Actual AP Headline: 'Is GOP Trying to Sabotage Economy to Hurt Obama?'

With less than six months to go before Election Day, the Obama-loving media's advocacy has passed shameful and is now approaching downright unimaginable.

On Saturday, the Associated Press actually published a piece with the headline, "Is GOP Trying to Sabotage Economy to Hurt Obama?":

Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth.

The latest Democratic complaint came after House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that when Congress raises the nation's borrowing cap in early 2013, he will again insist on big spending cuts to offset the increase. Boehner, R-Ohio, continues to reject higher tax rates, which Democrats demand from the wealthy.

That led Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to say Boehner is virtually assuring another debt-ceiling crisis as bad or worse than the one that shook financial markets nine months ago.

Author Charles Babington then sought to prove Schumer's pathetic claim:

Regardless of whether Schumer's suspicions are right, there's evidence that unceasing partisan gridlock and the prospect of big tax increases and spending cuts in January are causing some companies to postpone expansions. Even small economic slowdowns are bad news for Obama, who is seeking re-election amid high unemployment.

The Washington Post this past week compiled a list of military contractors, hospitals and universities that are delaying hires and bracing for cuts, partly because of fears that Washington's partisan divisions will not abate.

Please notice that nowhere in Babington's absurd piece did he inform readers that since Republicans took over the House, they have passed budgets that have been killed by the Democrat Senate.

He also made no reference to Senate Democrats having not offered a budget since February 2009, and that for the second year in a row, the budget proposed by the the Democratic President failed to garner one vote in the Senate.

Powerline's John Hinderaker observed Sunday:

In order to either help or hurt the economy, Republicans would have to 1) enact policies that would do one or the other, or 2) block the Democrats from enacting policies that would do one or the other. The Republicans haven’t enacted anything since the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, so the theory has to be that the GOP has blocked something that otherwise would have helped. In fact, however, the Democrats have been able to enact the major components of their economic plan, including the stimulus–perhaps the most dismal failure of any legislative initiative in American history–and Obamacare. Democrats have caused discretionary spending to skyrocket and have run up $5 trillion in new debt since President Obama took office. So they have pretty much had their way.

It is true that Republicans have been able to block a few Democratic proposals, like cap and trade and card check. But those proposals would have damaged the economy even further, and Democrats should be thankful to Republicans for stopping them.

Indeed. Another Babington absurdity was the following:

The most obvious showdown will happen soon after the Nov. 6 election. Unless a lame-duck Congress can make deals, the economy will suffer a double whammy of large tax increases and spending cuts, starting Jan. 1. The tax increases would hit virtually every working American and the spending cuts would affect military and domestic programs.

Economists say that what Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke calls a "fiscal cliff" could possibly lead to another severe recession. [...]

These crucial decisions will occur after the presidential election. But investors, planners and business owners make decisions about hiring, expansion and investments months in advance. The more they worry about a serious economic downturn in nine months or so, the more reluctant they are to expand operations and hire workers now.

Indeed, and it is Republicans that are and have been blocking attempts by Democrats to raise taxes. Both budgets offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) in the past two years would have maintained the Bush tax cuts.

If "investors, planners and business owners" are waiting to "make decisions about hiring, expansion and investments" as a result of tax uncertainty, this is the fault of Democrats.

Babington failed to note that this has been a charge by the Right for approaching two years: the economy is being held back by uncertainty surrounding what other anti-business measures are going to be enacted by this president and his Party.

As Republicans are and have always been the pro-business Party, it's preposterous to claim otherwise.

For Babington, this is par for the course as he has repeatedly shown himself to be a de facto Obama spokesman.