Newsweek’s Thomas: GOP ‘Selling Smoke and Mirrors,’ PBS’s Peterson Mocks ‘Free Lunch’
On Friday’s Inside Washington on PBS, host Gordon Peterson used the term "free lunch" to mock Republicans who wish to avoid tax increases while trying to restrain the federal budget deficit. After panel member Jeanne Cummings of Politico predicted a tough fight in Congress over spending, Peterson turned the conversation to Washington Post columnist Colby King. Peterson: "Hold the line on taxes, attack the deficit. Can I offer you a free lunch, Colby?"
After King gave his predictions for the budget fight, Newsweek columnist Evan Thomas accused Republicans of "selling smoking and mirrors," and asserted that "they need to be held accountable by the press." He went on to dismiss the GOP desire to cut taxes. Thomas:
Republicans are going to be selling smoke and mirrors, and they need to be held accountable by the press. They’re gonna be talking about cutting spending, but not big entitlement programs, which is where all the money is. And cutting taxes, which you just cannot do and deal with our fiscal problems. I mean, I’m all for attacking big government, and the Tea Party’s not all wrong about that, but the way that they’re talking about doing it involves a lot of fiction.
Peterson then suggested that the Tea Party movement in Congress is "the tail that wags the dog," leading conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer to take exception with the belief by liberals that the Tea Party movement is more extreme than mainstream Republicans:
GORDON PETERSON: What about the Tea Party movement up on the Hill? Is that the tail that wags the dog now?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: But I think it’s one animal. People have this, liberals love to have the extremists on one side and the regular Republicans on the other. I think there’s a general understanding - sort of symbolized by the Tea Party but not exclusively with them - that we’ve had an experimental expansion of the government, especially Obamacare, it’s got to stop.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, December 31, Inside Washington on PBS:
GORDON PETERSON: Hold the line on taxes, attack the deficit. Can I offer you a free lunch, Colby?
COLBY KING, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Yeah, you can. And I’ll take it, if it’s free. But it’s not going to be free. What’s going to happen is I don’t think it’s going to be the clash that they’re talking about. I think they’re gonna probably come to some agreement on the number that, number of the reduction. I think where the conflict will come is on what’s going to be on the package. And that’s where the left-right split will take place with Democrats wanting to protect domestic programs and Republicans wanting to protect defense. That’s all in short hand. But I think the idea of deficit reduction is .... take hold in both parties.
PETERSON: Evan?
EVAN THOMAS, NEWSWEEK: Republicans are going to be selling smoke and mirrors, and they need to be held accountable by the press. They’re gonna be talking about cutting spending, but not big entitlement programs, which is where all the money is. And cutting taxes, which you just cannot do and deal with our fiscal problems. I mean, I’m all for attacking big government, and the Tea Party’s not all wrong about that, but the way that they’re talking about doing it involves a lot of fiction.
PETERSON: What about the Tea Party movement up on the Hill? Is that the tail that wags the dog now?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: But I think it’s one animal. People have this, liberals love to have the extremists on one side and the regular Republicans on the other. I think there’s a general understanding - sort of symbolized by the Tea Party but not exclusively with them - that we’ve had an experimental expansion of the government, especially Obamacare, it’s got to stop. All Republicans are united on repealing Obamacare. I think that’s, if you want to save money, it starts there. It’s about a trillion dollars right there.
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Comments
What arrogance! The
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:48pm.
What arrogance! The Government and to an extent political parties are held accountable to the people, not the press. It's the Dems that have been pushing "smoke and mirrors" to the people and now we have an insane deficit. Cutting gov't and decreasing taxes will increase the tax revenue. The Democrats are insane.
Free lunch is being gutless
Submitted by dscott on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 3:23pm.
Free lunch is being gutless to tell the public by how much you want to raise taxes...at least $1 trillion to even nominally balance the budget at current spendthrift levels.
Free lunch is over spending, not setting priorities and thinking you can borrow money endlessly with zero ability to pay it back in the future.
Free lunch is subsidizing products and services for your campaign contributors at the taxpayer's expense.
Free lunch is being so gutless as to start a government program and NOT tell the public that it costs money, more than you have and not being honest with the public as to how much extra in taxes YOU expect them to pay so YOU can take the credit.
The free lunch at the taxpayer's expense is now over and the sooner you accept that the sooner you will regain credibility. You have a great idea for a government program, either set your priorities to cut back on one(s) that aren't working well or put it to the voters in your re-election campaign that you intend to raise taxes for the program you are advocating. STOP LYING TO THE PUBLIC, STOP TREATING THEM AS CHILDREN AND LEAD BY THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.
I know they have no interest
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 3:26pm.
