Senate Republicans Block Bill To Suspend Debt Limit That Would Avert Government Shutdown
WASHINGTON, D.C. A showdown in the U.S. Senate rolls into a new day as the hours tick down towards a deadline to keep the government open.This morning, its back to the drawing board for Democrats after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would suspend the debt limit and avoid a government shutdown.If lawmakers dont reach a deal by Thursday, it could affect millions of workers across the country. ;Despite Republicans blocking a bill
The Difference Between Which News Outlets Republicans And Democrats Trust
Americans are divided by political party on which news sources they trust, according to the latest;Economist/YouGov Poll.;
Most;Republicans trust Fox News,;the only news organization to;receive;a majority of;GOP;support;in the survey.;One-third of Republicans trust The Wall Street Journal, while;one-third are neutral on;whether;the newspaper;is trustworthy. A;quarter ;of Republicans;trust One America News;Network, a;conservative;broadcast organization that has been;elevated;by President;Donald Trump;and the White House in recent months.;
Trump;has;promoted OANN as a;great alternative to Fox News;;though, OANN hasnt usurped the media giant among Republicans overall. About one-third of Fox News viewers trust OANN, compared to 15 percent of Americans overall. OANN is frequently criticized for spreading;disproven conspiracy theories;and misinformation;that President Trump has re-circulated on his Twitter account.;;
Despite this, OANN remains more trusted among Republicans than The Washington Post , The New York Times;, CNN;, and MSNBC;.;A majority of;Republicans actively distrust CNN , MSNBC , and The New York Times ; each;of which are;outlets that have;received;frequent attacks;and threats;from the president;for not providing favorable coverage;to his administration.;;
Two-thirds of Democrats actively distrust Fox News, while 14 percent trust the network. About half ;of Democrats;remain neutral on OANN, though about two in five consider it untrustworthy.;;
Image: Getty;
False Claims About Other Media
CNN’s Jake Tapper
In November 2017, following the 2017 New York City truck attack wherein a terrorist shouted “Allahu Akbar”, Fox News distorted a statement by Jake Tapper to make it appear as if he had said “Allahu Akbar” can be used under the most “beautiful circumstances”. Fox News omitted that Tapper had said the use of “Allahu Akbar” in the terrorist attack was not one of these beautiful circumstances. A headline on FoxNews.com was preceded by a tag reading “OUTRAGEOUS”. The Fox News Twitter account distorted the statement even more, saying “Jake Tapper Says ‘Allahu Akbar’ Is ‘Beautiful’ Right After NYC Terror Attack” in a tweet that was later deleted. Tapper chastised Fox News for choosing to “deliberately lie” and said “there was a time when one could tell the difference between Fox and the nutjobs at Infowars. It’s getting tougher and tougher. Lies are lies.” Tapper had in 2009, while a White House correspondent for ABC News, come to the defense of Fox News when Obama criticized the network for not being a legitimate news organization.
Fox News guest host Jason Chaffetz apologized to Tapper for misrepresenting his statement. After Fox News had deleted the tweet, Sean Hannity repeated the misrepresentation and called Tapper “liberal fake news CNN’s fake Jake Tapper” and mocked his ratings.
The New York Times
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Former Governor And Ambassador Tries To Build Political Friendships In State That Is Expected To Start Gop Nomination Process
WEST DES MOINES, IowaNikki Haley criticized Democratic-controlled Washington on Thursday evening as she outlined her vision for the Republican Party and banked political favors in a key state ahead of a possible 2024 presidential bid.
A critic of former President Donald Trump before becoming his United Nations ambassador for two years, Ms. Haley headlined the Republican Party of Iowas biggest gathering of the year. Her speech to about 500 people, which received a standing ovation at its conclusion, focused more on the current president than his predecessor.
The Tucker Carlson Fans Who Got Vaxxed
I asked vaccinated fans of the Fox News host what it will take to get more Republicans to get their shots.
Late last month, as the Delta variant of the coronavirus filled hospitals across the under-vaccinated South, Tucker Carlson took to his usual perch as the most-watched host on the most-watched cable-news network, just asking questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. Tonight, congressional Democrats have called for a vaccine mandate in Congress, Carlson said, as if flabbergasted by every word. Members and staffers would be required to get a shot that the CDC told us today doesnt work very well and, by the way, whose long-term effects cannot be known.
Carlsons Facebook followers commented eagerly on the video clip, spreading unfounded fears about vaccination among themselves. Completely disappointed in our government, dont believe a word they speak! Will not get the shot! one person wrote. Together, Carlson and his viewers are a placenta and embryo, gestating dangerous ideas and keeping the pandemic alive.
Its no secret that Carlsons audience, and Foxs, are overwhelmingly Republican and right-wing. And in poll after poll, Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to say they have been vaccinated and much more likely to say they definitely wont be vaccinated. The partisan gap in vaccinations has only grown over time.
