In Front of Our Noses: Lies about Balancing the Budget

More from the annals of unrealty.

Source: The White House

Previous entries:

The Ezra Klein Show episode that I mentioned in a prior post pointed this out:

Do you remember when Trump promised to balance the budget?

Archived clip of Trump: I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance it.

That happened in March.

The video of him saying it is here at around the 38 second mark:

I note this simply to underscore the blatant disregard for truth and the clear desire to foster unreality by this administration.

It is pretty amazing to assert, about two months ago in a national address in front of a joint session of Congress, that you want to balance the budget and then support the passage of a bill that is anything but balanced and that will ultimately add trillions to the debt if passed.

But the whole propaganda, unreality-fest of it all is ongoing. And a lot of people fall for it.

Some other examples.

Also:

This stuff isn’t spin or issues of interpretation. This is straight up propaganda in the hope that enough people will believe a constructed unreality.

FILED UNDER: Deficit and Debt, In Front of Our Noses, The Presidency, US Politics, , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.

Comments

  1. Rob1 says:

    Mom and Dad were right —- we watch(ed) too much television. The overindulgence is being felt. Discernment has suffered.

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  2. Kathy says:

    Didn’t you know the chocolate ration was increased to 20 grams per week?

    4
  3. reid says:

    Yes, who would’ve thought that the man with deep, obvious issues with ethics would lie about everything once in office.

    Articles like this are good to see. It gets right to the heart of what is wrong with him. No both-sides, no benefit of the doubt.

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  4. just nutha says:

    This stuff isn’t spin or issues of interpretation. This is straight up propaganda in the hope that enough people will believe a constructed unreality.

    It’s been working for 45 years, why stop now? Old enough to remember when David Stockman was ready to head up dismantling the New Deal only to be told by Reagan that he had no intention of doing the things that would balance the without raising taxes and wasn’t going to raise taxes either? I am.

    We’re willing to have stuff without paying for all of it. It’s been that way all my life. We’re probably going to keep alternating between “borrow and spend” government and “borrow more and spend” government most of the lives of the younger members of this commentariat. Only the very poorest in society are getting hurt much by it so WGAF?

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  5. Gustopher says:

    Archived clip of Trump: I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget.

    I want to weigh about 220lbs*. I would need to do a lot of work to get there, or contract some horrible wasting disease.

    We’re going to balance it.

    Affirmations don’t mean much if you aren’t willing to put in the work.

    *: with the proposed guidelines for Covid vaccine availability, it may actually be healthier to not lose the weight, as obesity qualifies as a condition for approval.

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  6. Tony W says:

    The core problem here is that education is really hard. It takes discipline, and rigor, and stamina, and courage.

    How many kids say they want to grow up and become a doctor? What percentage of them actually do it?

    Lies and dreams are super easy.

    For example: Years ago I “invented” the heated mouse on one cold day in rainy Puget Sound. Meaning I thought of the idea. Never had the wherewithal to actually build a prototype and try to market and sell it.

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  7. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Gustopher:

    *: with the proposed guidelines for Covid vaccine availability…

    Covid vaccine is soooooo 2o24. Nobody’s gonna get vaccinations anymore now that we know the secret to health disease resistance is eating stuff with no artificial colors or sweeteners or added sugars.

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  8. Barry says:

    Steven, remember that this was previously done by Reagan, Dubya andTrump.

    This is standard GOP core doctrine.

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