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Jon Stewart Vulgarly Attacks GOP Concerns for Rising Taxes and Deficits

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday joined the growing liberal chorus attacking Republicans for their concerns about rising taxes and exploding budget deficits. The only thing different about the “Daily Show” host’s approach was that he needed vulgarity to make his point. Potentially even worse, Stewart in his opening segment Wednesday actually used CNN’s Fareed Zakaria to support his view that letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be a good thing for the nation. Ironically, that was the only thing remotely funny about this sketch (video follows with partial transcript and commentary, extreme vulgarity warning, see BMI’s coverage as well ): The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Deductible Me www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party “Let’s begin tonight in D.C.,” Stewart said. “It’s our nation’s capital. For the last 18 or so months Barack Obama’s been the President and Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress. Purely by coincidence, that’s the exact same amount of time that Republicans have expressed a newfound concern for our nation’s financial stability.” To set-up this “Republicans are hypocrites skit,” Stewart played clips of Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich warning against the budget deficit. At that point, Stewart said, “The deficit wants to skullf–k your mother. It wants to eat your children after it shows your wife a level of physical passion you’ve never been able to provide.” But here was the real punchline: Stewart played a clip from the August 1 installment of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” when the host of that show told his viewers that letting the Bush tax cuts expire would instantly shrink our nation’s deficit by 30 percent. After the clip ended, Stewart said Zakaria was right. That would have elicited uproarious laughter from a well-informed audience, for as NewsBusters reported shortly after Zakaria made this pathetic claim, nothing could be further from the truth. Supporting our view, the Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl has research that indicates these tax cuts were just a drop in the bucket of the overall federal budget deficit, and the real culprit is the explosion in spending – not the trotted out liberal misnomer that these tax cuts are responsible. Riedl explains the budget surplus forecasted at the end of the Clinton presidency was set to shift to a $6.1 trillion deficit and that the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts were responsible for a mere 14 percent of this shift. The true culprit: the liberal sacred cow of entitlement spending. “Instead of closing the long-term deficit by splitting the difference between tax hikes and spending cuts, lawmakers should address the source-rising entitlement costs,” Riedl wrote. Indeed. In fact, even if the tax cuts were extended, revenues are projected to rise above the historical average by 2017. Contrary to Zakaria and Stewart’s view, this leaves surging spending responsible for the entire increase in long-term deficits. Business & Media Institute adviser and Cato Institute fellow Daniel Mitchell agrees, and refuted Zakaria’s claim on his Aug. 4 podcast . “Our real problem isn’t that deficits are large,” he said. “It is that the government is far, far too big. That’s what we should focus on, so he’s looking at a symptom rather than the underlying disease and then if we have to look at the issue of federal spending and federal revenue – even under the Obama budget projections – while low now because of the economic downturn – are going to climb to their historical post-World War average. We do not have, in other words, a shortage of revenue in the United States or in Washington, D.C. We have too much government spending.” On top of this, as NewsBusters reported a few hours before Stewart made his foolish comments, a new study published by the liberal Brookings Institution found the savings associated with just letting the Bush tax cuts expire on upper-income wage earners – what President Obama is advocating – to be minimal when compared to the current deficit totals. But facts weren’t getting in the way of Stewart’s populist rant as he next asked a truly absurd question: “How exactly can you be for deficit reduction and extending tax cuts? How do those two diametrically opposed thoughts exist in the same Party platform?” Well, Jon, here’s how: the last time Republicans cut taxes while controlling spending in the mid-1990s, the nation produced budget surpluses for four straight years while adding 12 million jobs to non-farm payrolls. Alas, this is an inconvenient truth Stewart and his ilk have chosen to ignore for over ten years, and Wednesday was no exception as the “Daily Show” host then played a clip of Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) saying the following on “Meet the Press” Sunday: REP. MIKE PENCE (R-INDIANA): They talk about tax cuts the same way they talk about spending increases as though the government owned all of the money. They say, “Are they paid for?” Well, I think, I think deciding on a government spending increase is very different on whether or not we allow the American people to keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars. Makes sense, right? After all, it is OUR money! Obviously not according to Stewart, for he not only seemed totally perplexed by Pence’s logic, he mocked it by asking, “So, you’re saying money the government gets is different than money the government spends?” Well YEAH, Jon! When the government is spending $1.5 trillion MORE than what it takes in, there is a difference! A HUGE difference! Clearly missing this indisputable fact, Stewart said the deficit’s opinion on this matter can be summed up with a clip from the movie “Goodfellas”: ACTOR RAY LIOTTA: Business is bad? F–k you, pay me! Oh, you had a fire? F–k you, pay me! Place got hit by lightning, huh? F–k you, pay me!” In reality, although he clearly didn’t know it, Stewart was making the conservative point about the current administration and Party in power: regardless of how the economy and the American citizens are doing financially, today’s government acts like a Mafioso thug demanding to be paid. Thank you, Jon – we couldn’t have said it any better.

