The government of Hungary voted to cut income taxes Monday to pull itself out of recession, and America's media for the most part ignored it.
At the same time, German chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for lower taxes to help her nation's economy, and our press have similarly been less than enthusiastic about sharing the news.
One of the exceptions in both cases is the Wall Street Journal which reported the following Tuesday:
The Hungarian parliament approved Monday a tax bill for 2010, a cornerstone of the country's attempts to boost its competitiveness and comply with conditions for International Monetary Fund loans. [...]
The new tax system will shift the tax burden more toward consumers and away from business. The bill will include a reduction in personal income taxes for average-income earners, a lowering of social security contributions for employers, and the launch of a real-estate tax next year, as well as an increase starting July 1 in one of the country's value-added taxes. The reformed system is revenue neutral for the budget, the government said.
A Google news search identified only WSJ and Reuters reporting this news in the States; a LexisNexis search identified no television news reports on this subject.
As for Germany, WSJ reported this Tuesday:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her plan to cut taxes despite the country's soaring budget deficit as she introduced her conservative alliance's manifesto ahead of national elections in September.
Lower incomes taxes would "provide motivation" and encourage economic growth, Ms. Merkel told a conference of her party, the Christian Democratic Union, and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union.
"It would be wrong not to do what is right and necessary for growth, and so prevent ourselves emerging quickly from this crisis," Ms. Merkel said in her conference speech.
Much as with Hungary's cuts, Merkel's plans have not been widely reported here. In fact, although she began floating this idea in mid-June, a LexisNexis search identified no television news outlets addressing it.
Not one!
With Germany a member of the G-8, as well as a prominent U.S. ally and major trading partner, shouldn't its fiscal policy changes be newsworthy here, or not if they conflict with what the Obama administration is doing?
Exit question: if Hungary and Germany were raising taxes, would our media be more interested in reporting it?
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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Comments Policy
Interesting how leftist
June 30, 2009 - 09:45 ET by G. MayInteresting how leftist Europhiles so frequently refer to Europe as the model of culture, economics, and healthcare...except when they fall out of lock step with Marx.
I'm sure the crickets will be loud in the MSM on this one.
There's no such thing as
June 30, 2009 - 09:45 ET by HockeyKidThere's no such thing as journalism in America. All we have is government propaganda. Welcome to 1984, 25 years late.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Exactly. I no longer call
June 30, 2009 - 13:10 ET by deerjerkydaveExactly. I no longer call them the liberal media. That would be too nice. They're now the "propagandist media". Or as Rush calls them, "the state run media".
This 4th of July is going to ring hollow to me this year. The Federal government has WAY too much power. It has way more power than it was ever intended to have. The only way to fix this nation is for the Federal government to return to its intended purpose, which is to stick to the enumerated powers in the constitution and that's it, just as the 10th amendment says their supposed to do.
I definitely think this
June 30, 2009 - 09:51 ET by ConservativeMissourianI definitely think this would be more widely reported if it more agreed with the position Obama is taking right now. Especially with Germany being as much of trading partner with us as they are, this should definitely be brought into the news. It is a position an ally of ours is taking that Americans should be aware of.
cutting taxes
June 30, 2009 - 09:52 ET by east tennessee johnThere will be a news blackout on the state controlled media. Surely there can be no suggestion at all that BO, who never read a book about market economics that wasn't a critique, erred in proposing various tax increases,(income, on benefits, energy), tto fund his great new world could possibily, just possibbily be wrong. Can't have that.
Economics
June 30, 2009 - 10:09 ET by sevenIt has only been very recently that china exceeded Germany in being the worlds leading exporter. Most people don't know how much germany exported. I always saw Germany as struggling after they absorbed the poor east Germany. So much more welfare. One day Oblahama will learn a little about economics. He may even change his econ plattitudes and teleprompter outbursts. It may happen too late.
I have a Polish friend who
June 30, 2009 - 10:07 ET by mattmI have a Polish friend who escaped Poland during martial law, before Reagan finally defeated communism. This friend has a friend who was recently bragging about a daughter who went to Germany to study economics.
