Here’s the deal: When there is huge complex problem that we as a country have to deal with (Al Qaeda, Energy, Unemployment, Poverty, Education, Credit Crisises, Drug usage) the first ideologue that delineates an extreme solution is known as being the adult in the room. Even if the implementation of the law is hasty, the design of the plan ignores the subtleties of context, the import of expert empirical analysis, and the most likely or real outcome of the legislative/executive action is exacerbation of the complex problem, the solution is still regarded by the punditry as serious, bold and courageous.
Why? Because the punditry all claim: no one else suggested an alternative solution. Except, in most all cases, someone did propose an alternative.
Then when the plan is implemented, and things go wrong, the pundit reaction is to protect their ignorance and their favorite bureaucrat with statements like: “who could have known?” or “it’s no ones fault”. These very serious people are The Bold & Courageous. Two prime examples?
Boehner is leading his party against raising the arbitrary debt ceiling without massive, recession generating spending cuts:
As one who’s been arguing that the US is sleep walking off a cliff by flirting with defaulting on the federal debt for the first time in the nation’s history, even I’m a little stunned to see news that some of the biggest US banks are already making plans (sub.req.) to cut their use of US Treasuries in August as a preparation for default.
Paul Ryan’s budget is another example.
Over the last 24 hours, media pundits have been heaping praise on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) for releasing a proposal with massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. New York Times columnist David Brooks called it the “most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes.” Time’s Joe Klein said it was “without question, an act of political courage.”
via VIDEO: Pundits Gush Over Paul Ryan’s ‘Courageous’ Rip-Off | ThinkProgress.
As we know from both initiatives they can not actually be called insane.