MSNBC: "The Middle Class is Living on the Edge"

 
News flash: the economy is in a shambles! All over the country, middle class families are preparing to hit the streets to start panhandling. They're dialing up Google Maps to find the nearest soup kitchen. Put simply, they're in turmoil.


Well, at least that's how a Democratic think tank and its media arm -- MSNBC -- are positioning the economy. Yesterday, MSNBC breathlessly reported the results of a "study" funded by the Democratic Party. Put simply, the "middle class is in turmoil."

The middle class today is less prepared for an economic emergency, such as losing a job or visiting an emergency room, than at any time since the late 1970s, concludes a new study from a political think tank in Washington, D.C., that's funded by Democrats. [Ed: emphasis added] "Middle Class in Turmoil," produced by the Center for American Progress and the Service Employees International Union, mines data from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, census records and other sources to paint a picture of increasing peril for those in the middle 60% of income distribution...

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

• the stock market is at an all-time high
• unemployment at a record low
• 401K, 403B, IRA, and Keough Retirement account balances are at an all-time high
• the budget deficit was sliced in half ahead of Bush's prediction

None of those developments, it would seem, are newsworthy.


MSNBC's theme is consistent with many of the Democratic Party talking points that have circulated since President Bush took office. The MSM game-plan: never mind 9/11 sucking half a trillion dollars out of the economy. Never mind the greatest natural disaster to hit the continental United States.

In a Sept. 2, 2003 speech in South Carolina, John Kerry claimed the U.S. is suffering "the greatest job loss since the Great Depression." And throughout the 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry asserted that President Bush had "the worst economic record since the Hoover administration." In fact, throughout multiple election cycles, leading Democrats have employed the term "jobless recovery" to describe the economy.


Jobless, eh? Well, there's only one question that you -- my dear and valued reader -- need to contemplate.

When was the last time MSNBC featured a study funded by the GOP?