March Madness 2016 has begun filling up sports bars, lowering office productivity and bringing basketball and non-basketball fans together through friendly betting.
The liberal news media go crazy for “the big event,” devoting huge amounts of time to the annual college basketball tournament. Yet, the far more important matter of the national debt, which topped $19 trillion in 2016, is barely reported. Even though conservative and liberal experts have warned it is a serious threat.
Between Jan. 1, 2015, and March 1, 2016, the network evening news shows devoted 18 minutes and 12 seconds to the hoops tournament. That was more than 5 times as much coverage as they gave the national debt (3 minutes 9 seconds) which grew steadily through 2015, crossing the $19 trillion mark on Feb. 1, 2016.
There were plenty of reports about basketball “fever,” which ABC called “the sickness all bosses dread.” And even miracles, like when the University of Wisconsin Badgers upset the Kentucky Wildcats last April. But the media had the fever too, talking about brackets, top picks and key players to watch. All three networks brought up President Obama’s brackets, mentioning it in a total of four broadcasts. If only, sometime during that year the networks had been as willing to pick apart the national debt, examine its causes and consider solutions. After all, it’s a sure bet that the debt will impact every single American.
Instead, the few mentions of the debt were generally political. CBS used it to undermine Donald Trump’s tax plan while other reports included quotes from politicians mentioning the severity of the debt.
In spite of the fact that the debt exceeded $19 trillion for the first time ever last month, none of the network evening shows acknowledged it when it happened. The only mention of it since was an answer Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave in a CBS Evening News interview on Feb. 19.
The debt has grown to more than $58,000 per person in the U.S. according to Romina Boccia of The Heritage Foundation. Boccia attributed the growing national debt to federal spending, especially entitlement spending for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.
“[C]hange is desperately needed. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that outlays will grow from $3.7 trillion in 2015 to $6.4 trillion in 2026,” she wrote for The Daily Signal. Moreover, spending growth is projected to outpace economic growth, as outlays are expected to grow from 20.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 to 23.1 percent of GDP in 2026.
She argued that Congress should never allow a default on the debt, but legislators need to reform entitlements to balance the budget again “before increasing the debt limit again.”
Basketball Dominates, While Debt Mentions Driven by Politics
While basketball is certainly more fun, it’s the duty of the evening news programs to also cover important issues like the national debt — especially during an election cycle.
Yet, the meager coverage of the debt was not sufficient for the size of the debt crisis. Some mentions were driven by a political candidate expressing concern about it like on World News Tonight with David Muir Oct. 29, 2015.
That report on the “race for 2016” was focused on Republican frustration with the CNBC debate questions included a comment by then-candidate Chris Christie.
“We have $19 trillion in debt, we have people out of work, we have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us, and we’re talking about fantasy football? Can we stop?” Christie asked. Perhaps if Christie had referenced the NCAA tournament instead of fantasy football, the media might have taken more notice.
CBS brought up the national debt in order to undermine Republican candidate Donald Trump’s tax plan. On Sept. 29, 2015, CBS Evening News aired what it called a “reality check” of Trump’s plan.
“All of this does not add to our debt or our deficit,” Trump said of his own plan before Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett responded: “But an independent analysis says Trump’s plan would cost the Treasury $10 trillion over 10 years and increase the nation’s $18 trillion debt.”
One day earlier, Garrett had reported that the plan “lacked specifics on new sources of revenue” which made it “very difficult to calculate” whether it would make the national debt and deficits “better or worse.”
Liberals and Libertarians Also Warn of Debt Threat
Although the networks were nearly silent about the debt threat, conservative, libertarian and even liberal groups have warned about the huge consequences for the compounding national debt.
In 2012, the liberal Brookings Institution warned that the mounting debt was a “real national security threat.”
“Why is this situation so serious? First, we are headed for a level of debt that within a decade could require us to spend the first trillion dollars of every year's federal budget servicing that debt. Much less money will be left for other things,” Brookings scholars Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Michael E. O’Hanlon wrote. “That is a prescription for a vicious cycle of underfinancing for our infrastructure, national education efforts, science research and all the other functions of government that are crucial to long-term economic growth. Robust defense spending will be unsustainable too. Once we get in this rut, getting out will be very hard.
The also argued the resulting “chronic economic decline” hurts American leadership abroad.
“Other countries sense our weakness and wonder about our purported decline. If this perception becomes more widespread, and the case that we are in decline becomes more persuasive, countries will begin to take actions that reflect their skepticism about America's future,” they added.
Cato executive vice president David Boaz wrote in 2013, that the real “dysfunction” was with a “federal budget that doubled in 10 years, unprecedented deficits as far as the eye can see, and a national debt bursting through its statutory limit of $16.699 trillion and heading toward 100 percent of GDP.”
As Washington fought over the debt ceiling and possible default, Boaz pointed out that, “The problem is not a temporary mess on Capitol Hill and not a mythical default, it’s spending, deficits, and debt.”
Now in 2016, that massive debt has passed $19 trillion, without a peep from reporters on the evening news programs.
