CNN's King failed to challenge claim that Bush "has stood up for" "wisely spending the taxpayers' dollar"
On the June 19 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN chief national correspondent John King failed to challenge outgoing Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Robert Portman's claim that while the Republicans lost their congressional majority because voters believed they were "not as focused on wisely spending the taxpayers' dollar," President Bush "has stood up for" doing so. In fact, Bush signed every appropriations bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, which produced large budget deficits.
On July 19, 2006, Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, his only veto of legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. On May 1, he vetoed the emergency supplemental war spending bill passed by the Democratic Congress, his sole veto of an appropriations bill.
As Media Matters for America has documented, on August 10, 2005, Bush signed into law a $286 billion, six-year transportation bill containing a record number of pork-barrel pet projects inserted by members of Congress -- 6,371, according to The Washington Post -- this despite the fact that Bush had earlier vowed to veto any bill that exceeded $256 billion. He later raised the limit to $284 billion -- still $2 billion lower than the final cost of the bill.
OMB is currently projecting a deficit of $202.2 billion for fiscal 2007. Since Bush assumed office with a $125.3 billion surplus for fiscal 2001 (which began October 1, 2000), every budget of his presidency has been in deficit, including $352.8 billion in fiscal 2003 and $374.8 billion in fiscal 2004 (all figures in fiscal 2000 dollars).
In response to Portman's statement, King said: "Let me ask, in closing, for your assessment of the current political climate here in Washington."
From the June 19, 4 p.m. ET, edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
KING: Let me show the poll numbers for -- the election results, actually. When Ted Strickland [D-OH] became governor in the last election, he won 60 percent of the vote, only 37 percent of the vote for the Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Getting in -- obviously a long time between now and 2010, but what happened to the Republican Party in the state of Ohio?
PORTMAN: I think a couple things happened. One, it was a tough year across the board for Republicans. Ethics was a bigger issue, by the way, than Iraq in Ohio, in terms of those independent voters, who normally would have voted for Republicans.
And the other issue that was very big in Ohio, and across the country, for that matter, was spending. People felt as though the Republican Congress, and, in particular, the Republicans in their state, were not as focused on wisely spending the taxpayers' dollar.
And that's something that this president has stood up for. Recently, as you know, we begin to see this distinction of Democrats being for higher spending; the president insisting that we have a reasonable level of spending, but not beyond that.
And, then, on taxes, people also got concerned that maybe Republicans weren't focused enough on keeping taxes low to keep the economy growing.
So, I think those numbers will shift as you begin to see this distinction play out, as it does traditionally with Democrats and Republicans, as the Democrat [sic] majority begins to make more and more promises to spend more and more, and the president continues to stand firm.
KING: Let me ask, in closing, for your assessment of the current political climate here in Washington.
Bush, the biggest spender since LBJ, has stood up for the wise spending of taxpayer's dollars by misplacing his veto pen on any all spending bills? Come on Mr. King, you must be joking.
Sadly, he's not. The only reason Bush is making noise now is because the republicans are no longer in control.
And King? He is the is the reporter who never fails, he cannot be bothered with those details! (This nostalgia thing is gonna go a loooong ways!)
MMFA, always on the lookout for "conservative misinformation" from leftists like John King, has decided that if the follow up questions aren't what the zero-credibility hack David Brock would've asked, it's therefore "conservative misinformation"?
John King substituted for Judy Woodruff one day in August a few years ago before she retired. I remember laughing my way through it, since for 46 minutes, King, in charge for a week, decided to run stories on Gore, Albright, Reno, Bill and Hillary. In the 47th minute we were reminded, finally that there were in fact Republicans in DC, and they controlled pretty much everything at that point.
Now he uses his last opportunity in this interview to ask his last scripted question, and since it doesn't please some guy at MMFA, it's worthy of an article?
These people at MMFA really need to get jobs.
I am stunned that someone funds this nonsense.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
Roger7 / Wednesday June 20, 2007 08:27:35 PM EST
What?!?!?!?!? MMFA has to doing anything more than point out the obvious lie, and distortion with saying this President is fiscally responsible????
Schmuck!!!!
