Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right.

Yep. I just happened to be reading this post on Sullivan's blog of a reader's email:

In Defense of Talk Radio Listeners, Ctd

I share Conor's belief that by having civil, reasonable dialogs, we can try to resolve or at least clarify our disagreements. My main beef with Talk Radio is that its stars pointedly do not share this belief. They thrive on endless conflict and illusions of persecution. It is more entertaining for them to pretend that the Left is not motivated by a desire to make the country better, but a desire to destroy it and enslave much of the population, so that's what they say. I listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin regularly, and all three promote some version of this canard, Levin being by far the worst offender.

Beyond refusing to seriously consider the other side's concerns and proposals, these stars also never have guests who disagree with them or challenge their assertions. They almost never have guests who are not reliable, mainstream conservatives. All that we get are occasional liberal callers. For whatever reason, these people tend to be more stupid and ill-informed than most liberals I know, so the stars usually trounce them in debate. Limbaugh can be persuasive when engaging in this ritual, but Hannity simply cuts people off if they turn out to be smart and have some point he cannot counter, and Levin dispatches liberal callers with a storm of invective.

The upshot is that their listeners don't have an accurate picture of their opponents, and don't know what the Left actually thinks and stands for. It's in this atmosphere that we get a bunch of talk about "socialism" and "government takeover," and demands to cut taxes without specifics on what spending to cut.

cut taxes without specifics on what spending to cut.

This aggravates more than just about anything. On the one hand talking about cutting the deficit and on the the other talking about cutting taxes with no serious talk about cutting spending.

Man, it's good politics though, there's really nothing the Dems can do about the deficit. Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Or cut the military budget significantly. Which I'm not saying is the best route to solvency, but at 21% of the budget it's a pretty hefty chunk of change.

I just went to a teaching meeting, and another instructor wanted to trade his 2:30 class for just about anything else, because there was a seminar he wanted to go to that's held at 2:30. I asked if he'd take my 8 AM in exchange for his 2:30, and he said yes. Then we had to involve one more person in the trade, so that I would have all my in-a-row classes in the same building, but we got it worked out so that he's got that 2:30 slot free, I teach one course at 11, then have a break for lunch, then teach three courses in a row, and the other guy has the same time schedule he had before, just different rooms, which is fine with him.

Great, Hil!

Seska, I wish you much closing-ma on the house.

Or cut the military budget significantly

If we're leaving Iraq, there's likely room to at least trim the military budget somewhat. (I'm no expert on military budgeting, so I'll let others argue over exactly how much room there is.)

Man, it's good politics though, there's really nothing the Dems can do about the deficit. Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Are you suggesting to stop paying out Social Security? Because that's a separate tax, a separate fund. Social Security payments are paid out of Social Security taxes, not Federal Income taxes. If SS monies no longer go out to individual recipients, does that mean the govt. would no longer be collecting the SS taxes? If so, that does not solve the Federal Budget deficit in any way whatsoever. If the idea were to stop paying out SS, but still collect the taxes to put that toward the Federal Budget... well, why did we put Bernie Madoff in jail, we should have elected him President. It would be a scam, and a cheat worse than any congressional pork, or corporate bail-out ever perpetrated.

I should specify that I know you don't think those measures are a good idea and that you are actually recommending them.

ETA: And now I have to go get ready for work, so won't be able to stick around for clarification and discussion. Sorry.

Are you suggesting to stop paying out Social Security?

I'm not suggesting doing any of this, it's just that this is the scale of things that would have be done to make a big difference in the deficit. I left out the military because I figured there would be no way the right would suggest something like that. It's a pet peeve, nobody in the media seems to ever ask "what do want to cut that actually adds up to a significant amount"?

If we cut ALL entitlements tomorrow, it would have the effect of a hamster fart in a hurricane on the national debt. They are an almost insignificant portion of the US budget. This is the most infuriating part about the right's lies about "cutting spending."

Not to mention thy this is a f@&ing GOVERNMENT, not a household. Cutting expenses is a houshold soluion to finacial woes. Governments CANNOT afford to think like that because it's not just the wife and kids and car payment they need to worry about, it's ALL OF US WHO LIVE HERE! the government doesn't need to cut spending, IT NEEDS MORE MONEY!

When did "I don't wanna ever have to pay taxes" become the American Anthem? We have to pay for this, and the people with an order of magnitude more money than the rest of us need to pay an order of magnitude more in taxes. But all they have to do is make the people afraid of taxes, and they don't ever have to pay anything.

t cue bullshit Ayn Rand/Atlas Shrugged argument from the right here

Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right. Suddenly, letting the tax rates for the top brackets revert to 3% higher is a Fascist-Communist (not an oxymoron in the right-wing media) plot to nationalize the private sector.

I think Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity should start calling the left "Communist Hippe Nazis", just to achieve maximum cognitive dissonance.