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Jon Stewart Vulgarly Attacks GOP Concerns for Rising Taxes and Deficits

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Paul Ryan Strikes Back at ‘Intellectually Lazy’ Paul Krugman

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has struck back at Paul Krugman calling the New York Times columnist “intellectually lazy.” As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Krugman wrote an article the previous day castigating Ryan as ” The Flimflam Man ” calling the Congressman a “charlatan” and a “fraud” while claiming his “Roadmap” to balance the nation’s budget was “drenched in flimflam sauce.” Krugman’s criticisms of the Republican rising star were of course praised by all manner of media member from the shills at MSNBC to the sycophants in the liberal blogosphere. Since then, Ryan has responded and responded well, first at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Saturday: The assertion by Krugman and others that the revenue assumptions in the “Roadmap” are overly optimistic and that my staff directed the Congressional Budget Office not to analyze the tax elements of the “Roadmap” is a deliberate attempt to misinform and mislead. I asked the CBO to analyze the long-term revenue impact of the “Roadmap,” but officials declined to do so because revenue estimates are the jurisdiction of the Joint Tax Committee. The Joint Tax Committee does not produce revenue estimates beyond the 10-year window, and so I worked with Treasury Department tax officials in setting the tax reform rates to keep revenues consistent with their historical average. What critics such as Krugman fail to understand is that our looming debt crisis is driven by the explosive growth of government spending – not from a lack of tax revenue. Krugman also recycles the disingenuous claim that the “Roadmap” – the only proposal certified to make our entitlement programs solvent – would “end Medicare as we know it.” Ironically, doing nothing, as Democrats would prefer, is certain to end entitlement programs as we know them, and in the process, beneficiaries would face painful cuts to these programs. Conversely, the “Roadmap” would pre-empt these cuts in a way that prevents unnecessary disruptions for current beneficiaries. It reforms Medicare and Social Security so those in and near retirement (55 and older) will see no change in their benefits while preserving these programs for future generations of Americans. As Ryan noted, his recommendations are hardly as extreme as liberal shills like Krugman claim: Far from the “radical” label that critics have tried to pin on it, the Medicare reforms in the “Roadmap” are based on suggestions made by the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, chaired by Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). That commission recommended in 1999 “modeling a system on the one members of Congress use to obtain health care coverage for themselves and their families.” With respect to Medicare and Social Security, the “Roadmap” puts in place systems similar to those members of Congress have. There has been support across the political spectrum for these types of reforms. By dismissing credible proposals as “flimflam,” critics such as Krugman contribute nothing to the debate. Standing on the sidelines shouting “boo” amounts to condemning our people to a future of managed decline. Absent serious reform, spending on entitlement programs and interest on government debt will consume more and more of the federal budget, resulting in falling standards of living and higher taxes as we try to sustain an ever larger social welfare state. The American people deserve a serious and civil discussion about how to reduce our exploding debt and deficit. By relying on ad-hominem attacks and discredited claims, Krugman and others are missing an opportunity to contribute to this discussion and are only polarizing and paralyzing attempts to solve our nation’s fiscal problems. On Sunday, Krugman replied at his Times blog: As I predicted , a snow storm of words, dodging the math questions. Notice that Ryan does not address the issue of the zero nominal growth assumption, and how that assumption – not entitlement reforms – is the key to his alleged spending cuts by 2020. By the way, if you look at the artful way his excuses