Friday afternoon drive time, I had All Things Considered on the car radio when the commentary portion of the show came on. Their normal 'balanced' pairing is E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post with David Brooks of the New York Times. Usually they cancel each other out with Washington insider disagreement, never getting outside the bounds of the narrative that's been set and agreed to by both sides.
Friday was different; both Dionne and Brooks were on vacation. This time the pairing was Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation with Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs. For once the commentary broke out of the standard talking points to give listeners a real choice in the perspectives being offered. If you did not hear it, NPR now has the audio and a transcript up. If you want to hear the stark difference in world views the media obsession with Centrism has largely obscured, you need to see/hear this piece and pass it on. (more)
One of the more distressing elements of the political fiasco taking place in DC is the way the debate has ended up being framed by the Republicans. The White House has done little or nothing to move the Overton Window away from the GOP control of the talking points. Because the Republicans have been able to put themselves over as the ones in control of the agenda, it's largely been Republicans laying out the debate and explaining the issues on their terms in the media. Even supposedly 'liberal fascists' like NPR seem to be letting largely conservative voices dominate the narrative being dictated by the right wing echo machine.
At a time of chronic near 10% unemployment and an economy in stasis, it's all about deficits, long term debt, controlling spending, and reforming entitlements - just what you'd expect when the debate is between conservative Republican positions (like those apparently embraced by the President) and extremist positions like those of the Tea Party. So imagine my shock when I heard this on NPR yesterday from vanden Heuvel:
HEUVEL: What I think is we're witnessing a Washington out of touch with the real economy in this country. We have a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis. And what's so notable about the current plans on the table is how far removed they are from the opinions of most Americans. By overwhelming majorities, Robert, Americans want Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid protected. And the most popular opinions on deficit reduction are raising revenues, raising taxes on millionaires, billionaires.
So I think there's a sense of this country moving in the wrong direction, because this - Washington has been so out of touch. To me, that is the lesson of this past week and that every plan before Congress, and all of these dueling plans - you need a libretto, even political junkies, let alone ordinary Americans need a libretto to follow to follow this astonishingly reckless nightmare inside the Capitol.
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The contrast is even more stark because all Levin did was recite standard conservative boiler plate, completely oblivious to anything outside the DC narrative:
...The missing ingredient from all the talk of deficit reduction this week has been entitlement reform, which has been left entirely off the table. And therefore, tax reform has also been left off the table. But I think this week, we are making toward some deficit reduction and we certainly are looking at a dramatic debt problem in the coming years, a debt problem that's worrying our creditors, that's worrying anyone who is looking at the future of the country's prosperity.
Including the future, of course, of those most in need and those without jobs. And we have to begin to get control of our spending and our deficit and debts. We're going to begin to, I think. Where this is headed is toward a solution that involves statutory spending caps. There's basically agreement on that now. The Reid and Boehner bills both have them, and that is a very good way to begin to control discretionary spending, which is a small part of the problem but an important one.
So I think substantively, we're actually making some significant progress, even if politically it all looks rather ugly.
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Vanden Heuvel's response captures all the things that just aren't on the table or being heard:
But here's the problem, Robert. The way all of this is framed - this toughness and courage - means taking on programs that provide security and dignity for millions of people. Let's just start with reality. Reality is that domestic spending adjusted for inflation and population has not risen since 2000. Tax cuts, unfunded wars, rising health care costs and recession have racked up the deficit. Social Security should not even be part of this discussion because Social Security is in surplus, has contributed nothing to the deficit.
And to what Yuval said, I mean, Medicare actually does a better job controlling costs than the private insurance industry. Yes, health care costs are the leading source of long-term debt projections. The president is right but that's because our health care system is broken. We need to reset the debate in this country because the real deficit we have is the public investment deficit in the short-term.
The best deficit reduction plan is to put people back to work and to boost demand and growth. The GDP figures out today, lousy growth figures, 1.3 percent. We must do better if we're going to have recovery, let alone prosperity.
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Go look at and listen to the whole thing. It's sanity versus insanity, reality versus fantasy - and we're not getting this anywhere else. While you're there, thank NPR in the comments for having Katrina vanden Heuvel on the air, and ask that they have her back, as often as possible. (If you're on Facebook, you can log in that way to leave a comment.)
The odds are that what will emerge from Washington will be a disaster. If voices like vanden Heuvel's had been heard more often in the last 4 years (or at all), we would be in a very different place right now, having a very different discussion.