David Brock was one of the punditry-thugs sent to Arkansas by Republican mogul Roger Ailles to smear the Clintons. When he found himself lying about sincere lifelong public servants for no better reason than the neo-con's desire for a "one-party government" which is little more than a dictatorship by another name, he spoke out, and pushed back.
Attack the messenger, avoid the message!! A Republican mantra that has resulted in the worse governance America has ever seen!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Dan,
No one thinks Bush is fiscally responsible, but this is just another example of MMFA going out of its way to make sure it remains a fringe website talked about by no one. I'm trying, but the only people interested in MMFA are those who need a few laughs.
I liked your remark about the "neo-con's desire for a "one-party government" which is little more than a dictatorship by another name".
I'm sure you thought America was in the evil hands of a dictatorship in 1993-94 when the Dems controlled the White House, Senate and House, yes?
Sure ya did. Let me know your thoughts on that, and then get some new material.
As for Brock, you people just have no standards, or 1000 different standards depending on the needs of the 24-hour news cycle in question.
The left used to love making fun of Huffington, now she's their darling, even though she's nothing more than a slow-witted, hyper-hypocritical, socialite wannabe politico.
The left used to loathe David Brock, and now his credibility is as solid as anyone's, lol. So what if the rest of the world stopped caring what Brock has to say years ago?
The left, collectively, needs a spine.
Brock and Huffington have denounced their evil ways and the Left is helping them recover from their conservative addiction. Through our intervention, they will not fall off the wagon. When you decide to leave the dark side, we’ll help you recover too.
"Brock and Huffington"Stellar examples indeed. The first is a self-confessed fabricator and the second is a buffoon social climber who uses the Democrat Party to feed her narcissism.
Or else she left the ReNAMBLAcan party out of sheer disgust at their greed dishonesty and lack of basic decency
It is the ACLU that has legally defended NAMBLA, and 95% of its causes are leftist. Sure they defended Limbaugh with a press release, but it's a pretty hard-core lefty group.
Thanks for bringing it up.
The ACLU's ONLY real client is the Bill of Rights. So ok if you want to define protecting the bill of rights as lefty I wont argue.
Isn't Roger adorable? Not a single post to back up his assertions, yet he can state it as a fact without fear of being exposed as wrong. Just priceless! (and veeeeeery stupid!)
There were several mistakes in your post; I'll correct it for you:
“‘Brock and Huffington’ are stellar examples indeed. The first is a self-confessed fabricator [turned truth teller] and the second [was] a [conservative] buffoon social climber who [now] uses the Democrat[ic] Party to [not only] feed her narcissism [but to combat rightwing propaganda].”
Isn't it adorable?
Once you denounce people hated by the left, all your lies and embarrassing behavior just go away!
It's just so easy to be a liberal. No thought or morals required.
Isn't it adorable?
Once you denounce people hated by the left, all your lies and embarrassing behavior just go away!
It's just so easy to be a liberal. No thought or morals required.
- Roger7 / Thursday June 21, 2007 02:35:05 AM EST
By that standard, contrition holds no value, apologizing is basically an exercise in blowing smoke.
That explains why conservatives, who remain conservative, are NEVER contrite, unless they can blame it on addiction or falling out of lockstep with the Lord's Plan.
Randy
The right collectively needs a brain and yours certainly wont do. King let go without challenging or laughing uproariously a stunning peice of partisan nonsense. That is classic misinformation. No one in the world cares what YOU think about it. If this site doesnt meet your standards why not start your own and let us know where it is so we can drop in and tell YOU how pathetic you are and how you ought to run it.
No one in the world cares what YOU think about it.
Leaving the other replies to my post aside, Solon...you replied.
Think about that.
Ah yeah. As I explained before. I amuse myself here. That however doesnt mean I in any way care what you think about this site or about this article. I dont.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
MMFA, always on the lookout for "conservative misinformation" from leftists like John King, has decided that if the follow up questions aren't what the zero-credibility hack David Brock would've asked, it's therefore "conservative misinformation"? // Randy7
If any of this had a toe hold in reality, we would not be having this exchange! MMFA would have been never been heard from again.
We both know thats not true, as the "big shots" from the NY Times were hoping would be the creditible work on Hillary became the bad joke of jounalism that it so richly deserved as they became more compelled to answer to answer MMFA critiques just to keep their head above the table in interviews!