are constructed – giving the false impression that he couldn’t get a revenue score for love nor money – how is that not flimflam? On Monday, Ryan spoke with The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack to further clarify the situation: “I realize he’s a columnist and not a journalist, yet he could have easily tried to have verified his claims with a phone call or an email,” Ryan said of Krugman. “Instead he went with his confusion and chose to impugn motives,” said Ryan, “which strikes me as a very intellectually lazy exercise or style.” Krugman wrote on his blog on Saturday that “Ryan could have gotten JCT to do a 10-year estimate; it just wouldn’t go beyond that. And he chose not to get that 10-year estimate.” Ryan says that’s not true. “We asked Joint Tax to do it,” Ryan told me. “They said they couldn’t. They don’t do them long-term outside the 10 year window. They couldn’t do it in the first 10 years because of just how busy they were.” Ryan says Krugman could have cleared this confusion up with a simple phone call. “Megan McArdle figured it out on her own,” Ryan said, referring to a blog post by The Atlantic ‘s business and economics editor.  Clearing up confusion is never Krugman’s modus operandi, as he’s made a living misinforming the public on such issues. But Ryan wasn’t done: Ryan also responded to Krugman’s criticism that his domestic discretionary spending freeze is impractical and doesn’t spell out exactly which programs would be cut. “Domestic discretionary spending went up 84 percent last year,” said Ryan. “There has been such a gusher of domestic discretionary spending that I think we can live with a freeze for a long time to come.” The point of a spending freeze, said Ryan, is to put “strong enforceable controls in place and then make the experts, whether it be the appropriators or the agencies, come up with a way to live within their means.” Ryan marvelously concluded: “The Roadmap is designed to maintain a limited government in the 21st century, and it is the antithesis of the progressivist vision which [Krugman] subscribes to. That’s fine. I understand it violates his vision for a progressivist society,” Ryan continued. “What I think is rather bizarre is his strange personal attack and ad hominem attacks based upon his confusion surrounding the scoring process, which could have been easily clarified with a simple phone call or email.” “I’m not going to descend into the mudpit with Krugman on this stuff,” Ryan said. “I want to stay on policy and ideas.” Actually, mudpit would be an uptick considering the nether regions folks like Krugman propagandize from, for his attacks on Ryan were typically devoid of facts. As NewsBusters reported Saturday, the primary statistical source for Krugman’s “Flimflam” piece, the liberal Tax Policy Center, quickly corrected the record on Friday surprisingly defending Ryan. But Krugman isn’t concerned with that. As Hot Air’s Allahpundit noted Tuesday, the Times columnist is part of an orchestrated strategy by the Left to attack all on the Right that are gaining traction with the American people: It’s the same reason why Chris Matthews went to such pains to make Ryan look unserious and why the DNC is now lumping him in with candidates like Sharron Angle in an attempt to make him seem kooky . According to the Narrative, today’s conservatives are a horde of feral, brainless bigots following whatever primitive impulses their political id generates. Ryan, being both soft-spoken and very intellectually serious about the unsustainability of entitlements, is both a threat to that narrative and to the welfare state itself. As such, frankly, he’s lucky he’s gotten off as easy as he has thus far. Potentially, he’s progressive public enemy number one.  Indeed. What also makes Ryan so dangerous to folks like Krugman is that he represents a new breed of young, extremely intelligent, and attractive conservatives that could very well be presidential material in the future. As such, the liberal attack machine in the media feels it’s necessary to bash him whenever possible and without any concern for the facts. As the fabulous David Byrne sang decades ago, “Same as it ever was.” 

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‘Recovery Summer’ vs. ‘Mission Accomplished’: Will MSM Immortalize Obama’s Laughable Proclamations?