I know they have no interest in doing so, but it might help if , on occasion, these inbred liberals would step out of "Inside Washington" and into the outside world of real people.
Good grief, Chris...they
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 3:52pm.
Good grief, Chris...they would never recover from the shock!
Motherbelt, They'd die if
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:13pm.
Motherbelt,
They'd die if they found themselves stuck for a few days in Corntown, Nebraska. I guess that's why they all prefer staying in DC, talking to and agreeing with each other. It makes one wonder if any of them had a life somewhere else before they joined the MSM.
And whay they mean is...
Submitted by jaydeee007 on Sun, 01/02/2011 - 3:27pm.
When I read where he said, "and they need to be held accountable by the press" I knew what he really meant was to say, "and The Media needs to browbeat them into submission to support the liberal world view."
Pretty funny that PBS has the
Submitted by Van Halen on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 3:26pm.
Pretty funny that PBS has the audacity to talk about a 'free lunch'.
Let's get on the phones with our Congressional reps on Jan 5 and tell them to defund the free lunch for PBS. Immediately.
stuck on entitlements
Submitted by TerryWest on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:11pm.
ok entitlements need to be addressed grant that, but after watching the billions of dollars being funneled to the unions and billions more on wasteful programs to feed special interests under the guise of fixing the econemy , yet more billions to feed the over bloated Obama administration and it's costs to function in a dysfunctional state I'm going to have to ask if entitlement's are really the only thing these people have to focus on and do they really believe they are the key to all that is a stable America? Seems to me they are intentionaly avoiding an across the board approch and honest eval as I'm just not buying that cutting entitlements alone will bring about the over all health and stability of our country yet they seem to want to sell that, while out of the other side of their mouth they are cheerleading Obamacare! Is it a game to try and trap the Republicans some how? I dont get it. Entitlements have already been cut deep in many states, Wa state for instance big Obama supporters have just cut many programs pretty deep, and other states have followed.. Obama supporters never should have believed there was going to free money and living happily ever after it just wasnt there to give! and this game to pin the Republicans as the bad guys is just well 2 little 2 late 2 play! Reality has already set among those recieving entitlements, they wont be flooding back to Obama hoping for spare change now. .Entitlements are large, but there are other areas
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:34pm.
Department of Energy's non-nuclear mission. DOE was formed from the Energy Research and Development Authority to make us self-sufficient. Doesn't look like they've succeeded, and their budget in 2008 (last year there WAS a budget) 361.5 billion.
Department of Education has made no difference in our failing schools since it was founded in Jimmah Carter's administration. Their $15 billion can't hurt.
HHS has $72 billion of "non-mandatory" outlays.
This give us $400 billion plus if we really want to do something. However, the HHS "mandatory" line in 2008 was $628 billion, which dwarfs most of this. And they are exploding in cost right now with baby boomer retirement age. We really need to get rid of some of this. As a boomer, I could see a 15% cut in Social Security staged in over 5 years as being a real area in which to improve. I suppose we could let Obama's "take a pain pill" in lieu of Medicare take place also, but I would at least like an option to get my own care if that happens.
Dennis Prager
Good Start
Submitted by JustAl on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 5:49pm.
Let's add
DEA $2.5B.
ATF $1.7B
EPA $10.5B
HUD $41.6B
I have to agree with Thomas
Submitted by jdhawk on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 3:59pm.
I have to agree with Thomas of Newsweak, he is right. Not one Republican has stood up and told us what is to be cut to get incoming taxes to our federal treasury to match the outgoing money to pay fo everything that Congress has budgeted for. Two years ago we printed $1.4 trillion dollars and this past year we printed $1.2 Trillion dollars to make up the short fall. Meanwhile, commodities are going through the roof. Silver is at a 30 year high. The so-called "soft" commodities (grains, etc.) are at multi year highs.
Chickensh*t Republicans, if you are reading this, how about it?
My bet, is we will have another friggin' commission to "study" it . . .
Even the newly elected Tea Party candidates will not have the "cajones" to tackle this issue. We'll sit around and wait until our currency is worthless and gold is $5,000 an ounce and oil is $200 a barrel. Oh, my! There is a crisis. Quick, we have to do something . . .
By the way, if you think the federal government is a basket case, look around your local, county, and state budget offices. Where I live, NC, we are $3.5 billion in the hole out of a $20 billion dollar budget. The governor, a dimocrat, and the newly elected Republican legislature is counting on the feds to bail them out. That is the next "stimulus" from Washington, D.C.
Give credit where due.
Submitted by sybilll on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:37pm.
Have you read/heard Paul Ryan's Roadmap For America? Have you followed Eric Cantor's YouCut program? Both are exemplary. I may be naive, but I think more than a handful of Conservatives actually heard us in November.