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State Lawmakers Versus Judges
Last fall, the courts conservatives repeatedly chastised judges who in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic sought to protect voters, for example, by extending deadlines for mailed-in ballots. A judge in the crucial state of Wisconsin said ballots postmarked by election day should be counted even if they arrived a few days late. The Supreme Court disagreed, 5-3, in an October vote.
The Constitution gives state legislatures, not judges, the authority to set election rules, said Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh in Democratic National Committee vs. Wisconsin State Legislature. Legislators can be held accountable by the people for the rules they write or fail to write, they added.
Yet Wisconsin may not be the best example of legislators held accountable by the people. The state assembly districts were drawn to favor Republicans so much that the GOP held 63 of 99 seats after the 2018 election, even though Democrats won a statewide majority and ousted Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
Six months earlier, the Supreme Court had thrown out a lower court ruling striking down Wisconsins election districts as an extreme partisan gerrymander.
Republicans did not invent gerrymandering. Democrats led the way in the past. But when Republicans won big in the 2010 midterm election, they drew election districts to lock in their partys control. When challenged in court, the Supreme Court sided with the states over their voters.
Senate Republicans Block Bill To Avert Government Shutdown And To Extend Debt Limit
WASHINGTON The Senate failed on Monday to pass a key procedural vote to advance the House-passed short-term government funding bill as the deadline to avert a shutdown looms at the end of the week.
The Senate voted 48 to 50 on the procedural motion, with Republicans opposing the stopgap measure because it included an extension of a debt ceiling. Republicans said they were unwilling to support the debt limit increase and are demanding that Democrats take the political heat for the vote.
All Republicans voted in opposition and Democrats supported the measure, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switching his vote to “no” in a procedural move that allows him to call for another vote on the measure.
“It’s one of the most reckless, one of the most irresponsible votes I’ve seen taken in the Senate, and it should send a signal to every family, small business, market watcher, about who in this chamber is in favor of endangering the economic stability of our country,” said Schumer on the Senate floor, following the vote.
Schumer added, “we’ll be taking further action to prevent this from happening this week.”
Even before the vote officially failed, Democrats had begun contemplating fallback options to prevent a shutdown.If this doesnt pass, we must keep government open, said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.
Everybody should be concerned but Marylands a particularly vulnerable state.
Cassidy adds, “We need a clean CR . One without the debt ceiling.”
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Naughty Favours: Matt Gaetz Seeks To Ridicule Allegations He Paid Underaged Girl For Sex
Embattled Republican congressman compares allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor to congressional earmarks
The embattled Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has compared allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor to earmarks, a congressional process by which spending measures beneficial to representatives districts are attached to legislation.
Im being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors, he said, speaking to Republicans in Ohio on Saturday.
Gaetz also said he wanted to be Robin to Jim Jordans Batman.
Jordan is an Ohio representative and hard-right leader in the House, like Gaetz a vocal ally of Donald Trump. He is also dogged by scandal, over his alleged failure to act on sexual abuse by a team doctor when Jordan was a wrestling coach at Ohio state. Jordan denies wrongdoing.
Gaetz is reportedly being investigated for alleged sex trafficking involving an underaged woman, other alleged payments for sex and drug use, and possible influence trading with representatives from the medical marijuana industry.
He denies all wrongdoing and has said he will not resign. But his outlook clouded on Friday when a former associate indicated he would plead guilty in court in Florida on Monday to charges including paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole county tax collector, did not name other men in his plea agreement but he is thought likely to help prosecutors investigating Gaetz.
The Answer: Its All About Fox News
As we all know, Donald Trump isnt the cause of the Republican Partys descent into madness. Hes merely the result of decades of evolution that started when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Rush Limbaugh picked up a microphone, and Newt Gingrich reinvented modern conservatism. But these were just warm-up acts. It wasnt until Fox News was up and running that we started to see permanent changes in the electorate.
Trump took explicit advantage of that by offering the simplest possible fix. The federal government, he said, was full of idiots. It was that simple. Hed appoint smart people who would make commonsense policy and repair everything in a jiffy.
At the same time, he defended Christianity with the power and intensity of a tent revival preacher. Never mind that Trump showed about as much interest in attending church as he did in reading a book. Finally, here was a man who promised that he could revive religion in the public square. White evangelicals almost literally swooned.
And this is likely to get worse. After Brian Stelter, cnns chief media correspondent, recently updated his book Hoax, a history of the relationship between Trump and Fox News, he gave an interview to the New Republic that spoke to this point:
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Trust In News Organizations
Now, thinking broadly about all of the various news organizations you are familiar with, including newspapers, TV and cable news stations, news websites, radio news, and local, national and international news organizations. Which best describes you
Nearly four in 10 U.S. adults who are inattentive to national news say they do not trust any news organizations. That compares with 17% of those who pay a moderate amount of attention to national news and 8% who are highly attentive. Although these data indicate a strong relationship between attention to news and trust in the news media, they cannot shed light on cause and effect. That is, are some people so distrustful of the media that they cannot bring themselves to follow the news, or are people who do not follow the news distrustful because they do not see the media in action?