My friend could not understand, until perhaps now, why anyone would go to Europe to study economics...
What a sad state of affairs.
International news coverage? From the MSM???
June 30, 2009 - 10:22 ET by UnsaneSeriously. Are you expecting that the AMERICAN media report on stories from outside the United States?
Why should they report on ANYTHING in Europe or Asia when we have far more important stories like the death of Michael Jackson???
(Don't get me wrong, the cutting of taxes in two countries that were hard-hit economically is big news. Also consider that Germany has an election this year, and Hungary is due for one next year. But to me, the fact that these countries did something out of line with what His Majesty The Shahinshah would do is icing on the cake for them, the cake being the reasons for the U.S. media to ignore what is going on there.)
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Yea ,Brah! Da Kine Gave em, all "stink eye" .
June 30, 2009 - 11:50 ET by upcountrywaterhttp://drudgereport.com/flashoe.htm
(wonder how long this link will be up) sez it all!
Reagan VS Liberalism
uc... Priceless... How
June 30, 2009 - 12:10 ET by bigtimeruc...
Priceless...
How long it will remain up indeed.
Funny how the msm ignores the real O...yet out here in the real world we all see the real pictures...including these.
This will eventually catch up with all that cover for him...one way or the other.
Btw...just the looks Merkel gave awhile back when O was speaking, were precious to me...talk about a picture worth a million words.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
yea bt, Merkel in a stunned state of disbelief, arg
June 30, 2009 - 12:42 ET by upcountrywaterMaybe with the help of these folk we can change our image around the world.
Reagan VS Liberalism
uc... LMAO! Now THOSE
June 30, 2009 - 12:49 ET by bigtimeruc...
LMAO!
Now THOSE are priceless!
Passing those on friend...hehee, they made my day.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
fereigners [fur-un-ners] cut taxes, elect conservatives - Bush?
June 30, 2009 - 12:20 ET by Gary Hallfereigners [fur-un-ners] cut taxes, elect conservatives - Bush?
I refer to Ken Shepherd's post (above) here; re: loses in political power by the left in Argentina:
Blame Argentina's current slight shift away from the far left on former President Bush.. well, we might as well blame these tax cuts in Hungary and in German and the recent political gains by conservatives in numerous European countries, the weakening of Labor's Brown in England as well as the rather strong conservative gains in the recent European Union Parliamentary elections (my goodness - try searching Google News for news on that 'censored by the media' event??) on Bush, as well.
Fine by me.
On the other hand, perhaps the voters are waking up and seeing that there's more than a little trouble brewing on the horizon with this adolescent president of the United Sates. Suddenly average people have a crystal ball; they just might be sensing that the forces of balance [the US] against all in the world that tends to push against the barriers that protect freedom and opportunity for all, has weakened and they sense, with the US suddenly being on the wrong side of most all issues, that they must stand up for themselves - and vote intelligently.
We could blame Obama for this, or give him credit for this shift, or we could blame Bush or give him the credit. Bottom line is the same; people want freedom, basic human rights and opportunity for all. In the moment, they sense risk.
(:~> gary
Good for Germany and Hungary
June 30, 2009 - 15:56 ET by BondPlainBondAngela knows how to cure what's ailing Germany. Hungary, too, with just a little wince for their desired gain of IMF funds.
Think Obama will want to use this current European model on which to base any upcoming American plans or policies?
He's based almost everything on a European model.
When do you think Obama will get the huge hint that socialism just doesn't work and even the European's now understand that.
We all know Obama knows Socialism doesn't work, but, using the Socialist guidelines he can accomplish the all-encompassing power grab the Democrats/Liberals/Socialists want and waste our money on useless and untested or already-failed programs for the next twenty years on top of it all. Obama is deliberately screwing things up so badly the next occupant of the White House will have to spend an inordinate amount of time undoing what can be undone.
The Europeans (Germany, Hungary, Spain) are running away from that which Obama is embracing as "new", "fresh" and "bold". Turns out it's "old", "tired", and "unworkable."