WaPo Hails Obama Budget Blueprint, Slams GOP Plan as 'Drastic' and 'Painful'
"Obama budget makes deep cuts, cautious trades," blared the February 15 print edition headline for Washington Post staffer Lori Montgomery's page A1 story on President Obama's 2012 budget plan. "[The] Focus [is]on education, energy and research," a subheadline approvingly added.
In the lead paragraph, Montgomery hailed Obama's spending blueprint as "full of surgical cuts and cautious trade-offs."
By contrast, a Republican plan for the spending blueprint for the rest of 2011 was cast as a "plan with drastic -- and painful -- cuts" in a page A13 headline*.
That story, by Post staffers Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane insisted that House Republicans are selling the plan as "one intended to be viewed as radical and painful."
After quickly dispatching with the GOP defense of the plan -- one paragraph devoted to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor -- Murray and Kane spent about six paragraphs on Democratic criticisms, including Secretary of State Clinton's foray into partisan gamesmanship when she told reporters, "cuts of this level [to humanitarian assistance] will be detrimental to America's national security."
The article concluded with some complaints from House Republicans hailing from the Northeast who worry about a "disproportionate impact on our region."
*The online headline for the story eschewed the loaded language of the print edition: "House Republicans counter Obama budget plan with much deeper cuts."
- Ken Shepherd's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
The left wing media outlets
Submitted by Miss_Me_Yet on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 1:34pm.
The left wing media outlets ought to just replace their ' on air ' talent with actual parrots to squawk out the White House daily talking points.
It would alleviate much of their mounting red ink, not to mention offering much more entertainment value to their viewers.
Liberals ... we can't live with them, they couldn't survive without us ...
Miss_Me_Yet
Submitted by Ashrak on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:52pm.
After Leon talked about getting info from the media about Egypt, I am seriously wondering who is leading the talking points and who is following them.
Pain vs Gain
Submitted by Pilgrim1949 on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:01pm.
Avoiding the trite (but often accurate) "no pain, no gain"....
Surgery to remove a malignant, life-threatening cancer IS, more often than not, rather painful. (Duh!)
One, of course, can always passively lapse into a comatose state of denial, whistling past the graveyard, hoping (for change?) that nothing bad will ever happen.
With an aggressively-growing cancer, that is always an option, but not a sane one for survival. (I speak from post-operative, personal experience.)
When faced with either the immediate, short-term pain of the surgeon's scalpel (and other invasive instruments) or an even more prolonged and pain-wracked downward death spiral into an early grave, the choice should appear obvious to the not-yet-braindead.
Natrually, this excludes the MSM and the foam-at-the-mouth-Left, hence the porcine squeals.
"Ye canne change the laws of physics....." but some politicians believe that with the right legislation you can pretend they don't really apply to your own pet projects...
Yes it's painful to a
Submitted by eaglewingz08 on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:11pm.
Yes it's painful to a spendthrift spouse to cut the credit cards and painful to the addict to go cold turkey. But they are the only choices to save the economy from being killed by the democraps' 'good intentions'.
BTW, NY Governor Cuomo (dem) had an op-ed three weeks ago as he was preparing his budget in which he warned that if he cut a planned 12 percent increase to only a 7 percent increase the media and democraps would call it a savage cut even though spending would still be increasing twice or thrice inflation. Well, his class warfare colleagues started that game, and we cannot give into the demagoguery of the leftwing media establishment. They won't be happy til there are Greek riots in America.
I was thinking
Submitted by Captain Betty on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:34pm.
As I was driving home from work the other day, I was thinking; "If they can force through massive spending; TAARP, Healthcare, etc... Why can't we do massing cutting/gutting on the magatude of trillions?". This piddly $100b over 10years or whatever isn't going to cut it and we ALL know it.
Time to start slashing - this year - no more "spread out over x years" - NOW! No new spending. If I lived like this I'd be in jail.
I like Stossle's ideas here: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/02/02/i_can_balance_the_budget_108742.html
Excellent link, Capt. Betty
Submitted by Blonde on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:51pm.
Great read.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Ditto. Thanks for the
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 4:19pm.
Ditto. Thanks for the link.
And here's a depiction of Obama's supposed spending "freeze."
The Republicans' pathetic proposed $100 billion in cuts would be like taking 2 tsp. of water out of a 94-gallon drum.
And the Democrats howl at even that pittance. Hillary Clinton claims even that much would jeaopardize our national security!!
"National security" is the new "for the children" in the Democrat party.
I am not seeing ay "Pain" in
Submitted by Snappy on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 2:36pm.
