I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the United States has a little problem with its bottom line.
The country is on a course to default on its debt unless the nation’s leaders can make a deal by Aug. 2, just a week away.
To hear Washington tell it (and they’re probably not exaggerating, much), a failure to raise the debt ceiling from its current level of $14.3 trillion will result in major economic catastrophe. Interest rates will rise.Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have threatened to downgrade the nation’s credit rating. And the government won’t be able to pay bills to public agencies and employees.
Like many major issues in national politics these days, though, the negotiations on how to address the looming crisis have fallen on largely ideological lines.
Republicans, led by Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, have cast taxes–and President Barack Obama–as roadblocks to fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. The president, a Democrat, conversely, has positioned himself as a mediator angling for a compromise, pushing for a combination in cuts to spending and revenue increases.
One of the things that makes reporting in Washington a unique challenge is that this is a town ruled by partisan rhetoric. It’s basically a given that politi-speak is far from trustworthy, especially when, as in with the case of the debt ceiling negotiations, both parties are openly vying for public support. Reporters are trained skeptics, but in Washington, we need to keep our B.S. meters constantly on high alert.
An analysis of Monday night’s addresses, based purely on the frequency of each word, cuts through some of that rhetoric. By feeding the text of each speech into the data visualization tool Many Eyes, we can scrub the texts for patterns that give a little insight into the political motivations behind the speeches:
Obama, still intent on proving that he can get both parties to strike a deal, favors a methodical and bipartisan message.
The president’s speech had two words that towered above the rest: “approach” and “Americans.” Approach appears 19 times out of Obama’s 2,300 word address, and Americans shows up 16 times.
Of course, the president made his case directly to “Americans” in the hopes that the public might pressure Congress.
Other words he favored, to no surprise: “cuts” (14), “tax” (11), “many” (10) and “balanced” (7).
He used “Congress” (8) and “government” (7) more often than “president” (6) or “Republicans” (5), to go along with his theme of shared responsibility, to wit: “because neither party is blameless for the decisions that led to this problem, both parties have a responsibility to solve it.”
In his speech, Boehner wagged his finger at his opponents in Washington. His most used word, “president,” popped up 15 times during his 900-word address.
“Debt” and “spending” each make nine appearances, followed closely by “House” (7) and “business” (6)–unsurprising, in that Boehner sought to position the “bipartisan” (5) effort in Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment against Obama’s demands for a “blank check” (2).
As reporters, we have to walk a line between being objective and being fair, and blatant partisanship in the name of a good, snappy quote can put us in a tough spot. I find that drilling down into the rhetoric can help me confront my own biases, as well as those of the people I’m quoting, to get as close to the truth as possible.