False Equivalency Watch

It's always good to wake up in the morning with some politics to really get the blood boiling.  Today I was watching Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC, and there was a woman on the show from one of these "budget responsibility" centers (I didn't catch the name of the woman or the organization, and it's not up on the web yet).  They were talking about the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as ObamaCare.

The "responsible" woman made the point that when Republicans took over Congress they passed their tax cuts first and did nothing about the deficit, so Democrats were understandably uninterested in tackling the deficit under their watch.  And she said that the Democrats went ahead and passed health care without concern about the deficit, so Republicans understandably "didn't want to play".

At this point I was screaming at the television.  Fortunately, MSNBC has liberals on its panels to guard against these mushy centrist arguments that become Common Wisdom.  So a man named Starr, who had worked in the Clinton administration, pointed out that the ACA is fully paid for and does not increase the deficit.  He even called the previous statement "false equivalence".

So at least this morning justice was served.  But in how many other forums do these mealy-mouthed and lazy "centrists" do this?

Look, if you want to be honest and still argue from a centrist perspective, I guess you can say that the Republican party has been a terrible steward of responsible budgeting in the past, but that there is real indication that things have changed with the advent of the Tea Party.  I'm not sure I buy it, but it's really the only way to be honest and still give conservatives the benefit of the doubt.  Then, when we look at the 2008 Democratic congress and administration, one can certainly criticize the Keynesian deficit spending they initiated in the form of the Stimulus package.  But when we look at the signature big accomplishment, the ACA, it should be acknowledged that it is paid for.  Criticize the taxes that pay for it, that's fair game, but to call it "fiscally irresponsible" is dishonest.

This is the area in which the Mainstream Media fails us so badly.  And it's where "centrists" fail us too.