Social Security

If, as shown yesterday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), media reporters can't even get basic things like the fact that $1.74 x 3.5 doesn't equal anything close to $4 right, you would think that it's way too much to expect them to understand the difference between income and net worth. You would be correct. The coverage of last week's Social Security tax-increase proposal by Democrat Barack Obama…

Press coverage of Barack Obama's Social Security proposal in Columbus, Ohio last week made many of the usual mistakes any time there's a story about the government's "third rail" program. But in this case it missed what would be a historic de-linkage of payments made into the system from benefits paid out. First, here are the key paragraphs from the Cincinnati Enquirer's coverage of Obama's…

One man's pork spending is another's "relative bargain" according to the "Follow the Money" segment on the April 15 "CBS Evening News." The newscast commemorated Tax Day by featuring what federal tax dollars are spent on, but what they chose to highlight was peculiar. "The biggest tab for taxpayers is defense," CBS correspondent Bob Orr reported. "The average American household is paying $2,…

The Associated Press's out-of-whack news priorities and seemingly boundless determination to distort never cease to amaze. Hope Yen's Sunday report on VA credit-card charges is yet more evidence that the wire service has lost its way. The beginning of Yen's report is so typical, and so misleading: Investigators Review VA Credit Charges WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans Affairs employees last year…

The Treasury Department released its Monthly Treasury Statement for December this afternoon. Though Uncle Sam did run a surplus last month, the year-to-date figures are alarming: It should be pretty clear that the big news in the above figures is that federal spending during the first quarter of the fiscal year was almost 9% higher than during the first quarter a year ago. If the spending…

Instead of focusing on Hillary Clinton’s third-place finish in Iowa, her struggling poll numbers, or the typical horse-race questions, CNN’s John Roberts asked the former first lady about a number of issues, including the Iraq war, Social Security, and the principles that she would "stand on in good times and bad times." In his last question, Roberts asked Clinton, "What will be the underpinning…

For years one of the great unanswered questions along Main and Wall streets has been why, in the midst of 24 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted growth, polls have regularly found Americans sour about the economy. On Tuesday, a battle between the New York Times liberal economics columnist Paul Krugman and WOR radio's Steve Malzberg offered a clue. In fact, after 16 minutes of sparring on…

Which prominent pundit has called Barack Obama a "sucker" and a "fool"?A. Rush LimbaughB. Ann CoulterC. Michelle MalkinD. Mark LevinE. Laura IngrahamJeopardy theme-music playing . . .

Chris Matthews can't get enough of John Edwards' brutal-but-funny anti-Hillary ad, playing it twice during this evening's "Hardball." Set to the Blue Danube Waltz and based on clips from last week's debate, the theme is Hillary's double-talk on Iraq, Social Security and immigration [her triple-toe loop on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants].But in the three-cushion game that is presidential…

Here's a story a climate change obsessed media are sure to ignore: a Congressman from Southern California has actually suggested America spend financial resources to fix the endangered entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid rather than to solve global warming. I don't imagine Katie, Charlie, and Brian will be doing a segment on this tonight, do you? Regardless, Rep.…