Robert Reich: Stimulate Economy With 90% Tax On Top Earners
Can you imagine what would happen to the economy if top wage earners were taxed at 70 to 90 percent?Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich can, and he thinks it's a great idea.To be sure, many Americans were concerned that giving Democrats control of the executive and legislative branches of our government during an economic crisis could usher back in socialist tendencies first seen in this…
CNN's 'Glass One-Quarter Full' Spin: Emphasize Private Job Gains
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its "all-important" jobs report on Sept. 3, the morning before Labor Day weekend. CNN rapidly found the "bright spot" in a report that showed a net loss of 54,000 jobs and a higher 9.6 percent unemployment rate. "American Morning" co-anchor Kiran Chetry announced the report by saying "It's good news, but it's not good news." Still, she maintained…
9.5% Unemployment and Chris Matthews Doesn't Get Why People Miss Bush
Despite unemployment at 9.5 percent and millions of people having lost their jobs since Barack Obama was elected, Chris Matthews just doesn't understand why anyone would miss George W. Bush.Without naming this week's PPP poll finding Ohioans would vote for Bush over Obama by the tally of 50 to 42 percent if a presidential election was held today, Matthews in the first segment of "Hardball" asked…
George Will and Entire This Week Panel Smack Down Donna Brazile's Call
An amazing thing happened on the set of ABC's "This Week" Sunday: a liberal tried to extol the benefits of President Obama's unrestrained federal spending only to get completely smacked down by the entire panel.Host Christiane Amanpour began the Roundtable segment of the program by showing some of last week's horrendous economic numbers, and opened the debate about what can be done to improve the…
Olbermann Distorts Conservative Adage as a 'Screw the Poor' Attack
On Friday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann either showed his ignorance of conservative ideology, or he made his latest deliberate distortion to attack conservatives as he suggested that a Republican candidate for Oklahoma governor expressed a negative attitude toward the poor, referred to by Olbermann as "screw the poor," when, in reality, she was making the case that the wealthy are…
NYT's Brooks Bashes Obamanomics, Praises Germany's Far More Successful
On the same day the Commerce Department dramatically revised down second quarter Gross Domestic Product estimates, New York Times columnist David Brooks published a stinging rebuke of Obama economic policies."The American stimulus package was supposed to create a 'summer of recovery,' according to Obama administration officials," wrote Brooks. "Job growth was supposed to be surging at up to 500,…
Krauthammer: Economic Metrics Indicate 'Fear,' Meaning 'Party in Power
Better strap in because we could be on a wild ride if what some economic prognosticators are saying is true - not just on a financial market basis, but politically as well. Noted economist Nouriel Roubini has upped his forecast the economy could head into a double-dip recession. And CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer is predicting mass panic in the markets after tomorrow's gross domestic product…
CBO's Rosy Stimulus Numbers Have Little Basis in Reality, But Media Ag
In the media's continued effort to sell the stimulus to the American public, reality is simply a nuisance. It's much easier to use rosy economic projections with little to no grounding in the real world, and to refrain from informing readers just how disconnected from reality those models are.That is exactly what many in the media have done since the Congressional Budget Office released numbers…
Explaining 'Lives Touched' to the Mainstream Media
In late July, a Government Accountability Office report circulated which analyzed stimulus funding being spent by the Department of Energy. The main gist of that report involved the cost of each job being generated by the stimulus bill - a staggering $194,000. Tucked away in that report was a phrase that was new to most of us, a way to calculate jobs through a term called ‘lives touched'. Last…
Meet the Press: Dick Armey Slams Alan Greenspan's View of Bush Tax Cut
David Gregory on Sunday finally got an answer to his question about extending the Bush tax cuts, but it certainly wasn't what he was expecting.For those that have been watching "Meet the Press" this month, the host has been grilling his conservative guests about this issue ever since former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told him on August 1 that tax cuts don't pay for themselves.Having…
George Will Schools Robert Reich On Deficit Spending, FDR and Herbert
George Will on Sunday gave Robert Reich a much-needed history lesson about deficit spending and liberal myths concerning Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.As the Roundtable segment on ABC's "This Week" moved to the current state of the economy, Reich predictably called for another stimulus package. "You can't even talk about stimulus because people say, 'Oh, that would create a deficit…
WaPo's Eugene Robinson: Obama Is On A 'Winning Streak
What kind of shameless shill do you have to be to claim the President is on a winning streak as his poll numbers plummet, the economy teeters on a double-dip recession, and his Party is facing historic losses in both chambers of Congress?A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and former managing editor of the Washington Post, that's who.Consider that just days after numerous polls were released…
NYT's Herbert Rips Obama: He Should Have Exclusively Focused On Jobs
Are even the most liberal media members starting to realize the administration's "Recovery Summer" campaign was a complete joke?Such appears to be the case for New York Times columnist Bob Herbert who on Saturday published a piece absolutely excoriating President Obama for not exclusively focusing on jobs after his inauguration last year:The Obama administration seems to be feeling sorry for…
After Bashing Bush on Unemployment, NYT Now Touting 'Benefits' of High
In late 2009, when high rates of unemployment began looking like a sad fact of life for the foreseeable future, the media started looking for ways to put a positive spin on the situation.
Sure, many had predicted the next great depression when unemployment stood at around 6 percent in 2008, but with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, a number of reporters suddenly found the…
