While downplaying the effects of the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, Fox's Bill O'Reilly argued that government spending should be reduced to 2008 levels -- a proposal that echoes a 2010 GOP plan that economists said would have damaged the economy.

On the March 1 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly called for a rollback of federal spending to 2008 levels:

O'Reilly's idea is similar to the 2010 Republican proposal to roll back most federal spending to 2008 levels. That proposal, part of the GOP's “Pledge to America,” was lambasted by economists. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote that the GOP plan would have “damage[d] the already weak economic recovery by forcing states and localities to lay off more workers and make even deeper cuts.” The Economic Policy Institute wrote that if such a plan had been implemented, it could have cost as many as 590,000 jobs.

O'Reilly's suggestion came during a segment in which he joined others in the right-wing media in downplaying the effects of the sequester, which could cost one million jobs.