Budget

During a pre-recorded commentary aired on CBS’s Sunday Morning show, right-leaning actor and economist Ben Stein - also a CBS contributor - blamed "excessive tax cuts" enacted by former President Bush and congressional Republicans for "starting the problem" of the current federal budget deficit, and advocated raising taxes on the wealthy in addition to "major spending cuts" and changes in…

Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) had quite an illuminating discussion with Christiane Amanpour Sunday. As the host of ABC's "This Week" pushed for higher taxes, Walsh correctly pointed out that Barack Obama's first 2012 budget proposed earlier in the year didn't address entitlement programs saying, "The President of the United States ought to be ashamed of himself, and I don't know…

A photo taken at a Tea Party demonstration in Boston carried at Yahoo News carries the following caption (HT Powerline): VIDEO: April 15 was tax day in the United States, and Tea Party radicals used it to stage demonstrations across the country, including near the site of the original Boston Tea Party revolt of the colonial era. The photo was grabbed from an Agency France-Presse video with…

Like most liberal media members, Bill Maher thinks violent political rhetoric only comes from Republicans. Proving this once again, HBO's "Real Time" host on Friday disputed former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's claim that Democrats used such hostile talk against Republicans during the recent budget battle (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As we've seen so far this year, the media on every vote that takes place in Congress love reporting about a supposed civil war between regular Republicans and members of the Tea Party. Charles Krauthammer on PBS's "Inside Washington" Friday night noted the press continue harping on this despite it not being the case (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In this week's "Is Bill Maher Really That Stupid" segment, the "Real Time" host on Friday actually said that ending the Bush tax cuts would solve 75 percent of the nation's budget deficit. This deliciously came before Maher called Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) "an evil liar who insults the intelligence of all living things including mushrooms and mold" (video follows with commentary):

What the media like about President Obama's budget proposal over Rep. Paul Ryan's are the former's insistence on tax hikes, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told the audience of Friday's "Fox & Friends." "That's the part of deficit reduction they like" but "anytime anybody proposes any cut of any wasteful spending, the media are the first ones there to talk about the sky falling and…

Call me a cynic, but I've been dubious about just how accidental were President Obama's supposedly "hot mic" remarks about his budget negotations with the Republicans. Does a president who has been frequently criticized for a lack of toughness really mind being "caught" sounding muy macho? My skepticism was sharpened by GMA's report on the matter this morning.   The graphic referred to…

Remember all that talk a few months ago about toning down the violent rhetoric on the airwaves in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tucson? On HBO's "Real Time" Friday night, Bill Maher actually joked about a wall collapsing on Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) (video follows with transcript and commentary):

PBS fans love how the show Washington Week is such a peaceful regurgitation of the conventional liberal media wisdom. But there are times in the calm that you wonder what world these liberals are living in. For example, the show's host, Gwen Ifill, seems to think it's plausible that President Obama -- the man who's made trillion-dollar-plus deficits a routine -- could take the "deficit slasher…

CNNMoney.com ran a provocative piece Friday listing what it determined to be the top "meanest budget cuts." The website laid out seven government programs that are victims of the recent budget compromise – programs that provide assistance to the poor and support humanitarian causes overseas. Most of the individual cuts make up a small fraction of each program's annual budget, and a…

Talking to political strategist Stu Rothenberg on her 1PM ET hour show on MSNBC on Friday, anchor Andrea Mitchell saw the Medicare reform proposal in Congressman Paul Ryan's 2012 budget as a major negative for the GOP: "Obviously the White House feels very good right now....it's sort of like a tar baby situation where they're loving the fact that the Republicans are now voting on Medicare cuts…

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) demanded an answer to a question today that the MRC has been asking for years: why do so many journalists refuse to ask President Barack Obama tough questions? On the April 15 edition of MSNBC's "Martin Bashir," Walsh pressed the anchor after which the program is named on why he and his colleagues are such Obama sycophants, pointing to the media's unwillingness to…

The April 18 edition of Newsweek trashed Republican Paul Ryan as a "scrooge" who is declaring "war" on poor Americans. The piece by Jonathan Chait ripped the Representative's budget proposal and included this cover headline: "Why GOP Scrooge Paul Ryan Is a Fraud." The failing publication, which was sold for $1 in 2010, featured an equally vicious headline inside the magazine: "War on the…