{"id":1936368,"date":"2023-05-23T21:30:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T01:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corporate-medias-coverage-of-the-debt-limit-fight-is-intolerably-dishonest\/"},"modified":"2023-05-23T21:36:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T01:36:35","slug":"corporate-medias-coverage-of-the-debt-limit-fight-is-intolerably-dishonest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corporate-medias-coverage-of-the-debt-limit-fight-is-intolerably-dishonest\/","title":{"rendered":"Media&#8217;s debt-limit coverage is dishonest."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcorporate-medias-coverage-of-the-debt-limit-fight-is-intolerably-dishonest%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1936368&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Joe Biden&#8217;s Debt Ceiling Negotiations: Myth vs. Reality<\/h2>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>According to Politico\u2019s White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire, \u201cJoe Biden has prioritized deal-making throughout the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mccarthy-took-social-security-cuts-off-the-table-in-debt-ceiling-talks-but-its-still-third-rail-in-politics\/\" title=\"McCarthy Took Social Security Cuts Off the Table in Debt Ceiling Talks, but It\u2019s Still Third Rail in Politics\">debt ceiling talks<\/a>. But with GOP obstinate, Biden is changing tactics.\u201d But wait, what is he talking about? Just last month, Lemaire\u2019s publication reported that Biden was \u201chappy to meet\u201d with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy but \u201cnot on whether or not the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/moderate-democrats-white-house-resist-calls-to-eliminate-filibuster\/\" title=\"Moderate Democrats, White House resist calls to eliminate filibuster\">debt limit<\/a> gets extended. That\u2019s not negotiable.\u201d That doesn\u2019t sound like someone who\u2019s \u201cprioritized deal-making\u201d on the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s position was widely known and defended. A slew of columns from Democrats like Dan Pfeiffer, an advisor to Barack Obama, laid out why Biden shouldn\u2019t negotiate with Kevin McCarthy. Lefty reporter Ronald Brownstein attempted to rationalize the \u201cLogic Behind Biden\u2019s Refusal to Negotiate the Debt Ceiling\u201d\u2014 which, not that long ago, was called \u201cobstructionism\u201d or \u201cnihilism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in February, it was McCarthy who invited Biden to sit down. The president kept promising he would not negotiate, presumably to apply pressure by scaremongering voters about a potentially ruinous default. And that was Biden\u2019s prerogative. However, the idea, as Lemire would have you believe, that the president has shown a \u201creluctance to play hardball\u201d is a complete myth.<\/p>\n<p>Biden is no Henry Clay. This is a president who\u2019s shown no qualms about abusing executive power \u2014 even now, threatening an unconstitutional plan to use the 14th Amendment to pay off debt. This is a president who recently crammed through the most expensive reform bill in history, using reconciliation and without a single vote from Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>So while we can\u2019t bore into the souls of the participants and expose their true feeling about a potential default, the fact is that the only people in that entire conversation who have already passed a hike to the debt limit are House Republicans. Democrats could just sign off on it if they wanted. No default.<\/p>\n<p>No one, of course, expects Democrats to unilaterally surrender. But media always covers negotiations over spending as if the organic center, the endpoint, the only reasonable place to be, stands not between the desires of two competing political parties or two competing branches of government but rather wherever Democrats happen to reside.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike many reporters, Lemire at least acknowledges, however begrudgingly, that Republicans have already hiked the debt ceiling. \u201cMcCarthy,\u201d he notes, \u201cmanaged to narrowly pass his GOP spending bill in late April\u201d \u2014 as if everything in DC, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corporate-medias-coverage-of-the-debt-limit-fight-is-intolerably-dishonest\/\" title=\"Media's debt-limit coverage is dishonest.\">massive \u201cinflation reduction act<\/a>,\u201d weren\u2019t \u201cnarrowly\u201d passed. The rest of the piece, like so many others, is strewn with mythology \u2014 \u201cBiden and his team had been buoyed by their belief that a consensus building approach\u201d are words that appear in this piece. All of it is so lazy and transparent, and insufferable.<\/p>\n<h3>Debt Ceiling Negotiations: The Reality<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The ceiling was passed to control government debt. That\u2019s why it exists.<\/li>\n<li>Those who demand reforms are no more taking hostages than those who demand unfettered spending.<\/li>\n<li>The left proposes raising a bunch of taxes. The right proposes rolling back spending to levels from a year ago.<\/li>\n<li>Reasonable people can disagree about who\u2019s right.<\/li>\n<li>The default position of the Washington press corps seems to be that anything other than an automatic hike \u2014 a \u201cclean\u201d bill \u2014 is some kind of attack on democracy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Just ask Jeff Stein, the Washington Post econ reporter, who notes that progressives and Democrats are concerned about a \u201cBiden-McCarthy deal that they fear rewards the GOP for taking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-government-reaches-debt-limit-treasury-begins-extraordinary-measures-to-avoid-default\/\" title=\"Federal Government Reaches Debt Limit - Treasury Begins \"Extraordinary Measures\" to Avoid Default\">debt limit hostage<\/a>.\u201d Or even better, \u201c\u2018Debt-Limit Terror\u2019 Is No Way to Run a Superpower,\u201d says Susan Glasser.<\/p>\n<p>David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abandoned-all-pretense-of-being-conservative-jonah-goldberg-joins-cnn-as-a-commentator-social-media-erupts\/\" title=\"\u2018Abandoned All Pretense Of Being Conservative\u2019: Jonah Goldberg Joins CNN As A Commentator, Social Media Erupts\">nationally syndicated columnist<\/a>, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/chuck-schumer\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Chuck Schumer<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/kevin-mccarthy\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Kevin McCarthy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/mitch-mcconnell\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Mitch McConnell<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/w \n<br \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico&#8217;s White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire reports that Joe Biden has focused on deal-making during the debt ceiling negotiations, but is now changing tactics due to GOP resistance. However, last month, Lemire&#8217;s publication stated that Biden was willing to meet with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1936369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[3711,17223,16285,8250],"class_list":["post-1936368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-coverage","tag-debt-limit","tag-dishonest","tag-medias"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1936368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1936369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1936368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1936368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1936368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}