In a bizarre story about the budget negotiations on NPR this morning, reporter Tamera Keith described the resolution of the negotiations as "the Democrats released the hostages"! What the hell is Tamara Keith thinking?! After the Republicans took last years budget hostage over wanting severe cuts to the social safety net, then took the debt ceiling negotiations hostage, then the Bush tax cut extensions... but I can't recall her calling the Republicans hostage takers. This was either one of the dumbest, or one of the most disgusting uses of false inflamitory language I've ever heard on a report on NPR.
Now don't get me wrong, I like NPR and I like it a lot. Study after study has shown that NPR listeners are by far, the most informed listeners of any radio or TV media. They normally do a great job, but occasionally they screw up, and this one was one of the biggest screwups I've ever heard.
So why did Tamera Keith claim the Democrats had taken hostages? She said Senate Democrats where holding the deal hostage because they wanted it linked to the Payroll tax extension and some other year end things.
Everyone and their neighbors know that 3 really big things had to be resolved quickly before they expire. The government spending extension (about a $trillion) the Payroll tax cut extension (effecting about 100 million workers) and extension of unemployment (a potentially life changing action for up to 10 million Americans). These are not trivial issues! These are major issues that impact 10's of millions of Americans and that need to be addressed immediately. And because the Democrats tried to address them all at once, Tamera Keith thinks it's taking hostages.
Now what did the Republicans want and get?
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Foreign aid would decline, with the U.S. Agency for International Development's budget cut by 17 percent. The Environmental Protection Agency would be cut by 3 percent, on top of reductions approved earlier this year. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, would see a 6 percent reduction. The Internal Revenue Service would be cut by 2 percent.
Democrats fended off a number of Republican initiatives, including proposals taking aim at environmental regulations and cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood and NPR, the syndicator of public radio stations.
Republicans prevailed with language barring public funding of abortions in Washington, the nation's capital. They also killed a Democratic proposal to increase the security fees charged to airline passengers. Airlines are charging more for checked baggage, Democrats complained, which was prompting more travelers to bring carry-on luggage and increasing the workload for the government's security screeners.
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Negotiators reach deal
So while the Democrats were trying to tie 3 critical and timely pieces of legislation together so they could get finished before time runs out, this was considered taking hostages by the NPR reporter. But while the Republicans were willing to let millions lose their unemployment, increase taxes on over 100 million Americans, and have the government shut down with 100's of thousands losing their jobs just before Christmas, so that they could try and gut environmental protection, Foreign aid, make our airports less secure, and stop funding for abortions in Washington DC, not a word of this is mentioned by the NPR reporter.
Now who were the real hostage takers? When a reporter can't tell the difference between the hostage takers and the people trying to free the hostages, well, it makes their report absurd and laughable. NPR needs to take Tamera Keith to the wood shed and tell her to pay more attention to what she's reporting!