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Federal fiscal stimulus continues to be the only newsworthy antidote to the rapidly shrinking economy. CBS filed a couple of reports: Anthony Mason warned that "many economists now forecast the drop in GDP this quarter could be even worse than last." Mason visited the corporate headquarters of Honeywell, the global technology conglomerate. CEO David Cote recounted visiting the White House to urge President Barack Obama to work for a pump priming "measured in trillions not hundreds of billions." CBS' Wyatt Andrews wrestled with the thorny problem of trying to explain Republican opposition to the Democrats' $825bn deficit-spending plan. His report suffered from the same problems as previous efforts even as it achieved fresh insight.
First the problems: Tyndall Report has noted the pitfall of explaining GOP opposition by focusing on specific, trivial porkbarrel elements. When CBS' Chip Reid tried to explain what it was about the $825bn that Republicans objected to, he singled out just $36bn as non-stimulative; NBC's Savannah Guthrie a mere $2.2bn; ABC's Jonathan Karl less than $2bn. Now CBS' Andrews peddles in the same trivia. He listed six specific line items in the bill as "too much goody bag and not enough stimulus" yet the grand total of the six--money for ATV trails and beehives and digital TV sets and sexually transmitted diseases and the arts and smoking--does not even reach $1.5bn. The efficacy of the deficit spending bill as a whole in producing demand-side stimulus is affected in no material way by these six items--either their absence or their presence. Andrews' decision to cite them is misleading reporting. It only sows confusion.
So what did CBS' Andrews manage to explain clearly? He quoted the complaint of Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA) that $200bn out of the $825bn does not represent a temporary stimulus to be applied to the next two years but "permanent spending." Cantor showed Andrews his Won't Go Away List to argue that the $200bn should not be spent now, even if it is currently beneficial, because three and four years from now such spending will be remain unrepealed and will therefore be counterproductive. Cantor's Exhibit A was $15bn in Pell Grants for college students to pay tuition; Exhibit B was $13bn to local school districts to pay for special education.
On ABC, Pierre Thomas offered an example of what local governments would do if the federal government does pay a stimulus directly to municipalities. They would reverse budget cutbacks and looming layoffs in police departments. He showed us the threat to "hard-fought gains in crime reduction" if the thin blue line erodes in Columbus Ohio and Atlanta and Phoenix and Sacramento and Boston.
As for that repeated focus on the most trivial aspects of the stimulus package, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, anchor of This Week, cited the proposed $50m for the National Endowment for the Arts as an example of the bill "getting defined by its least popular elements." He predicted "a lot of amendments" when the bill is debated in the Senate, with extra tax breaks for corporations and agricultural subsidies for rural states, to garner Republican support.
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