Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) this week made another in a series of absurd comments actually claiming that 170 million people would lose their jobs if the budget sequester was enacted.
NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno actually began his show with Waters’ claim Friday saying that it explains "why we’re in this situation in the first place" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
After the opening theme and credits, Leno walked out onto the stage and said, “Welcome sequestration survivors. Yes!”
“As you know, Congress did not reach an agreement,” he continued, “and Congresswoman Maxine Waters said today that 170 million jobs could be lost because of it.”
"Beginning to understand why we're in this situation in the first place now?" he asked. "Is it starting to become clear why everything isn't quite well?”
Leno was of course quite correct, but you have to wonder on how many levels he meant this.
On the one hand, as I’ve been writing about for years, most people in Congress – especially on the left side of the aisle! – have absolutely no clue about economic data.
As such, it’s not at all surprising that someone like Waters would make an economic point lacking any foundation whatsoever.
Frankly, Democrats do this all the time including the current White House resident.
The bigger issue is that Democrats can make such claims with total impunity because the media is unlikely to call them on it.
Witness what’s been happening the past several weeks regarding sequestration.
For the most part, the White House has been able to fearmonger this issue with cataclysmic predictions that totally defy reason.
As this has been happening, the stock market has approached an all-time high showing absolutely no interest whatsoever in what came out of this budget battle. Traders all around the world were saying that the size of sequestration cuts would have absolutely no impact on the economy whether they went into effect or not.
But the White House was still allowed to issue dire warnings with little pushback from their obedient media.
With this in mind, it’s not just the ignorance of people in Congress such as Waters that has brought us to this point.
It’s the media’s support and dissemination of untruths that not only misinforms the public on key issues facing the nation thereby distorting their opinion on them, but also encourages left-leaning politicians to continue to present falsehoods knowing full well they’ll never be called on them.
It therefore seems impossible at this stage of our nation’s history to imagine a well-informed electorate being governed by honest leaders that have their best interests in mind.
