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For the second straight day, President Barack Obama's $825bn fiscal proposal to stimulate the recessionary economy was Story of the Day. Tuesday the President made news by traveling to Capitol Hill to lobby House Republicans for his bill. Wednesday the headlines belonged to the House, which approved the measure 244-188, and to its Republicans, who were unanimous in their rejection of Obama's arguments. All 176 voted Nay. Only CBS led with the House vote. NBC kicked off with the request by the money-losing Postal Service to cut back mail deliveries to five days a week. ABC led with its investigative unit's expose of the CIA Station Chief at the US Embassy in Algiers. The spy is suspected of serial drug-induced date rape.

Tyndall Report has complained about the nightly newscasts' shoddy reporting about the substance of the Republican opposition to the stimulus plan. When CBS' Chip Reid covered complaints of wasteful non-stimulative spending Tuesday he came up with examples of only $36bn out of the $825bn. Last Friday, Savannah Guthrie's list of offending items on NBC was even shorter--just $2.2bn worth. Now ABC's Jonathan Karl falls into the same trap, repeating GOP criticism that the bill is "filled with old-fashioned big government spending" but coming up with specifics that are not filling at all: a total of less than $2bn on new cars, Census Bureau funding and sex education.

At last we turn to disputes of substance. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell outlined the difference between the two parties thus: "Democrats see a safety net during hard times while Republicans fear a step towards nationalized healthcare." The question of whether the federal government should borrow money to cover healthcare for the unemployed and deficit-laden state governments was a clear partisan difference that was cited by all three newscasts. CBS' Reid had the size of the subsidy at $127bn; ABC's Karl put it at $150bn; NBC's O'Donnell at $39bn for the unemployed and $87bn for Medicaid. Whatever the exact amount, at least they all were finally covering real money.

Education spending, too, constituted a disagreement of substance between Democrats and Republicans. ABC's Karl estimated the total at $150bn, "double the entire budget" of the Department of Education; CBS' Reid put the figure at $41bn in federal grants for local school districts; NBC's O'Donnell offered that same $41bn as funding for school construction plus a further $79bn to help pay teachers' salaries.

ABC did a smart thing, asking Betsy Stark to assemble a panel of economists to assess some of the plan's line items. Which aspects are "really stimulus" and which are "social policy?" She asked Laurence Meyer, a former central banker; Mark Zandi of Moody's economy.com, whose affiliation with John McCain's Presidential campaign Stark did not mention; and Rosanne Altshuler of the Urban Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution. All three picked $54bn for food stamps and unemployment benefits as their favorite element; second was $79bn "aimed at helping state governments facing big budget shortfalls."

Without spelling it out, ABC's Stark implied that the House GOP has little support from the dismal profession--at least those economists that she happened to select as its representatives.


Andrew Tyndall 1/30/09 5:50:02 pm

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