Yesterday, Breitbart News reported that consumer confidence had dropped to its lowest level in almost two years. Much of the media spun the number as the result of a payroll tax increase that hit millions who were repeatedly told by Obama that only the rich would see their taxes increase. Surprise! But the spin didn’t explain why consumer confidence had steadily dropped during the months prior. Well, now we know: The American economy has taken a nosedive.
For the first time in over three years, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product shrank. Between October and December of 2012, the GDP had a negative growth of 0.1. And let’s remember that this is the same quarter where we saw the media go into hyper-drive to spin Obama’s anemic job and GDP growth into a repeat of the Roaring Twenties.
The problem with the American economy is that Obama and his media can’t fool it. Happy talk and spin and distractions about contraception don’t create jobs or growth. You might be able to fool legions of people into voting a certain way, but you can’t fool them into spending and hiring and investing.
Apparently, though, the media and Obama have managed to fool themselves. Even the Wall Street Journal calls today’s news “unexpected.” And anyone who watched Obama’s Inauguration speech knows that his failed economy and the millions suffering in it are either not on his radar or of no concern whatsoever. Obama spoke of many things, but not the economy. He’s in a war to win the culture, not to win anyone a job to lift them out of poverty.
The media is just as bad. The biggest story in our country today should be the increase in poverty and an unemployment crisis so dire our labor force has shrunk to thirty-year lows. But neither will speak of it. We do, however, know all about some idiot and his phony girlfriend. We know all about a “heckle” that didn’t happen. One wonders which is the bread and which is the circus.
The pickle both Obama and the media have put themselves in, though, is this: If either makes the economy a priority, that’s an admission Obama’s economy is in trouble. And so we find ourselves in a situation we’ve seen in other countries where the state and media have aligned — a situation where we’re told a bad economy is a good economy, and the victims of this propaganda are those suffering in a bad economy no one wants to admit exists.
Already the media’s spinning this GDP report in a way that says our economy tanked because the government didn’t spend enough. That’s right, annual trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, but the media push to protect the State from blame and to use this terrible news as a way to further grow the State is already on.
NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd, just assured America this was a one-time economic anomaly and that prosperity is right around the corner. If a job had been created every time a member of Obama’s media said this, we’d have full employment today.
We live in interesting and dangerous times.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC