Alternative realities

As I'm sifting through the commentary on Ryan's *very serious* budget proposal, I keep recalling how at the beginning of the Iraq war, as the Bush admininstration's false narratives were being exposed, how little it concerned them. There's that famous quote about how they were creating their own new realities even as the fact checkers were exposing their lies. I saw this then, and now, as their own personal "shock and awe" campaign against the American people. Ryan's new "plan" is just the latest volley in that purely political operation. And now, as then, the media blithely play along, credulously repeating their slogans as if they meant something real.

Take for instance this new narrative that the GOPers just delivered a "serious proposal" and they're just patiently waiting for Obama's alternative. The media dutifully parrots this, apparently forgeting that Ryan is presenting the alternative to Obama's budget which was filed long ago. Quoting Benen again:

Second, if the request is for an "alternative" budget, I might remind Halperin and Boehner that the White House already presented Obama's alternative. Mid-February really wasn't that long ago, but that's when the administration presented a budget plan for the next fiscal year. They put it online, and it generated a lot of discussion. Halperin and Boehner might have heard about it.

"The president is certainly entitled to disagree with our budget, but what exactly is his alternative?" Halperin seems to like the question, but Obama's alternative was sent to Congress nearly seven weeks ago.

Twitter also reminds me that a Congressional Democrat offered an alternative, realistic, deficit reduction proposal in November, 2010.

Today Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, offered a comprehensive proposal to reduce the federal deficit without making middle class Americans foot the bill. Schakowsky's plan is an alternative to the Bowles-Simpson plan and would reduce the deficit by $441 billion in 2015, surpassing President Obama’s $250 billion target. Critically, the Schakowsky plan accomplishes deficit reduction without making cuts to essential federal expenditures that benefit the middle class.

The media dutifully ignored her sensible plan. No one called her serious, or bold. They did say that about Bowles and Simpson though, whose plan was more similiar than different from Ryan's Roadmap to Middleclass Destruction. These superlatives are apparently reserved only for those who seek to rob from the poor to pad the wallets of the rich.