Thursday, July 14, 2011

Democrats Still Want to Spend More

July 14, 2011 5:30 P.M.

Even as we approach the debt ceiling, they can’t stop themselves.


It’s no secret that Democrats love to spend money, but given their recent behavior in the debt negotiations, perhaps it’s time for A&E producers to feature them in the next installment of their hit series Intervention, in which friends and family members try to convince loved ones to give up their crippling addictions.

In an interview with National Review Online, Senate minority whip Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) explains that even at the height of national concern over the country’s debt and deficit problem, Democratic negotiators are insisting that additional spending measures be included in a deal to increase the debt limit.

In discussions this week, Kyl says, Democrats proposed extending unemployment insurance for another 99 weeks at a cost of $43 billion. In addition, they requested another $10 billion to spend on research projects overseen by the National Institutes of Health. Democrats have not, Kyl says, offered to offset the new spending with additional cuts.

These measures come on top of the increased spending Democrats proposed in negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden, which included a $33 billion increase in Pell Grant funding and $27 billion — a number Kyl says was never explained and is much higher than Republican estimations — for the so-called “doc fix” to restore Medicare payments to physicians.

Another point of contention in the talks, Kyl explains, is that roughly 75 percent of the “savings” proposed in non-health-care mandatory spending are achieved through revenue mechanisms such as fee increases, which technically aren’t classified as tax hikes, but certainly highlight the Democrats’ fundamental unwillingness to reduce spending. Kyl says at this point he can identify only about $55 billion in actual reductions to federal spending.

When it comes to health care, Kyl says that even the modest savings introduced in the Biden talks, primarily of the “waste, fraud, and abuse” variety — all of it outlined by President Obama in his budget “framework” speech — have since been taken off the table. Republicans can “buy them back,” Kyl explains, if they agree to match them dollar-for-dollar with tax increases. “But we’re just not going to do that,” he says. This is why the top-line figure agreed to in the Biden talks — about $2 trillion — has since shrunk to less than $1.4 trillion. Kyl predicts that as the deal stands, the Congressional Budget Office would score only about $1 trillion of actual savings.

Negotiators are meeting today at the White House. Kyl says he expects the White House will continue to press Republicans to “buy back” health-care savings with tax increases (which isn’t going to happen) and agree to a global “deficit trigger” that would impose automatic spending and tax increases if Congress fails to meet certain targets. This too, Kyl says, is a non-starter with the GOP. He holds out hope that some agreement can be reached on a number for an overall ten-year deficit target and an appropriate enforcement mechanism that does not include tax increases, which continue to be a stumbling block at every turn.

— Andrew Stiles is a 2011 Franklin fellow.

Friday, July 1, 2011

NBC Nightly News Mentions Jet Tax Loophole Twice, Ignores It Was Part of Obama's Stimulus

The "NBC Nightly News" mentioned the corporate jet tax loophole twice in its report concerning Barack Obama's press conference Wednesday.

Unfortunately, Brian Williams and Chuck Todd neglected to inform viewers that this loophole was part of the President's stimulus package in 2009 (video follows with commentary):




During his over one-hour press conference, the President mentioned the need to close this loophole for the "rich" six times.

But as the Associated Press reported in February 2009, this was actually part of that year's stimulus package (h/t Heritage Foundation):

Just a few months after lawmakers scolded auto executives for flying to Washington in private jets, Congress approved a tax break in the stimulus package to help businesses buy their own planes.

The incentive -- first used to help plane makers recover from the 2001 terror attacks -- sharply reduces the up front tax bill for companies who buy assets like business planes.

The aviation industry, which is cutting jobs as it suffers from declining shipments and canceled orders, hopes the tax break in the economic-stimulus bill just signed by President Barack Obama will persuade more companies to buy planes and snap a slump in general aviation that began last year.

Pretty amazing that the President made a big deal on Wednesday over a tax loophole that he himself thought was a good idea when it was included in his stimulus bill two years ago.

Equally absurd was that the "Nightly News" would refer to this tax break twice in its report on the President's press conference without noting the delicious irony.

This seems particularly negligent given NBC's fascination with so-called gaffes and hypocrisies associated with Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. There have been a minimum of three such reports filed by NBC News this week.

Yet the current President mockingly proposing to close a tax loophole that he extended and trumpeted shortly after taking office deserved absolutely no mention.

As NewsBusters has been cautioning for months, Americans better get used to this kind of duplicitous coverage from Obama's media shills.

Until the elections are over, he could probably throw up on a visiting dignitary without it being reported while a Republican presidential candidate sneezing without covering his or her mouth will likely garner the attention of a breast popping out during a Super Bowl halftime show.

Maybe even more.