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

For the media, “Mission Accomplished” represents everything that was wrong with the George W. Bush administration and its war policy. The image of Bush declaring unequivocal victory mere weeks after the invasion of Iraq has been ballyhooed as a visual representation of Bush’s arrogance, naivete, even dishonesty (the media contrived most of this meme – more on that below). Will Barack Obama have a “Mission Accomplished” moment? That is, will the media seize on something he or his administration has said as evidence of the large gap between his rhetoric and the effects of his policies? In fact, the gap already exists. The White House’s ” Recovery Summer ” initiative and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s statement, ” welcome to the recovery ” are completely divorced from economic reality. The only question is whether the media will seize on the catchy and baseless slogans (the two criteria of the “Mission Accomplished” media standard) coming from the White House to illustrate the sizable gap between this administration’s rhetoric, and the facts on ground, so to speak. First, it should be noted that the “Mission Accomplished” meme, as trumpeted by the media since May, 2003, is largely a myth. Bush never delivered those words in the context portrayed by many media liberals. The phrase was never actually uttered on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where Bush spoke in front of a banner displaying the infamous phrase. In fact, the banner was draped from the ship with little involvement or input from the White House. And Bush, during the speech on May 1, 2003, made sure to note that “Our mission continues” and that “We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide.” In other words, Bush plainly stated that the overarching mission was not  accomplished. Granted, he did say the following to a group of troops a month later: “America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.” But in the context of the time – when the search for weapons of mass destruction was still ongoing and Saddam Hussein had just been deposed – that statement was true. A grave threat in the Iraqi dictator had been removed, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that bore the brunt of his dictatorial rule had been liberated. The lesson: truth matters less than perception and a coherent narrative in the creation of iconic images that promote or dog entire presidencies. The media’s “Mission Accomplished” meme abandoned truth in favor of a pithy and memorable way to get across a point they were already trying to make: the war effort was a bad idea. The Chicago Tribune channeled the media’s less flustered critics of the “Mission Impossible” statement, calling it ” dramatically premature .” The New York Times, on the other hand, labeled it a product of the president’s ” Never Never Land ” mentality on Iraq. “Welcome to the recovery” is certainly no less deserving – more so, in fact – of the iconic status afforded “Mission Accomplished” and the media’s disdain. Short, catchy, and lacking any real basis in reality, the phrase perfectly captures the Obama administration’s fingers-in-the-ears attitude towards their own economic policies. Three days after Geithner made his “welcome to the recovery” proclamation in the op-ed pages of the New York Times, the economy shed 131,000 jobs. The administration and its left-wing media cheerleaders touted the 71,000 private sector jobs created, not mentioning of course that about double that number would need to materialize for the economy to keep pace with new entrants in the job market. Ed Morrissey explains the numbers in more detail: This isn’t a Recovery Summer. It’s a slow slide, certainly better than the rapid disintegration of 2009, but we haven’t replaced those jobs yet, either. Job losses are cumulative. In a normal recovery with proper economic policies of lower barriers to investor entry, we would see a rapid replacement of jobs in this time frame that would take us back to somewhere around 80% of what was lost, with the remaining 20% being the most difficult to recover. We have not yet even begun that ascent. I’ll update this with a couple of slides later this morning to demonstrate the problem. Expect the White House to hail the best private-sector job creation numbers since March, but economists won’t get fooled. We’re still descending, and will until we get job creation solidly above 100,000 new additions per month. That Geithner’s “welcome to the recovery” statement was “dramatically premature” seems an understatement. is Tim Geithner stuck in Never Never Land? The Treasury Secretary’s declaration of the non-recovery recovery came in the middle of what the White House has formally dubbed its “Recovery Summer” campaign. The effort aims to promote “the surge in Recovery Act infrastructure projects that will be underway across the country in the coming months – and the jobs they’ll create well into the fall and through the end of the year,” according to a release. “Summer 2010 is actually poised to be the most active Recovery Act season yet,” the White House claimed in June. Total job losses during “Recovery Summer” have totaled 352,000 so far. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, has declined slightly, indicating that thousands of Americans have given up on their searches for jobs. Meanwhile, only a fifth of Americans believe the economy is improving, while three quarters believe the stimulus either had no effect on the economy, or has actually made things worse. In short, the “Recovery Summer” label is a joke, even given the modest (and that’s putting it generously) private-sector job creation so far this year. But will the media treat it with the disdain they did Bush’s “Mission Accomplished”? Will they call out Geithner for welcoming Americans to a non-existent recovery? If the economy doesn’t start gaining some steam, media neutrality will truly be put to the test.

