Labeling Bias from Balt Sun: 'Ehrlich Wants Tax Cuts; O'Malley Wants More Investment'
Liberal Democrats love to couch increased government spending as "investments." It's smart political marketing, but it's a less-than-truthful spin on what government spending is or does. When's the last time you got a dividend check from your state government giving you your share of the "profit" from a road or bridge project?
But it's when journalists buy into that spin that we at NewsBusters really have a problem.
Take the Baltimore Sun, which today told readers that while rivals Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and former Governor Bob Ehrlich (R) are focused on the economy in their closing campaign pitches, "Ehrlich wants tax cuts; O'Malley wants more investment."
Noted Annie Linskey in a story filed on BaltimoreSun.com last night (emphasis mine):
Both candidates are focusing on the issue that Maryland voters say is far and away their largest concern in this election season: the economy. Forty-four percent of respondents to a Sun poll this month say they believe it is getting worse, and more than half say the issue will affect how they vote.
Maryland employers have shed 82,600 jobs since O'Malley took office in 2007, and unemployment here doubled on his watch. Still, the state has fared better than most — due in part to its proximity to Washington and federal jobs — and unemployment here remains below the national average.
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O'Malley says attracting high-skill jobs requires investments in education and transportation, spending that makes difficult the deep tax cuts that would be needed to boost Maryland's ranking in the surveys of business friendliness that Ehrlich uses to measure the state's progress.
"Economic development is not as simple as the tax rate," O'Malley said. He described himself as one of a group of leaders who "understand that education and economic development go together like eggs at breakfast."
The subtext: moderately conservative Ehrlich wants "deep" tax cuts and can't realistically deliver on them without busting the budget. It's much better, the Sun is suggesting, to stick with the incumbent O'Malley and his "investments in education and transportation."
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Comments
Funny thing about investments
Submitted by Bluegill on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 3:23pm.
They require money, first you have to TAKE it from us. I get a kick out of politicians that have Big "investments" plans for OUR money. Isn't that nice of them
Yes, that's what they
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:01pm.
Yes, that's what they need...throw more money at public schools! That'll bring in those high-tech companies!
That's the ticket!
I voted for Ehrlich the first
Submitted by Bruzilla on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:34pm.
I voted for Ehrlich the first time he ran for Governor in Maryland. We all had a lot of high hopes for the guy, but he allowed himself to get steamrolled by the Maryland Legislature on everything. He was the most ineffective Governor I've ever seen, and I gotta wonder why he thinks this go around will be any different?
There's only so much you can
Submitted by Ken Shepherd on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:38pm.
There's only so much you can do as Governor when the opposition party holds a veto-proof majority and a sizable contingent of the Democrats had their knives out from day one, which they did.
The long-term strategy for conservatives is to win larger and larger numbers in the General Assembly and making the case for conservative governance.
But when it comes to a governor, you have to take what you can get in a state like Maryland.
Agreed
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:01pm.
I think we have to take the same approach nationally.
When the other half of the (de facto) law-making branches of government is in the other side's hands, you can't offer a broad range of long term solutions. Better, then, to accept a relative stalemate, and only allow the minimally necessary laws that both sides can't help but agree on.
If the country doesn't clearly support any one path, then deadlock is how it's supposed to work.
And, two years from now, if the Republicans get a majority in Congress and they get the executive, then you stay conservative. No matter what your policy proposals might be, don't forget that you work for the people. If they don't support it, don't push it through, over their objections.
For example, on the off-chance that the polls in 2013 show that America doesn't want a tax cut, don't pass one. That's what we're talking about. Represent the people. And if you want a tax cut, persuade the people first. Don't try to legislate an ideology for their greater good, over their objections. Cooperate with the people, because no matter what they want, the government belongs to them.
That's what this is all about.
But does the GOP have the guts to stay on offense?
Submitted by lsudolemite on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:17pm.
It didn't take long for Lindsey Graham to start up on how the GOP needs to reach across the aisle to work with Obama. McCain and the Maine RINO sisters are sure to follow. A stalemate can go two ways.
