Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America, anchor George Stephanopoulos blasted White House budget director Mick Mulvaney’s proposed budget as “dead on arrival,” complaining that it would never pass in Congress. Stephanopoulos even raised concerns about the budget not reducing the deficit, concerns the media didn’t have when Obama was in office and was proposing budgets that would massively increase the deficit.
ABC led its program by worrying about the cuts to “clean water” and “food safety,” before leading into the interview with Mulvaney, which was basically a repeat of the interview he did with the budget director a few weeks ago.
Stephanopoulos hyped the budget as “dramatic” “blockbuster” of changes to the way Washington usually runs “business,” touting cuts to the EPA and National Institute of Health. He asked Mulvaney how he expects to get this budget passed as it seemed “dead on arrival.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: Key members of your own party on Capitol Hill already saying cuts this deep mean the budget is dead on arrival.
He again reiterated how the plan wouldn’t sit well with Democrats, touting Democrat threats to shut down the government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, you know, you also are trying to turn into numbers the new funding to build the wall on the Mexican border, another issue where Republicans are getting cold feet. Democrats are saying that's going to lead to a government shutdown if you try to pass that increase in April.
Stephanopoulos then shifts gears, by appealing to conservative concerns about the deficit.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about the president keeping his promises. The president also promised to balance the budget, to bring down the national debt. This doesn't reduce the deficit by a dime.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about the president's promises. He said he's not going to touch that mandatory spending, he’s not going to touch social security, he’s not going to touch medicare. You can't get to balance if you don’t touch those programs.
But the networks took the opposite approach to the deficit when Obama was in office. In fact, a soaring deficit was a good thing to NBC, who claimed Obama’s plan to increase spending “helped the poor and middle class.” ABC even said the same thing a few weeks ago, complaining that decreased spending meant Trump was taking “a wrecking ball” to programs that “help the middle class.”
