Bill O'Reilly has a big problem with any member of Congress who stands up for their principled beliefs -- except for Republicans of course. Democrats who aren't named Ben Nelson aren't true Americans in BillO's world. Yesterday his daily "Talking Points Memo" was directed at the left of Congress and his vitriol was targeted to mostly Bernie Sanders for believing the new tax deal that the House has now rejected.
Bill O'Reilly: "A Gallup poll says 66% of Americans believe President Obama did the right thing by not raising taxes on anyone.
{}Sanders and others like him believe the affluent don't have the right to their own assets; they want the money to impose 'income equality.' Sanders does this in the name of 'social justice,' but if you really want to be honest about it, he's a thief! There's no fairness in seizing assets. So why are we listening to people like Bernie Sanders? Talking Points believes it is time to call these far-left people exactly what they are - harmful to America."
Whenever conservatives in Congress hold up bill after bill with procedural motions and filibusters, literally taking Congress hostage, the O'Reillys of the right are walking on Cloud Nine, especially when legislation that will help working class families is destroyed by his ideologues. But if a left-wing politician makes a stand, they're just "harmful" to America.
O'Reilly also uses very misleading polling done that suggests more Americans wants all the tax cuts extended. In poll after poll, Americans want the Bush tax cuts to go the way of the garbage, but if you leave that part out of a question, the results are skewered to favor an extension of all tax cuts because middle class families need as much help to make ends meet as they can get.
Here's the Gallup poll he cites:
Two major elements included in the tax agreement reached Monday between President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress meet with broad public support. Two-thirds of Americans (66%) favor extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all Americans for two years, and an identical number support extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.
If we have real choices in a poll, the results are much different:
In a survey conducted before Obama and GOP leaders agreed to temporarily extend all Bush-era tax cuts, most Americans (80%) favor preserving at least some of the tax cuts. However, just a third (33%) of Americans say they favor keeping all of the expiring tax cuts; 47% favor keeping just the tax cuts for income below $250,000, while just 11% want to end all of the tax cuts.
Only about one-in-five Democrats (18%) favor keeping all of the tax cuts, compared with 33% of independents and 53% of Republicans.
Only 53% of Republicans are in favor of keeping the Bush tax cuts in place, which to me is an amazingly low number, but Bill doesn't mention that at all.
The Fox push to eliminate the Democratic Party and progressive ideals has been droning on for years, and they are working in overdrive to make sure only conservative principles are cherished. People are angry, but because our media are feckless when they discuss the two parties in Congress, they enable outrageous behavior by a Republican minority party that was kicked out of office in 2008 after they destroyed this country and financial stability around the world. We keep telling you that the right-wing media juggernaut keeps becoming a bigger threat to our democracy like never before. It could alter historical trends for analysts and historians as we move forward in uncharted territory. Look what they were able to do to Clinton while he was in the White House without 24/7 cable.
Bernie Sanders is standing up for his beliefs and should be celebrated. BillO dutifully brought on Bush's Brain, Karl Rove, the architect of American decline to then say stupid stings like this:
To answer the rhetorical question posed in the Talking Points Memo, Fox News analyst Karl Rove explained why we listen to folks like Bernie Sanders. "You have to pay attention to them," Rove said, "because there are so many of them in the Senate.
If that was the case, things would be much different on the Hill. The number "2" is too many of those people for the likes of Karl Rove.
