A Dubya “Deficit” Of Common Sense

I may have stumbled across the single stupidest moment of corporate media punditry this year, my fellow prisoners; I give you Andrew Taylor of the AP from here…

A president’s signature accomplishment typically occurs in his first year in office, before the August congressional recess. It was tax cuts for President Ronald Reagan and deficit reduction for President George W. Bush, though health care proved elusive for President Bill Clinton.

(Now, to be fair, I should note that this could have been a case of sloppy editing, since newsobserver.com had this reading “tax cuts for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and deficit reduction for Bill Clinton,” but as of this moment, the “ljworld” link has not been updated, and the text appeared as above in today’s Bucks County Courier Times.)

Which, to me, begs the following question to Andrew Taylor…

How many box tops did you have to save before you were awarded your journalism degree?

As noted here (a CNN story from September 2000; kind of painful to recall this given our present state, but I must...I also took note of the sidebar story, "Analysis indicates many Gore votes thrown out in Florida")…

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion.

"Eight years ago, our future was at risk," Clinton said Wednesday morning. "Economic growth was low, unemployment was high, interest rates were high, the federal debt had quadrupled in the previous 12 years. When Vice President Gore and I took office, the budget deficit was $290 billion, and it was projected this year the budget deficit would be $455 billion."

Instead, the president explained, the $5.7 trillion national debt has been reduced by $360 billion in the last three years -- $223 billion this year alone.

This represents, Clinton said, "the largest one-year debt reduction in the history of the United States."

Oh, and concerning the present White House occupant (back to Taylor)…

If and when (Obama) does tackle the deficit, he’ll be hard-pressed to keep his promise not to raise taxes on couples making less than $250,000.

Proof? Anywhere in sight? Hello???

Go ahead and deny me access to such “sterling” content, AP (here). As I said before, it would be a triumph for informed discourse.