I am not seeing ay "Pain" in either the Presidents fantasy land plan, or the Republicans. The 100billion from the R's is a nice jumping off point, but we are still not seeing any real responsibility or realization of the actual mess we are in. The inmates are still very much in charge of the asylum. Freezing pay rates? That is just spin, they are not freezing peoples wages, they are freezing the scale rates, as a govt worker you will still be able to advance up the gs scale and recieve the appropriate raise, those scale wages are all that are frozen, ludicrouse! NPR is not being touched, we re still handing out billions of dollars in aid worldwide, we are still subsidizing unsustainable "Green" projects, we are still handing out billions of entitlement dollars domestically, our federal prisons are country clubs as every prisoner has more "basic human rights" than our citizens. The list goes on, and until some of the insanity is actually addressed and taken responsibility for we dont know the meaning of pain, or realize the pain that will come when the bill comes due.
When the entitlement junkies are cut off from their crack supply
Submitted by lsudolemite on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 3:20pm.
the withdrawal symptoms will be painful. It's supposed to be. A lifetime lived in an unhealthy manner cannot become healthy without first experiencing pain and deprivation.
In other words, time to grow up and join the rest of us in the real world.
Obama has offered nothing and
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 4:05pm.
Obama has offered nothing and he never intended to, it's only smoke and mirrors to suck in RINOs like McCain,McConnell and Boehner. Any compromise is a mistake America will soon regret. Meet obama head on and then grab him by the ears and shake him senseless.
Ain't it great that the bureaucrats start with cuts in police
Submitted by upcountrywater on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 4:22pm.
My proposal is to do what private industry does, when forced to downsize. The last hired go first....sorry and good bye. The date that government gone wild is 1964 (War on Poverty ).... start there.
You Didn't Build That.
Cajun is confused*
Submitted by cajun2 on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 4:29pm.
All this whooping and whinning from the left about the budget. All I have read so far on this issue is that this budget for 2011 remaining will leave a 1.6 trillion deficit. The GOP wants to cut .01% out of that 2011 deficit budget. It is also my understanding that congress has not yet voted on any budget nor changes to a proposed 2012 budget.
The democrats are lying, the GOP has no guts, and the media cant count. The rest is confusing.
hello caj, maybe this chart will help.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 7:53pm.
Let's illustrate the magnitude of Obama's cuts.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/02/obamas-tough-budget-cuts-in-pictures.html
You Didn't Build That.
thanks upcountry*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 11:20am.
The cuts .01% look even more miniscule after seeing that chart. It does look like something cut out of the budget will be painful, like Bo's return trip to Hawaii.
thanks upcountry*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 11:31am.
Your helpfulness was worth several thanks...;-)
thanks upcountry*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 11:29am.
NB 2.0 aint working for me today.
Cajun2, trifecta of you're welcome
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 1:04pm.
Works for me. heh heh..Ah the joys of NB-2
You Didn't Build That.
When you are on the verge of bankruptcy
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 4:32pm.
You can't just borrow less then you did before and call that cutting the budget. You actually have to stop borrowing anything at all and start paying off the accumulated debt.
That means that we need to spend less than $ 2 trillion this year and every year in the near future. That is TOTAl spending, not just discretionary.
Obama's budget is a lie. It grows the national debt from the $14 trillion today to over $26 trillion in 10 years.
We need to throw out all the drunken spenders in Congress, both Democrats and Repuiblicans and Independants and elect regular people with no dream of a career in politics to fix this.
We need to phase out Social Security, Medicare, Medicade and cut whole departments out of the executive branch.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
They had to let Lori write...
Submitted by Conservator on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 5:05pm.
...another column because obviously she faile to live up to high leftist standards at The Post: Obama's budget raises taxes on affluent, businesses, boosts spending on innovation - Monday, February 14, 2011 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/14/AR201102...I'll Take The Pain Now
Submitted by Boil It Down on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 6:55pm.
I will gladly take the painful steps it takes to save our economy as quickly a possible if it helps my grandchildren from living in poverty in a devastated nation in the future.
Jack Wiley Dithers Reports
Submitted by LibertyAtStake on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 8:05pm.
WaPo purchases HuffPo brand from AOL for $315M. A previously unknown Media Matters troll insinuates the connection is a Soros money laundering operation in progress.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"
grifters
Submitted by malthus on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 10:45pm.
You'd almost like to say OK, we'll follow your boy and just let this ride but the debt is truly unsustainable. You have to wonder how they would spin the outcome if they had their way....