"...to match the outgoing
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:20pm.
"...to match the outgoing money to pay fo everything that Congress has budgeted for" So, to paraphrase Newt Gingrich's description of Bob Dole, are Republicans now expected to become the tax collectors for the Democrats' welfare state?. My uneduacted guess would be that first the expenditures have to be stopped and then severely reversed before there's any chance of ever catching revenues up to them.The problem is that if
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:06pm.
The problem is that if Republicans talk small, they will be flayed for dealing with chump change. If they talk about big programs, they will be flayed for wanting to "destroy the safety net" and not caring about "working families." It's Darth Maul's double light sabre.
And in spite of proof to the contrary, liberals still believe that lowering tax rates lowers revenue.
No, wait, I don't think they really believe that, they just want rates raised, as Obama said regarding the capital gains tax, for "fairness."
How much should the wealthy pay? The answer is always "More."
And the corollary : Who is
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:52pm.
And the corollary : Who is rich and the answer is the other guy.
Damage
Submitted by KC Mulville on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:18pm.
I cannot recall a more damaging two years to this country, inflicted on us by liberal ideology that spent trillions and who now moan that we're not going to raise taxes to pay for their wanton indulgence.
But the real reason I wanted to post is to steal motherbelt's line about Darth Maul's double light saber. That's a keeper.
Damage is coming*
Submitted by cajun2 on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:23pm.
Liberals claim to be so caring and compassionate. Do whatever it takes to push their agenda for the peasants. This was a great way to start off the New Year. They are now coming out of the closet.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/frances-fox-piven-rings-in-the-new-year-by-calling-for-violent-revolution/
Is there any reason to not
Submitted by 26CX on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 4:33pm.
Is there any reason to not think that Frances Fox-Piven is a clear and present danger to the United states?
Their choice of words used to
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:00pm.
Their choice of words used to describe the conservative movement in America is rather odd considering Obam's next book will be entitled, Barack Obama, Smoke & Mirrors.......the early years 2008 - 2010.
Not to mention the entire premise that drives the democrat, the party base was built on the concept of " Free Lunch ".
Only thing is it's never free. It's the rest of us real Americans that pay for it, though we were never once envited to sit at the table, lunch counter, etc.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Americans and the new
Submitted by ant on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:00pm.
Americans and the new Congress are gonna have to get the sleeves rolled up not just to undo the damge that's been rolling across our Country but to give the "press" a much deserved bloody nose. They've made it perfectly clear that they are going to obstruct the will of the people.
I love how when it comes to saving money, the liberal MSM's immediate target MUST be senior citizens, the poor, and other domestic concerns. Oh no! Those evil Repubs! It's funny how they overlook the costs of things like illegal immigration, the United Nations, Union kickbacks, Czars and gov. administrators. How much money do we send to Pakistan every year? How much do we spend enriching foreign oil producers? NO, those monies are sacred, must gut Medicare first.
Oops! Shouldn't hit the
Submitted by ant on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:04pm.
Oops! Shouldn't hit the button when the music's blaring.
What would Thomas know about selling anything?
Submitted by OxyCon on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 6:12pm.
He sure couldn't sell magazines! Tina Brown bought his sorry butt for one dollar!
Lying Pinko Huckster
Submitted by stratman on Sat, 01/01/2011 - 9:33pm.
EVAN THOMAS, NEWSWEEK: Republicans are going to be selling smoke and mirrors, and they need to be held accountable by the press. They’re gonna be talking about cutting spending, but not big entitlement programs, which is where all the money is. And cutting taxes, which you just cannot do and deal with our fiscal problems. I mean, I’m all for attacking big government...spending cuts
Submitted by sarge329 on Sun, 01/02/2011 - 1:40pm.
Here we go. Let's cut costs/save money by: 1) cutting entitlements across the board, 2) cutting ALL earmarks/pork ( if you want to save or create jobs at home, fine, but don't expect the citizens to pay for it ) across the board, eliminate mandatory funding for PBS and NPR ( I never heard of a vote sent to the people asking whether or not we should be required to pay for broadcasting; you don't hear of any laws saying that we have to pay for CBS/NBC/ABC/PMSNBC, at least not yet ) , 3) cutting staffing requirements in Congress, and at all Cabinet and bureaucratic levels, and 4) eliminating all unnecessary programs, beginning with Obamacare. There. That's a start. If Congress is serious about lowering the deficit and paying on the national debt they forced on us, through reckless and dangerous action on both sides, they can start with the abovemen-tioned actions. The only thing that they've been serious about, up to this point, is blowing through our treasury as fast as they can. And, both Republicans and Democrats are guilty as they can be.