Budget

AP Vastly Overplays Its New Respect For Never-Trumper John Kasich
January 17th, 2017 5:57 PM
Because he was the "singular 2016 (GOP) presidential contender never to fall in line behind Trump," Ohio Governor and two-time former presidential candidate John Kasich now has the Associated Press's deep respect. This largely explains why the wire service has been all too willing to ignore the fact that Kasich alone owns Ohio's impending budget problems.

Deficits Matter Again at the AP, and to Paul Krugman
January 14th, 2017 10:52 PM
There are predictable signs that after eight years of giving the problem inadequate attention and occasional ridicule, the business press has decided that federal budget deficits and the national debt are going to start to matter again. Gosh, I wonder why? The Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber was relatively subtle about it in a report on Uncle Sam's December and year-to-date budget deficits…

Business ‘Savant’ Andrew Ross Sorkin Gets Elon Musk Very, Very Wrong
December 20th, 2016 1:11 PM
Andrew Ross Sorkin is considered a financial guru - a savant of all things business. So how is he so very, very wrong about government teat specialist Elon Musk?: “Donald Trump: Please think about calling Elon Musk….Mr. Musk…(is) the real-life Tony Stark behind Tesla, the electric car company; SolarCity, the solar power provider; and SpaceX, the rocket company….”
Actually, Elon Musk isn’t the…
Please, No More Miracles
December 14th, 2016 6:13 PM
President-elect Donald Trump has warned companies that they are not going to leave the United States anymore "without consequences." He has lived up to his threat by pressuring Carrier to give up its planned move to Monterrey, Mexico, in exchange for a taxpayer handout. It is a safe bet that other U.S. companies will be descending on Washington looking for handouts in the name of "fair trade" and…

NYMag: Trump ‘Has Proven Liberals Right About the Tea Party’
December 10th, 2016 11:36 AM
After nearly eight years of competing theories, the essence of the Tea Party has been determined, says Jonathan Chait. In a Wednesday post, Chait claimed that Donald Trump’s election as president verifies liberals’ explanation of what the movement stood for. The right, wrote Chait, was wrong to argue that the Tea Party was all about “timeless principles of conservative movement thought” such as “…

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Nets Can't Decide on Air Force One Contract Numbers, Smear Trump
December 6th, 2016 10:30 PM
Despite recent revelations that the Pentagon may have been hiding $125 billion in wasteful spending, the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) all knocked President-Elect Donald Trump Tuesday for tweeting his disapproval of the $4 billion price tag of two new presidential aircraft. “President-Elect Donald Trump's sparking a new controversy over Air Force One after once again, taking to social…

Feminist Journalist: Sex Will 'Get A Lot Less Fun' Under Trump
December 2nd, 2016 1:33 PM
Jill Filipovic wildly claimed that "sex is about to get a lot less fun" in a Thursday op-ed on CNN.com. Filipovic pointed the finger at Donald Trump nominating ObamaCare opponent, Rep. Tom Price, to be HHS secretary, and claimed the move is "just one peek at what Trump's notorious misogyny will look like when it's translated into policy." The Cosmopolitan contributor zeroed in on ObamaCare's "…

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CNN's Costello Worries About 'Cost' of Carrier Deal; 'Slippery Slope'
December 1st, 2016 6:05 PM
On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, Carol Costello hyped the possible impact to taxpayers for President-Elect Donald Trump's role in getting Carrier to stay in Indiana: "Donald Trump delivering on his vow to save Carrier jobs, and his economic team says it will deliver a lot more — but at what cost?" Costello brought on two Trump critics from both sides of the aisle, but didn't bring on any supporters.…

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Journalists Fail to Correct Obama Howler on Economy
November 16th, 2016 12:36 AM
At a press conference in Greece on Tuesday, President Barack Obama claimed that when he came into office, "the economy was contracting faster than it did during the Great Depression, but we were able to intervene, apply lessons learned and stabilize and then begin growth again." Naturally, Elena Becatoros and Josh Lederman at the Associated Press and Gardiner Harris at the New York Times, all of…

The Obama Economy: Worse Than the Great Depression on One Key Metric
November 7th, 2016 1:37 PM
If you believe the Obama administration, the Hillary Clinton campaign and their apparatchiks in the press — and as we've learned during the past several weeks, all three work assiduously to sing from the same hymnal — the economy we've seen during the presidency of Barack Obama has been one of slow but still acceptable recovery and (yes, this word has been frequently used) "durable" expansion.

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CNN, AP Hype Trump's Hours Off the Trail, Omit Light Hillary Schedule
October 28th, 2016 2:30 PM
On Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was in Washington to formally open the new Trump Hotel in Washington. This set off a media chorus of, "Oh my gosh, he's taking time off from campaigning! How can he do that when he's behind in the polls?" Meanwhile, Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton's public appearance schedule during this 2016 campaign has been among the lightest…
Dumb American Youth
October 26th, 2016 1:57 PM
Do you wonder why Sen. Bernie Sanders and his ideas are so popular among American college students? The answer is that they, like so many other young people who think they know it all, are really uninformed and ignorant. You say, "Williams, how dare you say that?! We've mortgaged our home to send our children to college." Let's start with the 2006 geographic literacy survey of youngsters between…

TV Critic: 'Unhelpful' Chris Wallace 'Came Down Harder on Clinton'
October 20th, 2016 3:49 PM
While Fox's Chris Wallace has drawn near-universal praise for moderating the final presidential debate, the Hollywood trade paper Variety carried the contrarian headline: "Final Debate: Wallace Misses." TV critic Sonia Soraiya wrote Wallace’s questions “provided some of the most heartfelt responses from her [Hillary] , such as her articulate, emotional statement of purpose on abortion.”
She…

AP: 2016 Deficit, Up 34 Percent From Last Year, 'Totally Manageable'
October 19th, 2016 4:44 PM
The federal government's fiscal year ended on September 30. As has been the administration's habit for years with news that might draw negative attention, the Treasury Department conveniently released its year-end Monthly Budget Review Friday afternoon to minimize the discussion of its grim news.