CNN Takes the Cake

Yet another great moment in cognitive dissonance at the Time-Warner network, as spotted by Newsbusters’ Matthew Balan:

CNN’s Ali Velshi leaned against extending the Bush tax cuts during a commentary on Tuesday’s Newsroom, warning that it “may not be a brilliant idea,” and spouted the liberal talking point that tax cuts are a costly matter. Velshi also misleadingly stated that “we have not seen a huge surge in spending.”

Umm, we haven’t?

More from Balan:

The anchor devoted his regular “XYZ” segment at the end of the 2 pm Eastern hour to the tax issue. He began by outlining how “President Obama wants to extend the Bush-era tax cuts that apply to the middle class, or households earning less than $250,000 a year…and that sounds like a great thing.” He then continued with his argument about the “cost” of cutting taxes: “But let me put this into perspective. First, it’s not free. Extending the tax breaks to the top 3 percent of earners would cost between 650 and 700 billion dollars. Extending it for the rest of us is going to cost a lot more, possibly $3 trillion. Everyone wants to pay less in taxes, but in an economy with a debt like America’s, that may not be a brilliant idea.”

Velshi is making the common liberal assumption that the tax revenue belongs to the federal government, even before it is taken away from the employed. Despite this, he added that “arguments that it [tax cuts] will grind the economy to the halt may not hold much water either. Our tax rates are relatively low, and we have not seen a huge surge in spending.”

There actually has been such a “huge surge” in spending. Brian Riedl of The Heritage Foundation noted in a June 1, 2010 report that “spending and deficits continuing to grow at a pace not seen since World War II. Washington will spend $30,543 per household in 2010—$5,000 per household more than just two years ago….Since 2000, spending has grown across the board. Entitlement spending has reached a record 14 percent of GDP. Discretionary spending has expanded 79 percent faster than inflation as a result of large defense and domestic spending hikes.”

As Balan writes, Velshi has forgotten this infamous CNN moment:

Velshi completely omitted the possible strategy of lowering spending during his commentary. In fact, he has endorsed raises in spending. On February 17, 2010, he commemorated the one-year anniversary of Obama’s “stimulus” spending with a cake, and gushed over its focus on “green energy” during a August 24 segment.

Here’s a still shot of that cake: