As my colleague Tony Lee pointed out earlier today, poll-wise, President Obama is upside down on almost every issue pertaining to the economy. 60% disapprove of his handling of the economy; 57% disapprove on taxes; and 65% disapprove on the deficit. Moreover, according to a Pew poll released earlier this week, the economy, jobs, and deficit rank as the top three priorities of the American people. Which begs a question…
If the economy is a top priority and Obama’s numbers on the economy are dismal, how is it that the President’s approval numbers defy gravity and hover over 50%?
Well, the answer is simple and troubling. Even though Obama has failed miserably when it comes to managing the economy, and things have only gotten worse during his watch, the American media has spent the last two years intentionally covering this fact up. Instead of reporting on and pressuring the White House to solve a problem afflicting tens of millions, the media prefers to work in tandem with the White House to manufacture divisive distractions that boost his standing.
Worse still, the media brazenly lies about the economy. Time and again, anemic job and GDP growth are spun as good news. When our GDP went into the negative last quarter, the lying media told us this was due to a lack of government spending, even though spending increased! The conspiracy only widens when it comes to awful economic news that can’t be spun into something positive. That news is ignored and memory-holed as though it never existed.
Here’s a short-list of bad economic news ignored by the media in favor of issues like gun control and immigration, both of which sit at the bottom of the Pew poll’s list of priorities:
Under Obama’s watch, poverty is up, the unemployment rate is up, chronic unemployment hasn’t been this bad since WWII, the non-partisan GAO says that Obama’s deficits (which were unthinkable just four years ago) are unsustainable, middle class incomes are falling, the cost of health care premiums and a gallon of gas have nearly doubled, 7 million people are going to lose their insurance because of ObamaCare, the GDP is one negative quarter away from recession, and our labor force has shrunk to a thirty-year low.
On top of all that, you have a president intentionally causing economic uncertainty among job creators with his non-stop threats to increase taxes. Which he’s expected to do again tonight.
The only real economic positive is Wall Street, which, like Obama’s poll numbers, defies gravity. Some believe this could be a bubble about to burst once reality sets in. But there’s no question the Fed is making the Wall Street-rich richer, not the state of our economy. Naturally, though, the media gloms on to Wall Street to make it sound like the Roaring Twenties have returned for all of us.
Perhaps the greatest deceit the media engages in is this nonsense about how Obama inherited a mess. Like most of the lies told by the media, that’s true but not anything close to the whole truth. Many presidents inherit economic messes, and it’s just a fact that Obama has managed to deliver (especially compared to the Reagan Miracle) the worst “recovery” since the 1920s.
The media intentionally conspires to cover all of this suffering and despair up in order to keep Obama politically viable. The media’s not only invested in Obama’s success (they sold their souls to put him in office, after all) the media also wants Obama to finish his fundamental transformation of our country: immigration reform, same sex marriage, gun control — the cultural wish-list the Left has been dreaming of for decades.
But what about the poor, the jobless, the hopeless, and the vulnerable now entering year four of their suffering under this inept president? Unless the media can use them as weapons against the Right, the media doesn’t care about “those people,” and they never have. The neediest among us are nothing more than involuntary martyrs for The Cause.
The state of our union is in trouble.
The state of our economy is a disaster.
The state of our media is worse.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC