October 6, 2013


[h/t Heather]

Today's Sunday show theme: Terrorists wrecking our government parade across Sunday shows telling horrible lies while their host looks on with bemused complicity. Evidently they're clinging to their claim that they have no duty to actually correct lies with facts.

This clip features Rand Paul making the fatuous claim that the House has been passing clean continuing resolutions, and default on the nation's debt limit is just no big deal.

His argument is simplistic and stupid. Paul argues that Treasury inflows exceed interest on the debt, so therefore there would be no default. Of course there would be default, because the debt ceiling is a limit on borrowing to pay existing bills, not authorization to service existing debt.

But Savannah Guthrie plays right along with Paul's lying ways, offering him an opportunity to go on and on over the debt and make his case for austerity.

That might be Paul's top lie, but the one that everyone should be screaming about is his claim that clean continuing resolutions have been passing the House. That's just an outright lie and one that screamed to be corrected. Instead, silence.

Interesting sleight of hand there, Rand. By claiming that these piecemeal efforts by the House to duck public criticism for their shutdown of national parks, the WIC program, and more are somehow actually clean continuing resolutions goes down alongside the iconic Three Big Lies.

People aren't that stupid. What we have here is not only a failure to communicate, but a failure of even the most shallow cynical effort to imitate Orwell. We know who is reponsible for the current mess, and we will also know who is responsible if the economy melts down in a few more days.

But where is Savannah Guthrie? Couldn't she Google Jack Lew's letter to Congress warning about the Armageddon coming if the debt ceiling isn't raised? Couldn't she simply point out to Rand Paul that funding national parks is not anything like approving a clean continuing resolution to fund government?

Great job there, MTP. Giving the terrorists a national platform to make their demands was the wrong decision. The right one would be the one where you tell them they need to drop their weapons if they want to live to fight another day.

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