WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 286 -- The Media Definition Of Budget Cuts.

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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 286 -- The Media Definition Of Budget Cuts.

The Difference Between Cuts & Not Cuts-

From the irritating but true files:

It will be hard to genuinely cut down the size of government as long as the collective establishment media still has the kind of power and influence that it (still) has today.

For the media, any slowdown in the rate of growth is a cut. For the media, any pullback from even a ridiculously large promised future increase is a cut.

Isn't it amazing that Bush can simultaneously manage to cut (or, gut) every single program, particularly the ones Americans like, yet still oversee huge increases in government spending?

Well, there are a couple things to consider here:

1. The media want Americans to believe that tax relief, not higher government spending, is primarily responsible for deficits.

2. The collective establishment media don't want Bush to get credit for increasing spending on programs Americans like, such as education.

3. The media, when complaining about deficits and Bush's spending habits, ignore that most government spending increases during his administration are due to pre-ordained increases in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

So basically all the rampant government spending is Bush's fault, but all the cuts (which are actually increases) to popular programs are Bush's fault.

It's so contradictory, but they do it anyway. And mostly get away with it.

For example, note that education spending is up profoundly, to unprecedented levels, under the Bush administration. Higher education spending, even, is way the heck up:

And the President's 2007 budget also includes increases in education spending.

Yet, in recent weeks, the Bush adminstration has been accused of cutting higher education:

Federal spending on higher education has ballooned from $9.6 billion in 2001 to $39.8 billion in 2006. Yet, because of “savings” in a budget-reduction bill signed by President George W. Bush, the media have accused Bush and Republicans of giving higher education the “deepest cuts,” going “after student loans” and even jeopardizing students’ futures.

But spending will still rise from where it is today. And it has risen substantially in recent years.

It's only a cut when people like the program and a Republican is involved.

We won't see necessary changes in government spending until the media establishment is smashed into irrelevance. There are other prerequisites, to be sure, but a media that distorts the picture so terribly and so consistently, precludes progress.

Source:
Free Market Project.

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Posted by Will Franklin · 4 March 2006 08:29 AM

Comments

I figure if the media is going to scream about cuts over growth rate decreases, we might as well go ahead and give them the cuts they claim they're getting.

Posted by: Jody at March 4, 2006 10:07 AM

Let's not be too hasty here. I can see how this way of thinking could be very useful in my personal life. Say I want to go on a diet and after each meal I just think about having two (or more) desserts but only have one. I could claim to have cut thousands of calories a week from my diet. When I go shopping I could look at the most expensive products first then buy something for less. Even if I go over budget I could claim to be very frugal because of my spending "cuts".

I could be very happy with this way of thinking until I gained weight/went broke/my brain melted from the lack of logic in it all. But, you know, results aren't as important as how one feels about it.

Posted by: marybeth at March 4, 2006 11:06 AM