Media Cast Obama as Budget Cutter Amid Debt Ceiling Debate
Reporters have repeatedly portrayed Barack Obama as a deficit hawk committed to "slashing" spending, as MRC Research Director Rich Noyes documented in April ahead of the president's much-anticipated budget speech.
While the media touted Obama's budget blueprint, which contained puny cuts, as "deeply painful," CBO Director Doug Elmendorf told Congress the president's framework lacked sufficient detail to be scored as a credible plan.
Since then, Obama still hasn't revealed a serious plan to cut spending, yet correspondents continue to paint the president as a budget cutter.
Echoing an earlier report in which he asserted that Obama's initial budget blueprint "promises pain," ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper framed Obama's latest plan on the July 15 edition of "World News," as a "big, painful deficit reduction package."
Tapper's counterpart at CBS, Bill Plante, on the July 18 "Early Show," trumpeted Obama's "push" for a deal to "slash" trillions from the deficit: "That's what President Obama continues to push for, a deal that would slash four trillion dollars from the federal deficit over the next decade and increase taxes on some corporations and wealthy Americans."
At the Washington Post, financial reporter Lori Montgomery claimed in a front-page story on July 7 that Obama sought to "defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode" by slashing the deficit.
On July 14, New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes insisted "President Obama wants deficit reduction." Later in the piece, she proclaimed "Obama has conceded to [Republicans] this year on spending cuts, including for those entitlement programs Democrats favor."
The next day, NYT White House reporter Mark Landler channeled his colleague in the latest edition of the paper's "Caucus" podcast: "It’s also worth pointing out that the president and Democrats are putting some very significant cuts on the table."
As Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explained to CBS's Bob Schieffer on Sunday's "Face the Nation," Obama has paid lip service to the idea of deficit reduction, but hasn't put a serious plan to cut spending down on paper. Nevertheless, the media continue to advance the narrative that the president is a disciplined budget cutter.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
When Obama was doing all his
Submitted by tcm14 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 5:57pm.
When Obama was doing all his spending (ObamaCare and Stimulus), people tried to ask him if he was going to have to raise taxes to pay for all this stuff. "NO," he said, "OF COURSE we won't have to raise taxes".
Now a couple years later, he's like, "We have this huge debt and it would be immoral not to raise taxes." And the media are like "Look at what a deficit hawk he is, why are the Republicans so unreasonable?". Either that or "Well he inherited it from Bush." Un-frikken-believable.
Maybe it's just that I'm getting older, but you see these cycles repeat themselves a few times and it gets to where you can see this stuff coming a mile away. It gets really old.
Nice book prop...
Submitted by USMC8411 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 6:25pm.
You dick. The big secret joke is that he is holding a ream of paper wrapped in White House "budget wrapper"... meaning, cheap copy paper for any budget.
o'bama has not proposed anything that he can be held accountable for.
Yea, he's a cutter alright.
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 6:40pm.
Yea, Obama's a cutter alright. He's cutting the financial wrists of America and bleeding us dry, one trillion dollar deficit at a time.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Somebody in the WH must have Polaroids of Tapper
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:04pm.
Surely he isn't this colossally stupid, is he?
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
yes actually he is......
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 8:07pm.
He like the rest of the media are nothing but Obam Prison wives... looking to do anything to make their man look good
We don't need no stinkin' facts part 312
Submitted by Tomorama on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:13pm.
So Obambi was asked specifically at one of his "all of a sudden in vogue" press conferences FOR SPECIFICS and he wouldn't do it NOR would his mouthpiece Carney (as the sides were still in talks)....................
He has put forth NOTHING on paper and has only spoken of "heat" from his base, but who did he give his extra special super secret ideas to???
He lacks the brains and guts to do anything right, when something goes well...... he had to be dragged kicking and screaming on doing it.
Ballless clueless, classless, factless, spineless, gutless, just plain ol' LESS that any president ever.
But the media with not one FN piece of uh, uh, uh evidence props him up as a tax and money saving "leader".
Hannity is right, the mainstream media in this country DIED in 2008.
Whores.
Tomorama, you need to stop
Submitted by Reaver on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:55pm.
Tomorama, you need to stop repressing, man don’t be afraid to vent once in a while! Seriously, Hannity likes to say that journalism in America died in 2008 if that is the case then 2012 may go down in history as the year of the living dead of journalism. The year the Obama zombies rose from their graves and tried to put the shine back on the turd they sold in ’08.
Serenity now, serenity now...............
Submitted by Tomorama on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 8:47pm.
Sometimes I need to vent, it keeps me sane........
The "meme" of the pack of liars is beyond a joke, where ae the jobs sotero has morphed into, WHERE IS YOUR PLAN.
Even more simple, WHERE is the Demonrats plan?
The party of no is who now?
The only "slashing" that fool
Submitted by fatboy on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 8:50pm.
The only "slashing" that fool does is w/ his 5 iron! Give me a break!!
Ask them what is obama's plan
Submitted by ohio granny on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 9:59am.
Ask them for any specific plan or proposal from obama's plan. They can't answer that because he does not have one. That is what any republican needs to say every time some idiot from the alphabet networks tries to cover for obama. They won't (can't) answer but at some point it will become obvious to anyone, even people whose brains are filled with mush. Obama has NO PLAN.
democrats = liars, cheats, crooks, and hypocrites. Bullies and thugs too.