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WaPo Wonders: How Can You Spend a Trillion Dollars with ‘Tangible Results’ and Be Doubted?

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The front page of Saturday’s Washington Post carried an article by Shailagh Murray from Ohio’s 13th congressional district, just west of Cleveland. The dominant theme was two-term Rep. Betty Sutton’s whining that her GOP opponent Ted Ganley, a car dealer, benefited from Cash for Clunkers but now bashes it. The Post wondered about why Democrats get so little credit for the “stimulus,” and Murray’s central question was this: How can nearly $1 trillion flush through the U.S. economy, with tangible results, and still leave voters dubious? [“Flushed” is a good verb for this.] Some blame Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress for failing to set clear and realistic expectations… It proved difficult to keep track of all that spending, and the White House and Democratic leaders had a hard time showing how it was contributing to the recovery. “The branding and marketing was done very poorly,” said Alan Blinder, a Princeton University economist who supported the stimulus. “When you spend that much money, there should be more recognition.” About $2 billion of the stimulus money flowed to Sutton’s Ohio District. The funds are paying for 628 projects, making it one of the largest concentrations of federal spending in the Midwest. But when you look at the “tangible” Sutton results that the Post lists, even if you were local, you’d wonder if this is the “smart” way to create jobs — as opposed to pleasing a list of constituent groups: The list includes $400 million to replace the decrepit I nner Belt Bridge in suburban Cleveland and $25 million to expand a BASF Catalysts lithium-ion battery plant in Elyria. The Akron Urban League received $2 million to expand broadband Internet service to 3,500 users, creating 13 jobs. The town of Lorain secured $15,390 to retrofit seven school buses with pollution-control gear, and the Ohio Department of Transportation won a $2,500 grant to buy spare parts for the Brunswick municipal fleet. And the Car Allowance Rebate System, better known as Cash for Clunkers, lured customers into auto showrooms, staving off layoffs at the local Ford factory and its suppliers. Here’s how Murray began her Saturday article, complete with Mean GOP overtones: Republican House candidate Tom Ganley sold more than 800 cars last summer through the “Cash for Clunkers” government rebate program. But does Uncle Sam get a thank you? “Let’s talk about Cash for Clunkers,” the voluble millionaire, who owns the largest auto dealership group in Ohio, told a group of voters here recently. “It created a 30-day surge in auto sales. After it ended, there was no business. It was like the faucet was shut off.” As the nation struggled through a painful recession, the Democratic-led Congress rushed through nearly $1 trillion in spending and tax cuts, aiming to jump-start business investment, keep state and local governments afloat and put people to work, if only temporarily. Most economists say the nationwide stimulus effort has generally paid off, although they differ on how much. But the cash infusion appears to have done little to restore public confidence either in the federal government or in the Democratic Party. The stimulus may have created or saved up to 3.6 million jobs, as the White House contends, but the jobless rate in Ohio still hovers at a crippling 10.4 percent. That has left Democrats such as Ganley’s opponent, Rep. Betty Sutton, trying to convince voters that the stimulus made a bad situation somewhat less bad. Doesn’t exactly pop off a bumper sticker. And she ended by bashing Ganley as a hypocrite:  Even Cash for Clunkers is difficult to measure empirically. Ganley is a critic, but some of his competitors are big fans. “It jump-started the entire industry, and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time,” said Alan Spitzer, chief executive of Spitzer Auto Group, who urged Sutton to push the rebate program and whose 23 dealerships sold about 1,000 cars through Cash for Clunkers. Joseph Lee, plant manager of the Avon Lake Ford plant, said the steady decline in production, which forced 200 layoffs in 2009, started to level off when Cash for Clunkers took effect. That was true even though his plant makes gas-guzzling Econoline vans, not the compact cars that were selling best. “All I know is my plant was shutting down week after week. And then we weren’t.” A year ago, even Ganley had a rosier assessment of the program. He told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that it “certainly primed the pump,” although he complained about its execution. “It’s a little duplicitous,” Spitzer said of Ganley’s reversal. “This program woke up the market. It was an unqualified success.” [Image of Sutton from the conservative site www.bettysutton2010.com ]

