In the wake of the defeat of President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act, Jamelle Bouie blogs at the Nation that the media have obscured the barrage of congressional hurdles that his administration has been forced to navigate. Bouie cites different ways that the story could have been reported.
There are two ways to describe the fate of the American Jobs Act, the stimulus bill introduced by the Obama administration last month. You could say that it earned a bare majority, as fifty Democrats voted to bring the legislation to a final vote. Or you could save yourself a few words, and just say that the bill failed, as Republicans — along with two centrist Democrats — opted to filibuster the legislation rather than allow an up-or-down vote.
In the parallel world where political actors are held responsible for their actions, headlines would announce that Republicans — acting on mindless hostility to President Obama — kept more than $400 billion in needed stimulus (including $175 billion in tax cuts) from reaching the economy, leaving millions without assistance and pushing the country closer to a second recession.
As it stands, newspaper writers are content to leave Republicans off the hook for their relentless obstructionism.
Read Jamelle Bouie's entire blog entry at the Nation.