Here's the latest talking point courtesy of Frank Luntz being rolled out ad nauseum by every Republican politician I've been on the television for some time now, and unfortunately as Digby noted, being validated by our President.
Here's a rough transcript via Digby:
Frank Luntz on Fox News this morning: All the statistics that I've been testing on both sides, this one stands out: the increase in discretionary non-defense spending over the past four years is 80%. Does any family within the sound of my voice have an 80% increase in spending?
Well that's what Washington is doing. So if a family can't afford an 80% increase, surely Washington can't afford it. All the things we've looked at, that's the most powerful of all.
Anchor: Wow. What impact do you think the influence of the Tea party will have on the public going forward as we get set to tackle the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget dramas we have yet to see?
Luntz: It's very significant. In fact we did a project with Freedomworks over the last 96 hours where they asked the question about the shutdown,whether if it was provoked or not if you would be less likely to vote for your member of congress. The Tea Party is saying to the American people, enough is enough, stop!
If families have to tighten their belts, so should Washington. If the American people have to do more with less, so should Washington.
Someone let me know when households have the ability to print money, raise taxes and start wars, will you? I'm sick to death of our politicians pretending that America is broke. The upper 1% are doing just fine, thank you. Our problem is there is not the political will to ask for some "shared sacrifice" from the have-mores out there and they're completely unwilling to do anything to protect American jobs. If these corporations want their tax cuts, tie them to job creation right here in the United States. Want to fix Social Security, raise the income cap. Want to fix the deficit, start with repealing those Bush tax cuts, now. But we can't have that, can we? And we've got these propagandists like Luntz out there feeding the politicians this nonsense to justify balancing the budget off of the backs of the elderly and the poor. Just shameful.
There's more at Digby's post so go read the whole thing, but I'll share this last bit here.
It's kind of an odd family that goes into debt so mom and dad quit their jobs and bring in even less money in order to pay it off, but hey, what do I know about finances anyway? I guess in good Real American families when you bring in less money and beat the children the debt magically vanishes somehow. I suppose God provides. [...]
Meanwhile, I'm going to move into my car, empty out my bank account and give the money to a rich person so he'll win the future for me. Isn't that what all responsible families are doing right now?
