Budget

In Covering June Budget Surplus, AP's Boak Conveniently Forgets Larges
July 12th, 2014 10:27 AM
One of the reasons President Barack Obama and the left can continue to make their cherished "budget stalemate" arguments against conservatives and Republicans is that the establishment press has memory-holed tax increases, including "the largest tax increase in the past two decades," which have already taken place. It now acts as if taxes on "the wealthy," which are really taxes on "high-income…

Brian Williams Crudely Accuses Washington of Screwing Over American Pe
July 11th, 2014 12:55 PM
On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams made a sexually suggestive remark accusing politicians in Washington of essentially screwing over the American public, citing last year's government shutdown as the chief offense. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Williams offered the blue commentary while reporting on a baby boom in Washington D.C.: "It appears last…
CNN's Bolduan Hounds GOP Rep. to Support Obama's Request For Immigrati
July 8th, 2014 12:28 PM
On Tuesday's New Day, CNN's Kate Bolduan all but lobbied Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine to support President Obama's multi-billion dollar request to deal with the ongoing illegal immigration crisis: "There's an immediate crisis on the southwest border. The President is going to ask for $2 billion....He says it's emergency funds to help stem...the flow of immigrants coming in. Can you support…

AP: ‘Humming’ and ‘Rising’ U.S. Economy Is a ‘World-Beater
July 6th, 2014 5:10 PM
In the latest White House press release disguised as analysis at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, AP stenographer Paul Wiseman sang the praises of this nation's "humming" job market and its "steadily rising" growth as the economy is "finally showing the vigor that Americans have long awaited." Wow.
Of course, the White House — er, Wiseman — never mentioned the following (…

Jon Stewart Tells Sen. Jeff Sessions 'Go F*** Yourself
June 27th, 2014 3:50 PM
Jon Stewart fell back to his partisan comfort zone on the Thursday, June 26 edition of The Daily Show. Despite Tuesday’s brief respite into the realm of poking fun at his own party, the Comedy Central host spent the opening monologue of his show blasting Republicans for being “warfare queens.”
Stewart ended his rant by telling Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to “go f*** yourself.” Classy. […

AP's Crutsinger Cites Projected Obamacare Savings Even After CBO Throw
June 12th, 2014 1:01 PM
When your fellow journalists won't report the news, you get tripped up when you try to do your job. That's the likely takeaway from Martin Crutsinger's report on the government's May Monthly Treasury Statement yesterday at the Associated Press.
The AP, like most establishment press outlets, has virtually if not completely ignored an inconvenient and alarming Obamacare-related statement in a…
Al Sharpton: I Try to Chase GOP ‘Roach Legislation’ on My MSNBC Sh
May 22nd, 2014 2:57 PM
MSNBC’s Al Sharpton got nasty on Wednesday’s episode of his program PoliticsNation, comparing Republican-backed legislation to common household pests. The reverend’s remark came at the end of a conversation with Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) on the House GOP’s proposed agriculture budget. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]
Sharpton and Fattah took particular issue with the budget’s proposal that only…
Tim Geithner Admits White House Told Him to Lie to Media, Charlie Rose
May 13th, 2014 1:33 PM
Charlie Rose invited on Timothy Geithner for the entire hour on his PBS show to plug his new memoir but never once asked him about the juiciest nugget in the book - that the White House told Geithner to lie to the media.
On Monday’s edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose show, the CBS This Morning co-host never got around to asking the former Treasury Secretary about his revelation that White House…

Laura Ingraham Suggests Geithner Should Have Resigned When Asked to Li
May 13th, 2014 9:49 AM
Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's Fox and Friends on FNC, conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham asserted that former Obama administration Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner should have resigned when he was asked to lie about the role Social Security plays in the federal government's fiscal problems.
After a quote from Geithner's book, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises, in which…
As Usual, AP Rewrites Fiscal History in Covering the Government's Mont
May 12th, 2014 4:59 PM
The Associated Press's unbylined 2:25 p.m. report on the government's April Monthly Treasury Statement contained an unhealthy dose of the historical revisionism we've come to expect from the outfit which really should be called in the Administration's Press.
AP's tallest tale is in ascribing the four annual deficits of over $1 trillion incurred from fiscal 2009 through 2012 entirely to the "…

MSNBC's Fineman Mocks Paul Ryan As 'Introduc[ing] Himself to the Bro
May 1st, 2014 3:44 PM
On the Wednesday, April 30, Hardball with Chris Matthews, guest and MSNBC political analyst Howard Fineman -- formerly of Newsweek -- mocked Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's intent to visit impoverished areas as a plan to "introduce himself to the bro," and went on to complain that Ryan's budget "whacks away at" programs to help the poor.

MSNBC's Joy Reid Cracks 'Paul Ryan Wants to Fire Big Bird
April 30th, 2014 9:02 PM
On the Wednesday, April 30, The Reid Report, MSNBC host Joy Reid attacked Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan, claiming that it "guts" programs to help people in poverty, and ended up cracking that he, like Mitt Romney, "wants to fire Big Bird" because the budget would end federal government funding for PBS. [See video below.]

AP's Crutsinger, As Dismal First-Quarter GDP Report Looms: Happy Days
April 29th, 2014 3:24 PM
At the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, Martin Crutsinger has pretty much proven that he's been on some kind of workout regimen. If he wasn't, he couldn't possibly have carried so much Obama administration water in his 1:45 p.m. report on the state of the economy (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) as he did.
Crutsinger's message: Pay no…

MSNBC Panel Trashes Paul Ryan, GOPers 'Fuel Racism' and 'Attack Minori
April 29th, 2014 1:32 AM
On the Monday, April 28, The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz devoted the first segment of nearly 15 minutes of his show to trying to link prominent conservatives like Paul Ryan to the racist views of people like Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling, whom the MSNBC host failed to label as a Democratic donor.
Schultz charged that Ryan and other GOPers "support policies that attack minorities" and…