I am truly frightened by the debate on the debt ceiling. Today, every single Republican I saw on television said “Where is the President’s plan? He has no plan.” That was obviously a message directive from the Republican Ministry of Truth. (In Orwell’s 1984, the Ministry of Truth was anything but.) The goal of the “talking point” is to lay blame for the economic catastrophe they have already caused and the one they are flirting with now at Obama’s feet. The fact that Obama didn’t issue a specific document entitled The President’s Plan to Cut the Deficit doesn’t mean he wasn’t working diligently to promote a plan. What do they call the weeks of negotiations headed by Joe Biden to cut a deal that the Republicans walked away from?

Our dismal news media, which is unable to separate rationality from idiocy, would have us believe that uncompromising tea party politicians have coherent economic principles. They do not. Since they speak only about “unnecessary spending” and protecting so-called job creators, it is obvious to me that they are completely willing to precipitate a new economic catastrophe in order to blame Obama and gain the presidency in 2012.

That’s why I am afraid and why I am considering taking my savings out of the bank and keeping it in cash in case there is a run on the banks. Bad things are possible when those who control the fate of others are completely detached from reality. Whether out of cunning or an irrational ideology, many Republicans see it as in their interest to oppose everything Obama does, no matter how reasonable.

In the media, we routinely have to put up with the conventional wisdom that voters will blame Obama if the jobs’ picture doesn’t improve. Republicans crashed the economy due to run-away, unregulated financial speculation and yet it’s Obama’s fault there are no jobs. Taxes are at the lowest level in years, were lowered under Bush, and still the economy tanked and fails to recover. But the Republican answer is still lower taxes and the media treats this as a rational idea.

There was a Republican on with Chuck Todd (MSNBC) this morning. I didn’t catch his name but he said something like this: “When businesses are in trouble they lay people off and close divisions. After the cuts investors see that the company took the right action and is ready to grow again. This is what we need to do in our economy.” This statement shows that Republicans can’t tell the difference between a business, whose purpose is profits, and the government. They believe some citizens must suffer so the books can be balanced and the economy can start to grow again. But cutting jobs in the overall economy does not produce a more profitable economy in the same way that cutting jobs increases corporate profits. It produces greater unemployment and a longer, deeper economic downturn.

For more on the Republican use of Orwellian opposite-speak, see: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011072815/ignorance-index-iv-job-killing-de-regulation.