On Sunday’s CNN Newsroom, host Ana Cabrera collaborated with a favorite liberal media couple of senior political commentator John Avlon and political commentator and host of PBS’s Firing Line Margaret Hoover to wax poetic about President Joe Biden’s whopping $3 trillion economic plan and convince viewers that those standing in his way were showing they're opposed to growing the middle class.
Cabrera labeled the plan “transformational” and Avlon boasted that “[a] big infrastructure plan would not only make America more competitive for the 21st century economy but would go a long way towards rebuilding the middle class.”
The host led off by gushing over how Biden is not “simply looking to restore calm,” dismissing the massive tax increases that Joe Biden’s plan would entail, and praising how “transformational” the policy would be:
If anyone thought Biden was simply looking to restore calm and be a post-Trump placeholder president, you need only take a look at this next proposal, that massive $3 trillion economic plan that does include tax hikes but promises major benefits for jobs and infrastructure. John, how transformational would this be?
Oh how the rhetoric about economic policy changes at CNN from a Republic administration to a Democratic administration.
In August 2019, long before COVID and the economic impacts that it has had, CNN economic analyst Rana Foroohar predicted that Donald Trump’s economic policies would cause a recession. CNN also refused to give Trump credit for the booming pre-COVID economy and downplayed the economy’s quick recovery last year from its initial collapse at the beginning of the pandemic.
Back in the present, Avlon gushed about how “big” and “transformational” Biden’s economic plan would be (click “expand”):
This is a go big plan and it would be transformational for the economy on at least two major fronts. One of Biden's core focuses over the course of his career really has been building back the middle class. This has been an issue -- a group that's been squeezed for decades. A big infrastructure plan would not only make America more competitive for the 21st century economy but would go a long way towards making -- rebuilding the middle class. The second piece is this is sort of a sub-rosa green jobs program, helping America deal with climate change and climate crisis.
So it's a big ticket investment project. It goes far beyond anything Democratic presidents or Republican presidents have tried in the past. It looks like it will finally be infrastructure week, Ana, after a lot of talk. But I don't think this is as bipartisan as he perhaps had hoped. Not impossible, but tough.
Cabrera worried that Republicans will “obstruct” the plan and wailed “are Republicans going to work with Democrats on anything?”:
A leading Republican pollster told CNN about how Republicans are going to be framing the bill, this, “Nobody believes taxes are only going to be raised on the wealthy. The negative tends to outweigh the positive. If we do our job, it becomes the dominant thing.” That sounds like the plan is to obstruct. So you know, first we saw that with COVID relief. Now infrastructure. Are Republicans going to work with Democrats on anything?
CNN of course also advocated for the COVID relief bill, despite that it contained much pork which went to Democratic causes and it arrived on top of a year in which the federal government spent a record breaking $6.5 trillion in 2020. In fact, CNN brought on Avlon to promote the bill in a segment in which he used a study from a Biden donor to praise it.
Hoover, who is one of the liberal media’s favorite conservatives because she rarely actually says anything conservative, suggested that Biden can “ram through a progressive, you know, agenda” (though she conceded that he has to “make it very clear what he intends to do with the filibuster” so as to reveal whether he actually wants to be bipartisan).
CNN is not a news network but is an advocacy group dedicated to promoting Democratic policies.
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Read the full March 28th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera
03/28/21
5:04:06 PMANA CABRERA: Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst John Avlon and CNN political commentator and host of Firing Line on PBS, Margaret Hoover. Guys, it's always good to have you with us. If anyone thought Biden was simply looking to restore calm and be a post-Trump placeholder President, you need only take a look at this next proposal, that massive $3 trillion economic plan that does include tax hikes but promises major benefits for jobs and infrastructure. John, how transformational would this be?
JOHN AVLON: This is a go big plan and it would be transformational for the economy on at least two major fronts. One of Biden's core focuses over the course of his career really has been building back the middle class. This has been an issue -- a group that's been squeezed for decades. A big infrastructure plan would not only make America more competitive for the 21st century economy but would go a long way towards making -- rebuilding the middle class. The second piece is this is sort of a sub-rosa green jobs program, helping America deal with climate change and climate crisis. So it's a big ticket investment project. It goes far beyond anything Democratic presidents or Republican presidents have tried in the past. It looks like it will finally be infrastructure week, Ana, after a lot of talk. But I don't think this is as bipartisan as he perhaps had hoped. Not impossible, but tough.
CABRERA: And that’s what I want to ask you about, Margaret, because a leading Republican pollster told CNN about how Republicans are going to be framing the bill, this, “Nobody believes taxes are only going to be raised on the wealthy. The negative tends to outweigh the positive. If we do our job, it becomes the dominant thing.” That sounds like the plan is -- is to obstruct. So you know, first we saw that with COVID relief. Now infrastructure? Are Republicans going to work with Democrats on anything?
MARGARET HOOVER: Well, Ana, if Joe Biden wants to get anything through, first thing he’s got to do is make it very clear what he intends to do with the filibuster because if he's going to say, you know what, I'm going to be the next FDR, this is my moment, we're just going to -- we’re going to ram through a -- a progressive, you know, agenda regardless of whether we have Republican support or not, that's fine. He can do that. He's got 51 votes if -- if he wants to. But if he frankly, I mean, he's just got to communicate clearly. If he wants to have a bipartisan agenda, if he wants to do the thing he said he wanted to do in his inauguration speech which was -- remember, he said the word unity eight times, okay? So he's got to reach out to Susan Collins, he’s got to reach out to Lisa Murkowski, he’s got to reach out to some of these centrist Republicans and frankly centrists in his own party
AVLON: Mmhmm.
HOOVER: -- to build a coalition. He's got to get to 60 votes. Or -- or maybe he decides to reform the filibuster but frankly no legislation is going to happen moving forward until there's clarity on the question of the filibuster.
