National Debt

Krugman's Selective Outrage: Goes After Paul and Cantor on 'Deficit,' Ignores Landrieu's Debt Delusions
By Tom Blumer | August 16, 2013 | 3:19 PM EDT

One thing which is arguably worse for one's health than Obamacare is the act of reading a Paul Krugman column at the New York Times.

In his latest equivalent of a DNC press release on Thursday published in Friday's print edition, Krugman lambasted GOP Senator Rand Paul and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor as "politicians who gleefully add to the misinformation" the general public allegedly has about "the deficit" (more on that shortly). But "somehow," he a delusional statement made by Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to a veteran earlier this month, as recounted by Army Lieutenant Colonel Andre Dean Benton (bolds are mine; note the weak headline more than likely chosen by the paper and not Benton):

New York Times Gets Obama Interview, Fails to Ask Anything About IRS, Other Obama Scandals
By Tim Graham | July 30, 2013 | 8:23 AM EDT

Over the weekend, The New York Times promoted its July 24 interview with President Obama – after being shut out for almost three years – but reporters Jackie Calmes and Michael “Macaca” Shear couldn’t find time for a single question about the IRS scandal, Benghazi, or other Obama scandals. They found time to ask a softball about whether Obama would help observe the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. This could explain Obama’s last words: “Thanks, guys. Appreciate you.”

But Calmes and Shear did throw a series of hardballs about how Obama’s not getting around Republican obstructionism on the economy. In a question pushing to end the sequester, Calmes spurred Obama to talk about his passion for deficit reduction (despite the need for a laugh track, he’s not kidding):

'Déjà Pivot': MSNBC Host Calls Out Obama On His Repetitive Pivots On Jobs, Will Others Follow?
By Matt Vespa | July 25, 2013 | 9:05 AM EDT

Yesterday, President Obama gave another warmed-over version of the same economic policy speech that’s been given for the past five years at Knox College in Illinois.  He saved the automobile industry.  He’s overseeing an economic recovery.  Republicans are intransigent. And he’s the best person to ever breathe oxygen on this planet. Yada, yada, yada. 

Now with polls showing a record number of people calling for the repeal of ObamaCare, the president needed to pivot towards, well, jobs – again. Not that the liberal media have noticed the maddeningly repetitive same-old, same-old of it all.  We’re getting to the point where the media should be calling the president out on this tactic, although with very few exceptions, no one's doing that. 

Boehner Smacks Down Schieffer's Claim Congress Created Sequester
By Noel Sheppard | July 21, 2013 | 3:07 PM EDT

CBS's Bob Schieffer got a much-needed lesson in recent history Sunday.

During a Face the Nation discussion with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.), after the host wrongly claimed sequester was "the creation of Congress," Boehner interrupted him saying, "That's wrong. Who insisted on the sequester? The President of the United States" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It's WaPo Official: Sequestration Was A Dud
By Matt Vespa | July 1, 2013 | 3:05 PM EDT

Well, it’s Washington Post official: the sequestration wasn’t all that bad after all.  In fact, you could classify it as a dud, according to none other than Ezra Klein, a favored pet pundit of many a liberal MSNBC panel.

In a June 30 item at his Wonkblog, Klein concluded that the experts were “mostly wrong” concerning the impact of the cuts.  At the same time, conservatives saw from the beginning that the actual amount of cutbacks, which was only $44 billion, would have a de minimis impact on the economy. However, government spending increased over the past year, just at a lower rate of growth than originally planned, so in real terms, there were no real cuts to speak of in real terms.

LAT Story on UCLA Study Relayed By AP: 'It's Not a Recovery. It's Not Even Normal Growth. It's Bad'
By Tom Blumer | June 5, 2013 | 11:45 PM EDT

The most interesting thing (to me, at least) about Wednesday's report in the Los Angeles Times by Ricardo Lopez on how the author of an economic report out of UCLA has said that the U.S. economy's performance since the recession officially ended in June 2009 stinks -- "It's not a recovery. It's not even normal growth. It's bad" -- is how the Associated Press relayed it to its readers and subscribers. I don't recall ever seeing a 15-plus paragraph report go unbylined, but this one did.

