The media believe that
facts are boring and people
just want opinions—the
more strongly held the
better because that
makes for better television.
[Except]"Twenty years ago, billionaire Ross Perot captivated the country with charts and graphs showing the true nature of our budget problem and he received a substantial number of votes for president in 1992 and 1996. Why no one is doing the same today is a mystery. I even had to Google Perot’s name just to see if he is still alive. (He is.) Unfortunately, the media believe that facts are boring and people just want opinions—the more strongly held the better because that makes for better television. And politicians are by nature purveyors of lies and mischaracterizations. But at some point, people need to know the truth."
"Sadly, the super committee missed an opportunity to use its mandate to help educate the American people, spending most of its time behind closed doors search for a painless cure for deficit spending that won’t increase anyone’s taxes or cut anyone’s benefits. But the real failure of leadership is President Obama’s. He alone has the power to get the nation’s attention and give them the facts the way Perot once did. But Obama has never done it and now it may be too late to avoid a budgetary train wreck when the super committee inevitably fails in its mission."
"Given these misperceptions, it’s not surprising that people consistently oppose cutting popular programs like Social Security and Medicare or raising taxes to deal with the deficit. They don’t think it’s necessary. Just cut foreign aid, many apparently believe."
"What is critically necessary if we are to solve our budget problem is for people to get the correct information about the composition of government spending. Since it is rare for anyone in politics or the media to ever tell them, average people can be forgiven for not knowing basic facts. Unfortunately, their ignorance allows demagogues to lead them down the primrose path of costless and painless cures for deficits.