
US debt: Should Obama believe Congress can compromise?
What compromise? What the hell is he talking about? The only concession the President has begrudginly given is not raising even more taxes and spending even more. And He’s the one who is running around telling everyone that we need to do something about the debt. Nothing He has done or said or offered lowers the debt, other than the drop in the ocean of His class war tax increase demands.
Mardell is so wrong, so biased, so ideologically blinded it’s sickening.
Some new business Beeboid actually admits that the US credit rating may get lowered anyway, even if a deal is reached. At last.
The only problem is the same Narrative as Mardell and the rest of them are telling.
President Barak Obama and the Republican controlled House of Representatives both agree the US needs to borrow less in the future – they just disagree on how.
Yeah, the President wants to borrow less by…er…borrowing more. Hello? Is anyone home?
David Preiser
First – thank you again for all your inputs to this website. Time and time again, events have shown that you tell the truth – and the wider picture, the context, whereas the BBC just spins the White House/WaPo/NYT/LATimes/Huffpo talking points.
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I would imagine that Mardell is now being paid approaching £200K a year. And the BBC US “news” operation – just the “reporting” back to the UK, not the US TV channel, is probably costing us £2 million a year including staff overheads, pensions etc.
Whereas for FREE – you give us the real news. (I have followed US politics since the Kennedy election in 1960 – I hope I help out)
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I agree with your line that we would do better for having a US news-aggregation service for UK afficionados – it would save £2 million or more a year.
Indeed – that is not a bad idea for a website. “Best of US news” or somesuch. For UK people but also for the many US citizens who work in the UK. Possibly remunerative. It would not be too hard to frame the plan – but it would need day-by-day editing – not flippertygibbits like me who are always off travelling.
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There are so many things in your posts above. But the key point IMHO is that UNLESS the US settles on a SERIOUS PLAN TO CUT OVERSPENDING it will get a downgrade by Moody’s, SandP etc.
It is simply not enough to pass some stuff by 2 August, legislating an increase in the debt limit. The agencies want real evidence that the budget will be forcefully controlled.
On this – my reckoning is that the House and the Senate will reach a muddy compromise. Damn all cuts this year and next, just promises for future cuts.
Promises that mean nothing – today’s Congress cannot control the post-2012 Congress.
So – whatever deal is fixed for the 2 August deadline, it will have the benefit of no tax hikes, Obama will be forced to swallow it, people will think the current crisis is over. But the agencies could still downgrade US debt.
If I was an agency – I would have downgraded it already.
Actually, three of the lesser-known agencies already have.
Meet 3 Ratings Agencies That Have Already Downgraded the U.S.
Even the Chinese one is right.
The BBC is having a collective mental breakdown trying to spin the democrat created debt ceiling crisis. The BBC are tying themselve into al sorts of knots trying desperately to blame the Republicans now. It seems that the Republicans are split and divided(favourite BBC attack) with a minority of extreme right wing rebel holdouts attacking their leadership. Here are some whacked out beeboid fantasies.
“President Barack Obama supports another plan by top Senate Democrat Harry Reid, which would cut $2.2tn from deficits, and raise the debt ceiling by $2.7tn.”
So here we have the supposed democrat plan, Obama wants a whopping three trillion dollars to ensure his re election and you can bet he will have spent that before 2012. And the fantasy bollocks of cutting the deficit by two trillion is a joke because it is in fact an aspiration not concrete cuts because what the democreeps have done is make up fantasy growth figures and made up efficiency savings, it wont work out like that in real life.I am surprised they didnt factor in the tooth fairy or a soon to be invented magic wand.
In reality, a reality the BBC does not want anyone to know, the democreeps have no intention whatsoever of cutting anything. Obama wants that three odd trillion bucks to build his new socialist state and he will say anything, tell any lie, get his bought off MSM stooges to spin any line to get it.
John Sessions sums up the whole situation. (Isn’t the BBC paid to do that, rather than playing the White House spiel ?
And as he says – the Tea Party didn’t start the fire – they simply raised the alarm.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/28/tea_party_didnt_start_this_fire_they_sounded_the_alarm.html
Sessions seems to have read my posts. 😉
Senate Democrats Promise to Reject Boehner Plan
Fifty-three Democratic senators have signed a letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner saying they intend to vote against his plan for an increase in the debt ceiling, virtually assuring its defeat in the Senate even as the speaker lines up Republican votes to pass it in the House on Thursday.
Who’s being intransigent again? Who’s compromising again?
I see that’s a BBC link…oh, hang on, no it’s not. Nor will it ever be unless they edit it somewhat:
“More than 50 Democrat senators strive to avoid Republican plan to ‘put America at risk'”
“You see they seem to believe that Government should not spend what it does not have and were THAT not bad enough they seem to hold the outrageous view that political representatives should stick to what they promise”
OH HOW NAIVE THESE SIMPLE FOLK ARE
GUFFAW, GUFFAW, GUFFAW.
David Preiser (USA) Can you do me a favour? I am reading how the House has finally passedBoehner plan but then Democrat led senate immediately chucked it out, right? So how does Mardell come to this conclusion?
“He says the Republican’s plan has no chance of becoming law. It’s odds on the president won’t have to veto it, as the Tea Party seems to have done the job for him. He’s again urging people to tweet, ring, email their members of Congress and push them to reach a deal.”
My emphasis…what ahs the Tea Party done, held guns to the heads of democrat senators? I don’t understand.
Mardell is telling you that the Tea Party-backed Republicans deliberately tanked their own plan by not raising the debt limit EVEN MORE. Mardell is a far-Left ideologue when it comes to economics, and fervently believes that we need to borrow even more money to pay bills. He’s put that in writing and said it on air more than once.
We don’t need to borrow more money to keep from defaulting. The President said so Himself yesterday, and even the BBC broadcast it over and over. We need to reduce spending dramatically instead. But the President and the Dems want more money to pay for even more entitlements and subsidies for their Socialist agenda. That’s why they want the money, and that’s why they’ve refused to write their own budget for the last two years, and it’s why they want to kick this can down the road until 2013.
Mardell is a disgrace.
As for that Twitter campaign, it started due to advice given to the White House by a New York Times “journalist“. Subsequently, the Washington Post sent out the hashtag, and then the White House spammed the hell out of His followers so much that 36,000 of them un-followed Him yesterday.
Idiots. Don’t trust the NY Times or WaPo, either, when it comes to the President and partisan politics. They are in thrall to Him, and will be until after the next election. Just like the BBC.
Thanks for that, it was just that I couldn’t believe the BBC would [continue to] publish outright lies yet they do. >:o
It’s not a lie if he believes what he’s saying. It’s just blatant ideological bias, uncontrollable, incorrigible, and unrelenting. He has lied elsewhere, but here I think Mardell is just a partisan hack spouting his political beliefs rather than reality.
All at your expense.