How Does The Debate Between Democrats And Republicans Stand
For months, Democrats have been calling for a bipartisan approach to raising or suspending the debt ceiling. But Republicans have said Democrats would not have their support.;
On Monday, Democratic leaders announced they are including;the debt ceiling in the stopgap spending bill to keep the government running into December. The move would suspend the debt limit through December 2022, meaning lawmakers would not need to address it until after the midterm election.;
But attempting to tie the debt limit to the government funding legislation, known as a continuing resolution, poses risks for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.;
For Democrats, should the effort fail, it would not only mean challenges for the debt limit but could also result in a government shutdown at the end of the month. Republicans who vote against legislation that combines raising or suspending the debt limit with money risk going on the record as being in favor of a government shutdown. Combined legislation would also force members who are against changing the debt limit to also vote against provisions they do support like disaster relief and money for Afghan refugees.;
After the plan was revealed, Senator Mitch McConnell reiterated raising the debt limit would not receive GOP support, in a release stating Republicans would vote for a clean continuing resolution with money for Afghan refugees and disaster relief but not to raise the debt limit.;
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Americans Main Sources For Political News Vary By Party And Age
Americans turn to a wide range of media outlets for political and election news, but two stand out as especially common sources.
In a late 2019 survey conducted as part of Pew Research Centers Election News Pathways project, Fox News and CNN were named by the largest segments of U.S. adults as their main political news source 16% and 12%, respectively. Six other news outlets NPR, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC, CBS News and The New York Times were named by at least 2% of adults. The sources named by the remaining 51% of U.S. adults resulted in a long tail of more than 50 other individual brands.
The findings are based on a survey conducted from Oct. 29 to Nov. 11, 2019, of 12,043 U.S. adults who are members of the Centers;American Trends Panel.
This examination of Americans main sources for political and election news is based on a survey of 12,043 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 29 to Nov. 11, 2019.
Here are;the questions asked for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.
In addition to asking respondents whether they got political and election news in the past week from each of 30 different sources , respondents were asked in an open-ended question to write in the one main source they rely on most for this news. Researchers grouped responses together by brand: For example, NY Times, NYT and nytimes.com were all counted as indicating The New York Times.
Partisanship in Americans main sources for political news
Theory #: Americans Have Gone Crazy With Conspiracy Theories
Its probably illegal to talk about the American taste for conspiracy theorizing without quoting from Richard Hofstadters famous essay, The Paranoid Style in American Politics. It was written in 1964, but this passage about the typical conspiracy monger should ring a bell for the modern reader:
He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, the quality needed is not a willingness to compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Nothing but complete victory will do.
Or how about this passage from Daniel Bells The Dispossessed? It was written in 1962:
The politics of the radical right is the politics of frustrationthe sour impotence of those who find themselves unable to understand, let alone command, the complex mass society that is the polity todayInsofar as there is no real left to counterpoise to the right, the liberal has become the psychological target of that frustration.
But because it helps illuminate what we face now, lets unpack the very first big conspiracy theory of the modern right, which began within weeks of the end of World War II.
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What Is The Debt Limit And Why Do We Have It
The limit is the maximum amount the United States is allowed to borrow to pay its debts. If the amount of government debt hits that limit, and doesn’t lift the ceiling, the U.S. would be unable to pay what it owes and could default. When Congress raises or suspends the debt limit, it’s not greenlighting new spending instead, it allows the Treasury to pay for spending it already approved.
The U.S. has had a debt ceiling for more than 100 years. It was first established in 1917 with the Second Liberty Bond Act and set at $11.5 billion. Prior to that, lawmakers had to approve every issuance of debt separately. Different kinds of debts were later consolidated under one aggregated debt limit in 1939, which was first set at $45 billion.;The national debt ceiling has been raised or suspended more than 100 times since then, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The debt limit was most recently addressed under President Donald Trump, when Congress passed bipartisan legislation that suspended it for two years. When that suspension expired in 2021, the amount borrowed during that time roughly $6.5 trillion was added to the previous debt limit of more than $22 trillion, bringing the limit to $28.5 trillion as of August 1.
What Happens If The Us Defaults
The U.S. defaulting would “likely precipitate a historic financial crisis that would compound the damage of the continuing public health emergency,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. “Default could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.”
On Tuesday, financial services firm Moody’s Analytics stated a default would be a “catastrophic blow” to the economic recovery, and said even if it was resolved quickly, Americans would pay for a default for generations. Its analysis showed if lawmakers remained at odds after the debt ceiling was breached, nearly 6 million jobs would be lost, the unemployment rate would climb back up to nearly 9% and stock prices would be cut by almost a third, wiping out $15 trillion in household wealth.
Even the threat of default can have financial consequences. In August 2011, the U.S. credit rating was downgraded from AA+ to AAA for the first time in history by Standard & Poor’s, just days after the Obama administration reached a deal with Congressional Republicans. The credit agency said the downgrade reflected its view that the “effectiveness, stability, and predictability” of American policymaking and political institutions had weakened at a time of ongoing challenges.
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