ABC's Moran Lets Dem Guests Blame Budget Deficit On Bush

Noel Sheppard
January 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
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Two Democrats on Sunday blamed the soaring budget deficit on George W. Bush, and ABC's Terry Moran didn't challenge either one of them.

First up on "This Week" was senior White House adviser David Axelrod who told substitute host Moran, "President Clinton left a $237 billion surplus, President Obama received a $1.3 trillion deficit."

Moran didn't challenge this, nor did he press Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) when he uttered virtually the exact same Democrat talking point moments later, "When George Bush came to office, he had a $236 billion surplus; Barack Obama was handed a $1.3 trillion deficit."

Here's how a REAL journalist might have responded the second time somebody made the same stupid comment in the course of about 15 minutes:

  • On March 14, 2008, then Sen. Obama voted in favor of the 2009 budget which authorized $3.1 trillion in federal outlays along with a projected $400 billion deficit. The 51-44 vote that morning was strongly along party lines with only two Republicans saying "Yes."
  • When the final conference report was presented to the House on June 5, not one Republican voted for it.
  • This means the 2009 budget was almost exclusively approved by Democrats, with "Yeas" coming from Obama, his Vice President Joe Biden, his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
  • On October 1, 2008, Obama, Biden, and Clinton voted in favor of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program designed to prevent teetering financial institutions from completely destroying the economy.
  • In February, 2009, a $787 billion stimulus bill was passed with just three Republican votes, and later signed by Obama.
  • Weeks later, Congress approved and Obama signed $410 billion of additional spending.

Add it all up, and Obama approved every penny spent in fiscal 2009 either via his votes in the Senate or his signature as President.

"Journalists" like Moran should know this, and should challenge anyone that says otherwise. When they don't, they look like White House stooges. 

Nice job, Terry. If your appearance on Sunday's "This Week" was an audition to eventually replace George Stephanopoulos as permanent host, you failed miserably.

On the other hand, if ABC is looking for someone to be just as liberally-biased as Stephanopoulos, and just as unwilling to challenge Democrats when they utter non sequiturs, Moran passed with flying colors.