A report on yesterda's Pete Peterson Fiscal Summit in Washington is a lesson in False Equvalence 101:
American political heavyweights gathered in Washington today. They met to tackle the biggest problem facing the nation: the massive public debt. The country is so deeply in the red with deficits continuing into the foreseeable future that it threatens the future of the economy.
The Peter G. Petersen Foundation, a nonpartisan fiscal policy group, brought together some of the most serious and weighty politicians to think out loud about how to solve this problem.
There you have it. It's official: the budget is the monster that threatens to devour America and all its citizens. Because the GOP said so and now NPR said so. So it's official.
ANDREA SEABROOK: He [Paul Ryan} walked confidently onto the stage, the man who wrote the plan that would privatize Medicare, slash federal funding for everything from education to agriculture, make massive tax cuts permanent and, eventually, balance the budget.
Although it has been shown that the Republican budget proposal does not, in fact, balance the budget, offsetting savings by increasing tax cuts, this does not stop NPR from repeating this falsehood put forward by the GOP.
At the conference, President Clinton's comments raised a firestorm and reignited fears that Medicare cuts were back on the table. Clinton touts the elusive bipartisan cooperation, the lack of which is the roadblock to solving this thorny problem:
Pres. CLINTON: Look at the job numbers, look at the vested numbers, look at the growth numbers, look at the productivity numbers, look at the numbers. If we can break out of theology and get back to evidence and experience and the aspirations of ordinary people, I think we can have bipartisan cooperation.
And here is the coup de grace of false equivalence, both sides adamantly refusing to consider the other's suggestions. The Democrats have not had Steny Hoyer suggesting Medicare cutswere on the table, President Obama has not endlessly searched for bipartisanship, and Democrats have not been willing to compromise with spending cuts. (As if).
SEABROOK: The poisonous political environment, Clinton said, is perhaps the biggest hindrance to solving this problem, a problem critical to almost every American. He said both sides have gone beyond ideology into a kind of political theology: Republicans completely refusing to consider tax increases; Democrats completely refusing to consider serious reforms to Medicare and Medicaid. And it's just not working, Clinton said.