One scenario sets up Obama's reelection, the other gives us the WH AND the mandate to reverse the course of liberalism. We must make a stand for the latter after November 2.
This is usually where I part company with libertarians
Submitted by JakeMo on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:43pm.
Government investment in infrastructure, education, a court system and a corps ready to defend life and property at large are good things. In my mind, that's the only reason government exists.
The problem is when general spending is considered an "investment" with no defined return or metric of success.
If the community borrows at 4% to build a bridge and the net* productivity increase is 20%, that was a good investment. When we hire 400 school administrators to count the racial makeup of the students, fill out forms, and indoctrinate the youth in socialism, that is a bad investment.
Wise community investments can be made using less than 20% of what the government currently confiscates in taxes. The rest should be returned to the people.
The argument against O'Malley is not "if" investment is good, but how he considers handouts and waste to be "investment."
________
* "Net" productivity must be over and above the loss to the economy from taxes used to pay for the project.
You make a fair point about
Submitted by Ken Shepherd on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:49pm.
You make a fair point about the metrics that measure and determine successful expenditure of public monies.
Government spending can never be an "investment" in the traditional sense but wise spending on proper constitutional priorities can create a safe, stable climate for commerce which improves the general welfare and ensures a steady tax base that pays for these so-called investments.
But you and I both know the liberal media rarely care about the metrics of success for these "investments."
People tend to be reluctant to "invest" when
Submitted by lsudolemite on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:02pm.
Since when has government ever concerned itself with prudent, wise investments with measurable success? (This includes defense spending, by the way.) If I want to invest my money in a mutual fund, the fund manager can show me charts and statistics pointing to growth and returns over time. If I'm not satisfied, I take my money elsewhere, and if they lie to me they risk serious prison time, end of story.
The government, however, is under no obligation to show us what kind of return we get from the involuntary investments being made under force of law. Quite the contrary: they either make up numbers from thin air (jobs saved or created), or SUPRISE! the costs were larger than expected and the numbers have to be "revised" (Obamacare CBO costs). And what happens to the government after squandering our investment? Absolutely nothing.
Obviously, some public works spending is necessary, but to suggest that the current system we have is working at maximum efficiency and we absolutely must have a VAT, national sales tax, whatever, needed for infrastructure "investment" is ludicrous. What the hell was the "stimulus" supposed to be spent on, anyway?
Just how is the Sun article
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:26pm.
Just how is the Sun article biased reporting on ANY level? Even the word "investments" [which is highlighted by Ken] is followed by the word "spending" [which is not]. Accordingly, an investment and spending definitional equivalency is clear and unequivocal.
And JakeMo is quite correct. A "dividend" is not limited to the impact on one's bank account or monthly stock portolio statement. The public receives a positive return on infrastructure investment whenever an individual drives safely over a new bridge which has replaced an ancient, hazardous one. The benefits may be less immediate and tangible but ultimately of far greater value than a few more dollar bills in a wallet.
Finally, having read the entire article, I must say it appears overall to be an excellent example of fair and balanced reporting. In fact, a Democrat might complain that the opening two or three paragraphs read much like a campaign ad for Ehrlich.
Jer
The problem is not the need for infrastructure, but the way in
Submitted by lsudolemite on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:37pm.
which the extra tax revenue would be spent, and even the need for extra revenue given the way existing money is invested. For example, it must have come as a big surprise to New York state taxpayers that the money purportedly going toward educating their kids is going to elective plastic surgery procedures for their teachers.
Without a doubt, Isudoemite...
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:52pm.
...there can be and too often are absurd and outrageous misapplications of otherwise appropriate expenditures, and the practice is the exclusive domain of neither the left nor the right.
Jer
"Government investment",---
Submitted by matthewdean on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:59pm.
new, safe bridge or not, is an oxymoron.
This has been proven over and over and over again.
Also, anytime a liberal Democrat (especially one who has chided both FOX News and NewsBusters about his perception of their bias) plans on stating that an article is "fair and balanced" in a post, he should be required by law to issue what is officially known as a spew alert.
MD
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