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Video: The Broken Window Fallacy

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Liberals are constantly insisting that government spending will stimulate the economy and create lots of jobs. Here is all you need to know to realize how wrong that theory is: For more on the video and how absurd liberal economic policies are make sure you check out this post at the Eyeblast blog.

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Bill Press: Obama’s Poll Numbers Down Because Americans Are Spoiled Children

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Liberal talk radio host Bill Press says President Obama’s poll numbers are down because Americans are spoiled, impatient children that want everything solved yesterday. After describing to his listeners Tuesday all the fabulous accomplishments this president has made since taking office in January 2009, Press admonished the citizenry for giving the White House resident poor grades for his efforts. “I think this says more about the American people than it does about President Obama,” barked Press. “I think it just shows once again that the American people are spoiled” (audio follows with partial transcript and commentary): BILL PRESS: Basically, spoiled — as a people, we are too critical. We are too quick to rush to judgment, we are too negative, we are too impatient. Especially impatient. We want it all solved yesterday, and if you don’t, I don’t care who you are — get out of the way. And again, basically spoiled. To the point where it makes me wonder if it’s even possible to govern today. I gotta tell you, I don’t think Abraham Lincoln — who certainly didn’t get everything right the first time — could govern today. I’m not sure Franklin Roosevelt could govern today, the way we are again. Just about like spoiled children. And it’s Americans, and it’s the media, and if we don’t get instant gratification, then screw you is basically our attitude. Yes, America, you’re spoiled. We promised that if you elected us, things would get better for you. When you bought into our “Hope and Change” pitch, the unemployment rate was 6.6 percent. Now it’s 9.5 percent. On Election Day 2008, 7.3 million Americans were out of work. Now it’s 14.6 million. And the fact that this makes you unhappy means you’re spoiled and impatient. As Brian Maloney wrote Tuesday, “[O]nly ultra-partisan Democratic Party crony Bill Press could manage to blame voters for Obama’s failure to thrive.”  

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George Will: Obama Is An Expert At Selling Snake Oil

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

George Will on Sunday accused Barack Obama of being an expert at selling snake oil. As the Roundtable segment of ABC’s “This Week” began, host Jake Tapper asked Will if the President’s claim that Republicans “are peddling that same snake oil that they’ve been peddling now for years” will resonate with voters this November. Will marvelously responded, “No, because he is an expert on snake oil.” “This is the man who said, if we pass the $767 billion stimulus bill, which it turns out costs $862 billion, a $95 million oops, we would have unemployment at 8 percent and no higher, and it went higher,” continued Will. “This is the man who last week was out saying, ‘I’m going to give $2 billion, about $2 billion, to two companies to create about 1,600 jobs.’ That’s $1.5 million per job. That is snake oil” (video follows with partial transcript and commentary:  JAKE TAPPER, HOST: I want to start with President Obama out on the campaign trail again this week trying to sharpen his message. Here’s a glimpse. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: They’re not coming back and saying, “You know what? We really screwed up, but we’ve learned our lesson, and now we’ve got this new approach, and this is how things are going to turn out really well.” That’s not their argument. They are trying to sell you the same stuff that they’ve been peddling. They are peddling that same snake oil that they’ve been peddling now for years. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: So the president, George, is trying to make this not a referendum on him, but rather a choice between him and Republicans. Is it going to work? WILL: No, because he is an expert on snake oil. This is the man who said, if we pass the $767 billion stimulus bill, which it turns out costs $862 billion, a $95 million oops, we would have unemployment at 8 percent and no higher, and it went higher. This is the man who, in another form of snake oil, said we have this wonderful idea of homeowner tax credits for buying first-time homeowners, which we now realize has largely subsidized home purchases that would have been made anyway. This is the man who last week was out saying, “I’m going to give $2 billion, about $2 billion, to two companies to create about 1,600 jobs.” That’s $1.5 million per job. That is snake oil. A bit later, Tapper asked the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, “Is the president doing the right thing here? Is this — is this the effective message to help at least lower the losses in November? Marcus surprisingly responded: Well, that presumes there’s any effective message. And the president says, look, these guys drove the car into the ditch. Why would you give the keys back to them? The only problem with that is, who’s been driving the car for the last 18 months and where are we? Quite shocking to hear that from the Obama-loving Marcus, wouldn’t you agree? 

