Under Debt Ceiling Deal, Debt to Rise $12 Trillion and 95% of Network Stories Leave That Out
If you’ve been watching the news media react to the debt ceiling deal you might thing some drastic spending cuts were signed into law. After all, ABC made it sound like Congress took a “machete” to the budget and NBC’s “Today” wondered if those spending cuts could harm the economy.
What has been completely missing from much of the network reporting was an admission that the deal “doesn’t cut federal spending at all,” according to a Cato scholar. The national debt is still projected to go up $12 trillion in 10 years under the plan.
That’s right. Not one bit of cuts. Chris Edwards, Cato Institute’s director of tax policy studies, explained that despite some media outlets view that the cuts were “sharp” and “severe” (He cited The Washington Post), the cuts aren’t what Washington politicians and media made it sound like. They are really cuts to projected growth of spending and debt, something Investor’s Business Daily exposed on July 22 in a front-page article.
Business & Media Institute looked at transcripts for 43 stories, interviews and news briefs mentioning the debt ceiling deal on network morning and evening shows Aug. 1 and 2. Only 2 of them admitted the debt will rise anyway. On ABC’s “World News,” Diane Sawyer put the spending cuts in perspective by admitting that federal spending won’t get any lower as a result of this deal - in fact it will grow.More at the link
