AP’s Fram Charges GOP ‘Defied’ Public by Passing (Non-Existent) ‘Tax Cuts for the Wealthy’
Catching up with a distorted news report from Christmas Day, the AP decided to distribute a particularly tendentious piece of “reporting” by the news service’s Washington, DC-based Alan Fram and Jennifer Agiesta, who misleadingly charged House Republicans “defied” public will on “tax cuts for the wealthy,” which were non-existent. They led:
Republicans say they will follow “the people's priorities” when they gain power on Capitol Hill next month. Yet when it came to tax cuts for the wealthy and other top issues that dominated the just concluded lame-duck Congress, the GOP either defied what most Americans want or followed their will only after grudging, drawn-out battles.
The duo’s first piece of evidence:
Congress' approval of a compromise between President Barack Obama and congressional GOP leaders renewing expiring tax cuts for everyone, despite broad public opposition to including people earning over $250,000. An Associated Press-CNBC Poll in late November found only 34 percent wanted taxes reduced for the richest Americans.
In fact, there was never any proposal on the table to “reduce” income taxes for any income class of Americans, just a continuation of the current rates. If the rates were not maintained, Americans would have faced a steep income tax hike as of January 1. (Yes, the wealthy, like everyone else with a job, will pay a little less in FICA, but that was not the subject of the AP-CNBC poll question.)
Despite relentless tax “cut” distortions by the media, several surveys from early December found majority support for maintaining the same tax rates for everyone. A Gallup poll discovered 66 percent agreed: “Extend the federal income tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 for all Americans for two years.”
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 54 percent supported “extending the Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers, including wealthy people as well as the middle class.” And 59 percent backed the tax deal struck between President Obama and congressional Republicans, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found.
Fram and Agiesta proceeded to fret over how Republicans were out of step on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, the “Dream Act” and “roadblocks the Obama administration faced before ultimately persuading the Senate to ratify a new nuclear treaty with Russia,” before the AP team returned to the tax “cut” fallacy:
On each, Republicans led the effort to oppose policies that most people support, though Obama and many Democrats eventually joined them to back tax cuts for upper-income families.
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
The entire time that this
Submitted by jdhawk on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 4:07am.
The entire time that this subject of extending the present tax rates was being discusses, the socialist including the WH, Congress, and the lame stream media stated that the cost of extending the tax cuts for the so-called wealthy would be $700 billion.
First of all, this was an estimate of how much less revenue would be derived from letting the tax cuts expire for the "weatlhy" over a period of ten years. Since an extension of the existing tax rates, as ultimately enacted by Congress, is for two years, the "price" is at best $140 billion dollars.
Second, this is a static cost. That is, it fails to consider the mutliplier effect of this money in private hands where it will generate far more capital expenditure and ultimately more jobs than if it was in government hands.
So, the $853 billion dollar "cost" that has been bandied about is utter nonsense. In fact, only $140 billion dollars would not come back to the treasury over the life of the bill. However, over $153 billion dollars would be expended by the bill to extend unemployment money and extend a $400 dollar tax credit.
Note, that the one cost - that of extending the tax cuts - is revenue that the treasury would not get. The other cost - that of unemployment money and the tax credit - is money that we don't have and will have to be printed in order to be expended by the treasury. That is because there is no coresponding spend reduction as inacted by this Congress as "pay go."
Yet, we find no conservatives in the media or in Congress that will bother to explain the above to the American people. What is wrong with this picture? Why is it that the socialists always "win" the debate? This has got to stop. We need voices in and out of Washington that will articulate the truth.
I think it's time to sic the Enviro-Fuzz on the MSM
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 7:53am.
LOL - I mean, all this made-up BS they keep spewing out all over the place has to be piling up to the point where it is harmful to the environment.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
"...which were non-existent. They led:"
Submitted by Rukus on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 8:36am.
...which were non-existent. They lied:
There, fixed that typo for ya Brent. : )
An inconvenient truth.
Submitted by NeoKong on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 8:54am.
The GOP was still in the minority at the time. I think Alan left that part out but why let the truth get in the way of some good propaganda.
I repeat:
Submitted by Unsane on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 9:08am.
If the wealthy are so much the locus of the world's evil, as the Left would have us believe, why don't we just have everyone that makes so much as a single penny above per capita income exterminated?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
It boggles the mind
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 10:09am.
to listen to these morons attempt to spin maintaining a tax rate into a tax cut and an increased deficit. Never hear a word though as they spend billions on pork. That's fine apparently.
The Democrats you mean, don't you?
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 1:20pm.
The AP conveniently forgets that the Democrats still have a majority of both the House and the Senate. If those bills passed, it was because of the DEMOCRATS! Had the Democrats REALLY wanted to stop those bills from passing, there would have been nothing the GOP could have done to prevent it.
Here's the truth, the vast majority of the Democrats wanted to pass ALL the extensions as they understand that, yes, it is beneficial to the economy as a whole. They just don't want to admit it.
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.
Liberal's Compromise
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 2:43pm.
LIbs propose a 20% tax increase. Call it a great success if Republicans settle on 10%. No tax encrease means that Republicans hate the poor and love the wealthy.
Fair Share?
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 3:53pm.
Let's define the term "fair share." It's bandied about quite a bit but I'm tired of hearing it because it seems to infer that those who have more than a certain amount of wealth need to pay more for their own defense or for the bridge their car drives over or someone to check the purity of the drugs or the food they consume.
I am not wealthy but those that are wealthy are already providing much more to our society for Constitutionally mandated services on a proportionate basis than others. Why they should be forced into doing more because they are wealthy and not just another citizen of this country is beyond me and quite frankly done I believe to cause another division in our nation along class lines to add to those of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Phooey.
Fair
Submitted by Unsane on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 5:27pm.
"Fair" is a relative term, and whenever it is bandied about in politics, that is your cue to RUN.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Union wealth dosent count?
Submitted by TerryWest on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 12:22am.
The American people just spent the last two years watching the democrates favor and pad the pockets of the real wealthy,the Unions.Well, they were tax cuts and the majority opposed
Submitted by hayate1 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 6:06pm.
them for the wealthiest of us. So why is the piece from AP misleading? 47% say to let the tax cuts expire for the wealthiest and 41%say extend. this from a recent Gallup poll.
They were cuts because they were part of a new law enacted by Congress and signed by the president. The original law defining rates, if left alone, would have allowed taxes to revert to prior levels. So by law taxes would have gone up unless a new law cutting them was written.
"Facts are not decided by how many people believe them. Truth is not determined by how loudly it is shouted."
crisp proof
Submitted by hayate1 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 6:13pm.
Bloomberg National Poll conducted by Selzer & Company. Dec. 4-7, 2010. N=1,000 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.1.
"I'm going to mention some of the ideas for reducing the deficit. For each, please tell me if this is something you favor or oppose. Eliminate tax cuts the wealthiest Americans have received in recent years."
Favor Oppose Unsure % % %12/4-7/10
59 38 3"Facts are not decided by how many people believe them. Truth is not determined by how loudly it is shouted."