The truth is that Neo-Cons, Objectivists, and Republicans have proven that those whom don't believe in sincere governance should not govern!
I would intend that their lies, incompetance, and catastrophic failures, as well as the treason against our constitutional form of democracy, our civil liberties, shall never visit our nation again. For instructions to protecting, preserving, and defending our constitutional form of American Democracy from the Republican Fascists Party please note the above-mentioned title of this posting!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!
I'm sure you thought America was in the evil hands of a dictatorship in 1993-94 when the Dems controlled the White House, Senate and House, yes? /// Randy7
Your kidding right, the Democrats were sent packing in '94 on the houls of Republicans, that were the minority for over 30 years previously, over corruption scandals that included a few thousand dollars of checks from their credit union, and a few thousand dollars payola from "Big Dan the Man."
Nobody decided to become our "Unitary Executive", spy on us, and shred the Bill of Rights!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Basically your answer is "I don't like the question so I'll dodge it in a not-so-clever manner".
Understood.
Bush "has stood up for" "wisely spending the taxpayers' dollar"What a joke. The man is the most fiscally irresponsible politician in recent times. He took on the liberals and beat them at their natural game of wasting taxpayer dollars on garbage. Some achievement indeed! /sarcasm
Roger, really we get that you don't like MMFA and you think that the site is incorrect and a waste of time.
Now back on topic.
True or false:
Did Junior spend $$ like a sailor on payday with the whorehouse 10 feet from the ship and 24 hours of leave?
Pearl,
Sorry dear, I didn't realize that some people wouldn't be able to grasp the meaning of my very first phrase:
No one thinks Bush is fiscally responsible
If you aren't sure what this means, feel free to ask.
After the Dems mastered wasteful deficit spending during the 40 years in which they controlled the House, it makes me smile to read complaints from lefties about fiscal irresponsibility.
(And since you don't know a damn thing about your own party, the spending bills that were proposed by the Dems over the last 6+ years almost always contained more spending and waste than the appropriation bills that were eventually signed. I saw "almost always", but I doubt there's even one example of a Dem-proposed appropriation bill with lower suggested spending than the one passed. If there is, I'll get over it.)
Roger honey I'm sorry. I must have missed that point in all your rabid comments about MMFA.
You could help my small mind keep up by KEEPING IT ON TOPIC
I could, but I probably won't.
seems you CAN'T since that would require critical thought and at least an elementary grasp of logic. And you prove you have neither in every one of your name-flipping posts tommy-boy
What we arent sure of moron is what your point could possibly be when even someone as partisan as YOU agrees no one could possibly believe this statement yet it was broadcast without challenge OR guffaw, yet somehow you managed to criticise MMFA for pointing that out.
"After the Dems mastered wasteful deficit spending during the 40 years in which they controlled the House, it makes me smile to read complaints from lefties about fiscal irresponsibility."
Deficit spending always rises faster when there is a republican in the White House with the possible exception of Lyndon Johnson. Johnson did a lot of spending during his tenure to cut poverty levels in America and he managed to cut it in half.
And dont forget the Vietnam war
Since there's almost always a Republican in the White House, that's a pretty handy theory you have there (if you clowns can't pull off something special in '08, we'll be able to say that in a time span just shy of half a century the Dems have had only two presidents elected...cuz, ya know, liberalism is so mainstream and popular and everything:).
Everything happens more often under GOP presidents, since the Dems are so rarely in charge of the Oval Office.
I forgot the reason I wanted to reply.
So how did that "war on poverty" go?
The stats don't look so good for all the money we've wasted, er, "invested".
Hello. I have come to this site for over a year and have gotten to know some of you quite well. It was your idiocy, Roger7, that finally inspired me to register. Congratulations!
The funny thing is, I see you posting here constantly, yet with each post you seem to talk about Media Matters and it's posting community as if you aren't a part of it. Except that unlike many posters here, including some principled conservatives like Tommy, you come to MM purely to make a total douchebag of yourself by constantly harping on David Brock's admitted past conservatism and incessantly bashing the Clintons and the evil, monolithic entity known as, *gasp*, "Liberals."