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MSNBC Fill-In Host Absurdly Claims Again: Obama a ‘Republican President’

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

For the second day in a row, liberal talk show host and MSNBC guest anchor Cenk Uygur pushed the outlandish notion that President Obama is a conservative. Filling in on July 7 for Dylan Ratigan on his 4 p.m. show, Uygur exclaimed, “I didn’t realize we voted for a Republican president!” Uygur preceded this statement with a rant on how ridiculous it is for Obama to express concern about the ever-growing deficit when “60 percent of Americans favor additional government spending to create jobs and stimulate the economy.” Uygur and liberal guest Ryan Grimm of “The Huffington Post” could not understand President Obama’s rationale for focusing on deficit concerns. Grimm argued that, “when people say they are concerned about the deficit” they are just really saying that, “they are nervous about the economy. That’s all they mean. So if you solve the economic problems, you’re going to solve the deficit concerns.” Of course, Uygur and Grimm agreed that the only way to improve the economy was for the president to spend more, neglecting the fact that President Obama has already spent some $3.5 trillion in his first year in office, which more than exceeds any other first-year president. If Obama were a truly fiscally responsible statesman, he would recognize that our nation has a spending problem.  However, with unemployment close to double digits, and in need of a scapegoat, the hosts at MSNBC are growing restless, asking, “when will our president stop adopting Republican talking points and start giving us real change instead of pocket change?”

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Biden Wrong: June Data Shows 125,000 Lost Jobs, But Media Still Ignore Failure of Stimulus

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The June jobs report was released July 2 showing a tiny decline in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, but a depressing 125,000 overall non-farm payroll jobs lost . CNN’s “American Morning” reacted with an appropriately downbeat report, but the onscreen chyron led with the better news — showing the lower unemployment rate rather than the job losses. Christine Romans also pointed out that it was the “best unemployment rate since July 2009,” though later in the segment she admitted the rate is still “horrible.” NBC’s Ann Curry offered a very brief report on the jobs data on “Today,” also highlighting the lowest unemployment rate “since last July.” The report also contradicted Vice President Joe Biden’s predictions of 100,000 to 200,000 jobs gained each month for the rest of 2010. This month, Biden is off by about 275,000 jobs On June 2, Obama declared the U.S. economy was “moving in the right direction.” The same day, Vice President Biden predicted 100,000 to 200,000 jobs would be created each month through 2010. That prediction,if it came true, would fall 5.2 million jobs short of Obama’s promise that the stimulus package would create more than 4 million jobs by the end of 2010. As of July 2, adding June job losses puts Obama more than 5.3 million jobs away from his promise. “American Morning,” “Today” and the immediate reaction on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to the June numbers all ignored the failure of Obama’s economic stimulus packages. The federal government has thrown billions (the $787 billion stimulus package, not to mention Cash for Clunkers, the Big Three bailout and other measures) at the economy in an attempt to reverse the course of the recession and generate jobs, yet the unemployment rate still stands at 9.5 percent. But the news media have yet to retract their support for government spending. “American Morning” host Kiran Chetry mentioned other bad economic news and then repeated liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who warned on June 28 that without additional stimulus the U.S. would go into a ” third depression .” “Some like Paul Krugman who say, if we pull back on stimulus and spending right now — austerity measures aren’t necessarily working in Europe — we’re going to be in more trouble,” Chetry said. Over on MSNBC Savannah Guthrie was also concerned that the recovery might not be able to “hold on” without further stimulus: “I think the real issue is, as some of these stimulus programs expire, for example the Cash for Clunkers or the housing tax credit that people were getting, as soon as those stimulus measures are taken away it seems that everything collapses,” Guthrie said. “So I think the question for economists and the question that the White House struggles with is: Where is the organic growth? And with Congress in no mood to do anything in the way of stimulus, any further stimulus, what do you do? Can this recovery hold on?” The reports continued the media’s unwillingness to remind viewers of President Obama’s promises about the stimulus package. When Obama was selling his massive spending proposal, the administration claimed the package would keep unemployment from rising about 8 percent. The news media have consistently ignored the failure of the stimulus to fulfill that pledge. On June 4 the news media spun the May unemployment report by emphasizing the Census jobs that “led to the biggest jump in jobs in ten years.” Like this article? Then sign up for BMI’s weekly e-mail newsletter, The Balance Sheet .

