How can you cover a story about Uncle Sam's November Monthly Treasury Statement and the proposed Obama-GOP compromise on taxes and unemployment benefits without using the words “spending,” “receipts,” any form of “collect,” or “unemployment”? It's a neat trick, but the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger pulled it off in his Friday afternoon dispatch shortly after the government report's release. Instead of communicating apparently boring facts, Crutsinger concentrated his fire on the “tax-cut agreement” with a supposed “cost (of) $855 billion over two years” worked out by President Obama and Congressional Republicans. In doing so, he “somehow” failed to mention that the proposal includes a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits. Based on a comparison