Maybe whoever wrote the AP item didn't want to incur the wrath of his or her colleague Tom Raum, who early last week wrote that the economy is "clearly, if slowly" recovering. It's also somewhat likely that Christopher Rugaber, who wrote "Gone are the fears that the economy could fall into another recession" in early April, might be a bit miffed. Choice nuggets from Lopez's LAT lament follow the jump:

Martin Bashir: 'Paul Krugman Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize'...For Advocating America Bankrupt Itself?
By Noel Sheppard | May 29, 2013 | 1:07 AM EDT

Martin Bashir on Tuesday said New York Times columnist Paul Krugman "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize."

Yes, the MSNBC host said Peace Prize - not one for economics - all because the perilously liberal economist has advocated more deficit spending and even more federal debt to stimulate the economy (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

NBC: U.S. National Parks 'Under Stress' and 'In Trouble' Following Sequester
By Kyle Drennen | May 28, 2013 | 5:41 PM EDT

On Monday's NBC Today, correspondent Tom Costello fretted over the impact of modest reductions in government spending: "401 parks, battlefields, monuments, seashores, volcanos, and deserts make up the National Park System....But the parks and their future are under stress....The Park Service budget hasn't changed since 2006....Now the sequester is forcing another $153 million in cuts just as tourist season begins."

During a similar report on Nightly News that evening, Costello warned viewers: "Park advocates say for years the parks have been underfunded. Now some are in trouble....Despite rising costs, the Park Service budget has been flat for seven years and now has lost another $153 million in the sequester."

Gayle King to Tom Coburn: Deficit-Neutral Disaster Relief Risks 'Alienating Your Constituents'
By Matthew Balan | May 22, 2013 | 8:16 PM EDT

On Wednesday's CBS This Morning, open Obama supporter Gayle King strongly hinted to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn that he would face voter backlash for seeking cuts in the federal budget to pay for tornado disaster relief: "You voted against relief plans for Hurricane Sandy, and it sounds that you would do the same if it was raised in Oklahoma. Do you worry about alienating your constituents?"

The Republican politician shot back that he didn't want the next generation to foot the bill for the recovery from the EF-5 tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, and then strongly criticized the multi-billion dollar Hurricane Sandy relief package audio available here; video below the jump]:

Three Labor Unions, Including Teamsters, Want ObamaCare Repealed; When Will Media Report?
By Matt Vespa | May 21, 2013 | 6:01 PM EDT

As the media, by and large, ignores the train wreck that is on the horizon with ObamaCare, yet another union has jumped ship on the president’s health care overhaul.  Back in April, you may recall, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers officially said thanks but no thanks to the president’s plan.

Well, now, a major labor union in the grocery industry is balking at the policy. According to The Hill:

Maher: 'If You’re Rich You Should be Begging the Government to Redistribute Your Wealth'
By Noel Sheppard | May 11, 2013 | 2:09 PM EDT

Bill Maher is one extremely confused person.

Having two months ago said that his high taxes were leading him to consider dumping liberalism, HBO's Real Time host said Friday, "If you’re rich you should be begging the government to redistribute your wealth" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Revolving Door Spins Again: Obama Adviser Plouffe Joins Bloomberg TV, Stays in Campaign Mode
By Tom Blumer | April 27, 2013 | 10:46 PM EDT

The left's media-echo chamber just got louder. On Thursday morning in a claimed exclusive, the Politico reported that "(Former presidential adviser and campaign official David) Plouffe will appear regularly on Bloomberg Television to offer analysis and commentary on political and business issues as they impact the intersection of Wall Street, Main Street and K Street and will lend his expertise to the discussion of technology, demographic changes and crisis management."

That day at his new place of work, in response to a "kerfuffle" over errors in an academic paper which showed that, throughout history, government debt levels have held back economic growth -- errors which the authors insisted in a New York Times op-ed did not alter the fundamental validity of their conclusions, Plouffe delivered exactly what one would expect of a "former" lead Obama apparatchik: