Economy

As President Obama trots out his new "Buffett Rule" to raise taxes on millionaires, the media are predictably assisting his efforts by spreading misinformation about the wealthy paying less taxes than lower wage earners as a percent of income. 2009 tax figures recently released by the Internal Revenue Service thoroughly refute this assertion:

Talking to "Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory on Sunday's NBC Today, co-host Jenna Wolfe asked about President Obama's proposed "Buffet Rule," designed to increases taxes on the rich, which she assumed "will sit well with the American people overall." David Gregory agreed but lamented: "...the President's got to think about what he can do to actually get some agreement with Republicans…

CNN business correspondent Christine Romans claimed Monday that "any serious budget expert's analysis" concludes that taxes must increase. During CNN's coverage of President Obama's address concerning his deficit reduction plan, Romans asked not if, but when Republicans should get on board with his proposals. "So at what point do Republicans say, okay, we agree that taxes have to go up, and…

Sunday’s lead New York Times story by White House correspondent Jackie Calmes pushed the president’s new plan to raise taxes on “the wealthy.” The president, in what the Times seems to think is a bright idea, is calling his proposal the “Buffett rule,” after the billionaire who made waves with his complaint, printed in the Times, that uber-wealthy investors like him were not being taxed enough…

In a softball interview with Bill Clinton on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer gushed over the former president's Global Initiative: "One of the things that's always impressed me....you're really good in a closed room. I mean you get people to commit to things, to invest money....Are you surprised at how good you are at that?"

It will be interesting to see if a quote noted at the end of Jim Kuhnhenn's early Associated Press report about the President Obama's proposed tax increases (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) makes the cut in later revisions. I'll bet not, because it sends both the arrogance and ignorance meters well into the red. This post will look at the first and third…

Even Chuck Todd thinks President Obama's new tax plan is a joke. When asked on MSNBC Monday if the White House believes "tax reform in the context of the Super Committee is a realistic goal," NBC's chief White House correspondent broke out laughing followed by the entire "Morning Joe" panel (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Hours before President Obama is to unveil a proposal to raise taxes on America's rich, one of former President Bill Clinton's key advisers has come out strongly against the current White House resident and this move. For this reason, Mark Penn's "Obama -- Don't Bring Back Class Warfare," published at the Huffington Post Sunday evening, is destined to raise a lot of eyebrows on both sides of…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doesn't think the President's new "Buffett Rule" to create a higher tax rate for millionaires makes sense. Speaking on Sunday's "Meet the Press," McConnell said, "With regard to his tax rate, if [Warren Buffett's] feeling guilty about it, I think he should send in a check" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Fareed Zakaria's desire to give power to all countries except the one he currently resides - the United States! - is nothing less than appalling. On the CNN program bearing his name Sunday, Zakaria actually said, "It might be necessary to make clear that Christine Lagarde would be the last non-Chinese head of the [International Monetary Fund]" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters has been reporting, Barack Obama's sycophants in the press are really starting to lose that loving feeling. Driving this point home was the "American Conservative's" Jim Pinkerton Saturday who said on "Fox News Watch," "There’s a strange thing happening in the media which is, I think, liberalism has sort of concluded that Obama is kind of a turkey, and they're sort of trying to…

Part 1 on the Associated Press's September 16 evening story ("Obama admin reworked Solyndra loan to favor donor"; saved here at my web host for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) by Matthew Daly and Jack Gillum criticized the reporters and the wire service for making it appear as if all the findings in the story were the result of original work. Two other paragraphs in the…

CNN's American Morning brought on liberal academic Jeffrey Sachs to analyze Speaker Boehner's jobs plan Friday. Instead of hosting a conservative critic of President Obama the morning after he unveiled his jobs plan, the network actually interviewed the President's economic policy assistant. While Sachs went on-air and criticized the Republican plan as inherently flawed, Obama's director of…

"What Texas miracle?" Chris Matthews snorted at the open of his September 16 program, noting that "Today we learned that the Texas unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent last month" and that "the state actually lost jobs last month, even worse than the national figure of zero jobs created." "So where's the Texas miracle now?" a smug "Hardball" host asked his audience. [Video follows page break;…