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Kudlow, Forbes Debunk Krugman’s ‘Third Depression’ Call

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

It’s hard to imagine an economist being provocative, but Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, has managed to do so. In his June 28 New York Times op-ed , Krugman argued that since governments around the world aren’t willing to double-down on Keynesian policies meant to stimulate the global economy, the United States and the rest of the world are facing a third depression. But on CNBC’s June 28 “The Kudlow Report,” host Larry Kudlow asked if Krugman’s premise were true, how come none of the measures being applied, which Krugman advocates more of, have failed to have any effect on the current economy. “Steve Forbes, I want to focus this, coming out of G-20,” Kudlow said. “Paul Krugman’s remarkable op-ed today in The New York Times – he says, we are already in the early stages of a depression. He calls it the third depression in U.S. history. He says that it’s primarily a failure of policy. But, Steve, the so-called spending cuts or tax increases or deficit reduction hasn’t happened yet. In the last two years, we’ve had gargantuan spending and ultra-easy money which is what Professor Krugman has been advocating the whole time. And he still thinks we’re in a depression. So I need to ask you, maybe his policies are what threaten the depression.” Forbes magazine CEO Steve Forbes argued the pro-growth approach was the proper means – a stronger dollar and low tax rates.  “Well, it’s like the old physicians who continue to bleed the patient and wonder why the patient isn’t getting better and then bleeds the patient even more,” Forbes explained. “What we should be doing, yes, we should be cutting back spending because it takes money from productive citizens. But as you know, Larry, two other things have to be done, reducing tax rates or at least not increasing tax rates and stabilizing the dollar. So people can trust it again. Sound money, low tax rates, that’s the cure.” However, Dean Baker, a liberal economist and the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. argued the U.S. dollar was strong enough, because as investors flee from other currencies , they are seeking safety in the U.S. dollar and treasuries. But against gold, as Forbes pointed out, the U.S. dollar has taken a dive . “Well, Steve must have not been following things very closely because people have a lot of faith in the dollar,” Baker said. “That’s why it’s been rising so much.” “Not against gold, which is the best barometer of the dollar,” Forbes fired back. Nonetheless, Baker continued to make Krugman’s case – that this was analogous to a forest fire with only a few buckets of water to put it out, which aren’t working meaning there was a need for more so-called medicine from the government. “That’s fine, every other currency in the world,” Baker said. “Interest rates are at near-record lows, so that’s not keeping people from investing. Low tax rates – well, tax rates were higher back in the 90s when the economy was growing at a record pace. So none of that really fits. Krugman’s on the mark here. And the point here is that it’s sort of like if we had a big forest fire and we got a few buckets and you go ‘hey that didn’t put it out.’ Well, water’s not going to work. I mean we lost over a trillion dollars a year in annual demand. We tried to replace it with the stimulus that it came to from the federal sector about $300 billion a year, you subtract out the cuts at the state and local level, that’s $150 billion a year. Where I come from $150 billion isn’t going to make a loss of a trillion. That’s simple arithmetic.”

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Kudlow, Forbes Debunk Krugman’s ‘Third Depression’ Call

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