Sunday's Washington Post carried a story by reporter Lori Montgomery with a surprising headline: "Obama Tax Plan Would Balloon Deficit, Analysis Finds." The Post is highlighting research from the "nonpartisan" Tax Policy Center, a project of two liberal think tanks, the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.
Measured against current law and against the promises of his fellow Democrats, Obama would rack up huge deficits. According to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Obama's tax plan would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt, including interest, by 2018.
This is a challenge to the Obama-loving media. Network anchors like Matt Lauer and George Stephanopoulos have used the Tax Policy Center estimates against John McCain. Will they report these numbers and offer negative coverage to Obama? Will they ask him to rebut them?
The Post might crow that they have demonstrated their independence from Obama by highlighting a negative policy theme. This story is certainly a piece of evidence that the Post isn't "in the tank" for Obama. But the story also clearly demonstrated an imbalanced loathing of tax cuts.
Don't look for the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute in this article. Montgomery's story relied entirely on policy analysts who oppose extending federal tax cuts (with the exception of Obama spokesman Jason Furman). She calls them "deficit hawks." They include:
-- "Obama has criticized Bush for his fiscal irresponsibility, and now he's using Bush's baseline as a yardstick by which to measure fiscal responsibility," said Leonard E. Burman, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. "Congress hasn't agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts because they don't have the money to pay for it."
-- "It's not unreasonable to say, 'We're inheriting a budget that's going to have substantial deficits into the future'....But after we've been saying, 'Bush has irresponsible policies we can't afford,' he will be asking us to replace them with different policies we can't afford,' " said a Democratic congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could speak candidly.
-- "Leaving some of the tax cuts in place would cost us a small fortune," said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a member of a group of conservative [!] House Democrats known as the Blue Dogs who have been adamant about following pay-as-you-go rules. "I don't know that any Blue Dog has a good way to pay for that."
Montgomery concluded with two other reliable tax-hike-advocating sources: G. William Hoagland, "former budget adviser" to Republicans, and Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition.
Perhaps we should recommend closing the deficit a bit by imposing a tax on newsprint paper, just to see how comfortable the Washington Post and other tax-hiking newspapers are with raising taxes on everyone and everything.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Accusing the Obama of using
August 10, 2008 - 09:10 ET by motherbeltAccusing the Obama of using fake bookkeeping tricks to sell his plan????
OMG!!!! Isn't that, like, blasphemy, or something???
Isn't that, like,
August 10, 2008 - 09:21 ET by RukusIsn't that, like, blasphemy, or something???
Nah, like anything else it's racist don't cha' know. \sarc\
"Nuke 'em 'til they... oh hell, just shoot 'em!"
Too much credit to the Post
August 10, 2008 - 09:20 ET by nkviking75Mr. Graham, I think you're giving the Post too much credit. It seems to me that the thesis of the article is that the Bush tax cuts ran up the deficit, and that Obama should allow them to expire in 2010, the second year of his 10 years in office ;-). They claim that the deficit will disappear as soon as the cuts go away. But they also claim that there will be money available for Obama's huge new programs.
The reality is, under an Obama Administration, taxpayers will suffer the double whammy of increased taxes plus even more unsustainable entitlement spending. Electing Obama will be an economic train wreck.
Check out the Heritage Foundation article "Ten Myths About The Bush Tax Cuts", then bookmark it. It'll be a very useful reference.
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
Barack Hike-Tax Obama
August 10, 2008 - 12:28 ET by Tim GrahamThanks for the link. The Post clearly believes that the "responsible" tax policy is to cancel every tax cut and close every loophole. But don't miss the part of the article where Lori reports that McCain said he will balance the budget through "massive spending cuts." By contrast, massive spending increases are the automatic statist assumption of the liberal media in Washington.
Don't worry
August 10, 2008 - 09:41 ET by cocodrieAfter Barack Hussein is elected we will all be living in Lower Slobbovia. Lil' Hussein is going to turn off the heat in response to global cooling caused by global warming. We won't be miserable long though, he will send his muslim relatives to put us out of our misery.
The Obama Nation
August 10, 2008 - 10:36 ET by AgnosticThe best way to deal with Senator Obama is to allow his ideas to reach the public without his "hope and change" verbage to camouflage the meaning of his words. Some of the plans listed below may be good if they were done without increasing the size of the government or the amount of governmental control but since that seems the totality of Obama's goals I see very little good.
(Please forgive excessive C&P)
From his own book via IBD (good editorial to read but you will be a racist if you beleive any of it):
Doling out faith-based grants "targeting ex-offenders."
Subsidizing supermarket chains that relocate to the inner city to deliver "fresh produce" to blacks, helping wean them off unhealthy fast food.
Imposing "goals and timetables for minority hiring" on large corporations whose work forces are deemed too white.
Continuing to fund the Community Development Block Grant program, Head Start and HUD public housing subsidies.
Funding Small Business Administration loans for minority businesses who train ex-felons, including gangbangers, for the "green jobs" of the future, such as installing extra insulation in homes.
Doubling the funding for federal after-school programs such as midnight basketball.
Subsidizing job training, day care, transportation for inner-city poor, as well as doubling the funding of the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program.
Expanding the eligibility of the earned income tax credit to include more poor, and indexing it to inflation.
Adopting entire inner-city neighborhoods as wards of the federal government.
• Spending billions on new inner-city employment programs, including prison-to-work programs.
From his own web-site: (Notice the use of action words and realize what they really mean and it becomes easy to see what Obama's plan means for our nation. For example: Protect or Reform means to increase or establish regulation)
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act
Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities
Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
Protect Against Caregiver Discrimination
Expand Flexible Work Arrangements
Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure
Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers
Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure
Encourage Responsible Lending Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans
Reform Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Families Facing a Medical Crisis
Provide Additional Tax Rebates to American Workers
Establish a $10 billion Foreclosure Prevention Fund
Provide $10 billion in Relief for State and Local Governments Hardest-Hit by the Housing Crisis to Prevent Cuts in Vital Services
Extend and Expand Unemployment InsuranceProvide a Tax Cut for Working Families
Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000
Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans
Fight for Fair Trade (use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world)
Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement
Improve Transition AssistanceInvest in our Next Generation Innovators and Job Creators: ( create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to identify and invest in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies)
Double Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs: ( invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance…)
Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies
Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs
Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment BankInvest in the Sciences: ( doubling federal funding for basic research)
Make the Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent
Deploy Next-Generation Broadband
Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies ($500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America)
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators (Obama will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country)
Ensure Freedom to Unionize
Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize
Protect Striking Workers
Raise the Minimum Wage
Create a New FHA Housing Security Program
Create a Universal Mortgage Credit
Ensure More Accountability in the Subprime Mortgage Industry
Mandate Accurate Loan DisclosureCreate Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid ForeclosuresClose Bankruptcy Loophole for Mortgage Companies
If only he were a Republican.
August 10, 2008 - 16:51 ET by CrashA fellow was trying to make a point to me the other day which came off as unintentionally bigoted. His point had to do with the major US cities that have been run into the ground by "black" mayors. I pointed out two facts. It's not because they are black, but, that they are doing what they've been taught to believe by the chains of affirmative action and the welfare state. What they know must be unlearned. Next, all of the "black" mayors are Democrats. The same party who've been pedaling guilt based entitlements to minorities for decades.
I realize it'd be a waste of talent, but, imagine if Michael Steele ran a city.
Obama's raw deal order will be on such a grande scale that we will be tossed into the economic dark ages. Again not because he's black, but because his ideas are tainted by marxists ideologies and they have never worked.