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During the Senate debate over the $825bn fiscal stimulus bill, CBS' Chip Reid reported that Democrats accused Republicans of "trying to tar the bill by focusing on a small number of questionable projects." Tyndall Report has complained here, here and here that network reporters have too often fallen into the same trap, citing picayune line items as arguments against the measure when their inclusion or exclusion would make no material difference whatsoever. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell must have heard Sen Dick Durbin's valid objection to arguing about such irrelevant minutiae before filing her report. What did she do? She ignored it. "Outrage is building over the way some of the money would be spent," she declared, before focusing on four items that in total amount to sixteen one hundredths of one percent of the measure ($1.329bn out of $825): $0.87bn on the 'flu; $0.40bn on sexually transmitted disease; $0.034bn on remodeling at the Commerce Department; $0.025bn on recreational trails. O'Donnell cannot be serious.
By contrast, CBS' Reid and ABC's Jonathan Karl (embargoed link) properly concentrated on the genuine debate. The Democrats see deficit spending providing a demand-side boost; their Republican opponents advocate supply-side tax cuts instead. "Voting on party lines," reported ABC's Karl, "the Senate defeated 57-40 John McCain's Republican alternative to cut the cost of the stimulus in half, relying heavily on tax cuts." CBS' Reid listed a bipartisan consensus to expand tax cuts by almost $100bn to raise the stimulus total to more than $900bn: $69bn to relieve the Alternative Minimum Tax; $11bn in tax incentives for buying automobiles; $19bn for buying houses. Now we are talking real money.
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