Your pathetic attempt to explain away that King was ignoring a 100-percent, bulletproof FACT about Bush's fondness for indiscriminate spending is amusing. I just love to see people like you talking down to everyone; you can almost smell the desperation in the air as conservative dominance of our government withers away. The Dems are weak? Perhaps, but that makes the Repubs problems even more pathetic, if anything. They couldn't even compete with those Democrat pussies! What losers.
ps--How's that conservative "War on Drugs" going? About as well as the "War on Poverty?" Obviously, the War on Drugs is successful, because as you said the Republicans have been ruling everything in Washington for quite some time. The War on Poverty failed because the Democrats aren't in power and are big stupid dummies. That makes sense.
"Did Junior spend $$ like a sailor on payday with the whorehouse 10 feet from the ship and 24 hours of leave?"True (and I am a right winger). Where do I collect my prize?
You got the answer right, Genghiz. That should be a rare and wonderful enough prize for a Republican. Enjoy!
LOL...good one.
So Roger7, if you were a reporter doing an interview, you would allow people to lie unchallenged.
OK.
Skippy,
I'm giving a guy I don't trust, King, the benefit of the doubt.
Have you ever interviewed someone on live television, trying to listen to both the person you're interviewing and to your producer thru a tiny speaker in your ear as you try and decide whether or not you should ask the last question you wrote down to ask this guy, or turn his own comments against him by spontaneously spinning his remarks into a new question, hoping you can get it done with enough time for him to answer before the commercial break?
I haven't and I suspect it isn't easy even for seasoned pros.
My god, how many times have the media allowed Democrats to say something untrue? Did you whine when Harry Reid lied, saying the Dems had just "killed the Patriot Act", right before it was renewed? Do the names Bill and Hill mean anything to you, as long as we're talking about people being allowed to lie?
My point is that if MMFA is always going to whine about questions not asked at the end of an interview they'll never have time for the stuff that matters.
The fact that this website never seems to cover anything that matters is a topic for another day...say, tomorrow, around 4pm.
All that sounds reasonable as a reason why he missed it. Which would mean he did his job BADLY. Therefore he is open to criticism for it. See how simple this is when you actually think about it instead of making knee jerk excuses? We all get that you dont think conservative media misinformation is a big deal and dont like MMFA pointing out cases large and small. Its what they do. No one cares whether you like it or not. As I said before if you think you can do better please start your own site and let us know about it so we can drop by and tell you what a crappy job you are doing and tell you how to run it.
"conservative media misinformation"
What does that have to do with John King? You think he's a conservative, or that he works for a conservative network? omg.
Next you'll tell me Katie Couric and Brian Williams are obviously GOP.
What does that have to do with John King?
What does John King doing his job badly - and allowing misinformation to go unchallenged - have to do with him? Hmm...isn't that self-explanatory?
Next you'll tell me Katie Couric and Brian Williams are obviously GOP.
Next you'll tell us that Joseph Lieberman is a Democrat...but so what? This is just another example of your self-admitted inability to stay on topic.
From the whiny puke-inducing vitriol dripping from his posts, I'd be willing to place a wager that roger7 is actually Brett Bozell, masterslime behind the media "research" center and its anti-librul bias site noozbusters.snore. His propagandizing and phrasing are the same as bozo's, as particularly is his obvious ENVY of David Brock for starting a site that has created way more buzz in its short time in existence than his pathetic pack of neanderthal misinfomers have been able to muster in how ever many years its been around. So Brett (or I'm sorry, roger-wink wink) go crawl back under the rock from whence you came so you can continue to conduct your scurillous circle jerk with the cretinous maggots that are your natural cohorts and leave us thinking creatures alone.
flipping names again eh tommy-boy? well, guess your check arrived from the RNC
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
tommy / Wednesday June 20, 2007 06:15:57 PM EST
LBJ!?!?!?! LBJ spent like a penniless hobo compared to Reagan, Bush I!
This idiot has spent more than every President in American history combined on a war nobody should have waged for the profits of his political allies, and a power grab, as well as tax relief to the most wealth 1% of Americans as the devide between the rich and poor has never been as bad since the Great Depression!!
Don't flatter the Republicans with an outright revision of history so blantant as to make the comment a outright lie!
LBJ raised the deficit to pay for a mistakened war in the shadow of the Cold War that was real enough, and to lift the impoverished, the sick, and elderly out of the grips of destitution, not for the sake of millionaires, and corporate profits!
