Fox Sets The Tone: If U.S. Defaults, Obama's To Blame

Bill O'Reilly was very clear tonight on where he stands on the debt-ceiling fight: The crisis is President Obama's fault. Why? Because of “the fact that he spent that much money”:

This follows Sean Hannity's statement on Tuesday night that we're “going to lose our AAA bond rating because [Obama] spent us into oblivion.”

Whatever the outcome of the debt talks, it's clear that Fox News' premier personalities are priming their audience to believe the false narrative that if a default occurs, Obama is the one to blame because of his supposed responsibility for recent budget deficits and the national debt. This is the latest iteration of a story that the conservative media have been telling since almost the beginning of Obama's presidency.

In reality, a fully informed look at the federal budget would tell you that much of the recently added debt and projected deficits can be attributed to a drop in revenue caused by the economic downturn, and to pre-Obama policies, like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush tax cuts.

If the worst occurs, and the federal government defaults and has its credit rating downgraded, you can be sure that this is the refrain you'll hear repeated endlessly on Fox News.