Schmuck!!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Be careful, Dan. Words like "Schmuck" have lead to posters (or is it the same poster under different aliases?) being banned. Wouldn't want a logical debator banned for a minor offense.
Thanks for brining up Reagan
Another man who is in the Karl Rove camp, these people are on the Bush bench.
Let's not forget how much money he's poured down the Iraq rathole. Nothing wise about that. We'll be lucky if it costs less than a Trillion dollars...not to mention the lives that have been WASTED over there.
The estimate for the cost of treating the wounded vets of the Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan as of last year were projected to be between $300,000,000,000 and $600,000,000,000.
These funds will be provided by an already overburdened system that is still denying needed benefits to veterans of our past adventures.
That's why we have to vote GOP, King- those are just the projected costs, I'm thinking of the projected savings if we abandon all those Vets by cutting their benefits Republican style.
Remeber, those GI boots have bootstraps for a reason.
Hahahahahahahahaha..Oh stop it! hahahahaha.. Stop it you're killing me! Hahahahahahaha
This Robert Portman's is a comedian...right? And John King's his straight man?
Oh man they are hilarious ;-)
What do you expect from a guy who's made a career out of sitting down?
"What do you expect from a guy who's made a career out of sitting down?"
Woops, I was thinking of Larry King.
Make no mistake about it: the more that deluded conservatives insist that MMFA is irrelevant and a fringe website, the more scared they are. No longer can conservatives lie with impunity. Someone's watching the lying sacks of $%^**^% on Fox and conservative talk radio. To all those who keep bleating about Media Matter's irrelevance and ineffectiveness: methinks ye doth protest too much.
Check MMFA's traffic rankings.
You won't brag about MMFA again.
I bet American Idol outpolled the rerun of Lawrence Fishburne in Othello. Does that mean Willie Shakespear ought to be ashamed of himself?
Yes.
That is precisely what it means.
LOL ia can just picture this name-flipping loser sitting in his mom's basement crying his eyes out at all the mean people pointing out how stupid he is :)
Roger, you can't be serious! Do you really have so little understanding of or admiration for western culture????
Check there traffic comapred to what site? I've did a few comparisons and you might have to back up that comment.
If it is so miniscule, why is O'Reilly always in a snit about it?
More like WISEGUY spending of taxpayer dollar.
What I still can't fanthom are these remarks- '.. in terms of those independent voters, who normally would have voted for republicans...' Normally, I would guffaw and say these neocons are blowing smoke- but I am still interested in those who track what people may think and do...
Hey, King should definitely be called on his failure to challenge that kind of statement. (Thanks, MMFA.) In King's defense, he does much better with Angelina Jolie and everyone connected to Anna Nicole Smith.
Even most Republicans now think Bush is a financial disaster on two feet because of his stand on the Amnesty bill.
Letting this go by was like sailing past the Titanic sinking and waving at all of the folks in the water.
unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence for the theory that the neo-cons want to spend the federal government into bankrupcty because they don't believe in government.
which makes no sense because they need government to maintain their corporate welfare and fund all those wars they want to start.
Many if not most remarks by politicians go unchallenged. Unless they are challenged on trivial things. Nevertheless, I agree with YAHAVHIS6653 "letting this go by was like sailing past the Titanic sinking and waving at all of the folks in the water."
I posted the comment about conservatives fearing MMFA and then logged off. My question to Roger7 would be: if MFA is so darned irrelevant and inconsequential, why do you spend so much time trying to discredit it? You see, my fellow liberals, conservatives think that if they can kill the messenger, obliterate the liberal point of view, their own doubts about the ethics of their position will also be removed. There is this foible of human personality that when you cannot have the courage of your convictions becuase your convictions are rooted in the morally untenable, the only thing you cannot tolerate is any dissent to your position whatsover. Conservatives should be advised; it even has a name. It is known as fascism.
Thus it behhoves liberals at every juncture in arguing with conservatives, to point out the immorality of their position. Be it Abu Ghraib (you mean you support torture) or Bush's tax cuts ( we should takr from the working poor and give to the wealthy?) or the Itaq war (more people should die for a lost cause fonnded on lies) they'll have no defense other than to defend the untenable.