To Sawyer, Not Raising Tax Rates Means a 'Tax Cut' as She Frames Debate Through Liberal Prism
If your income tax rate stays the same next year, would you consider that a
"tax cut"? ABC anchor Diane Sawyer sure seems to think so. Adopting the
Obama/Democratic spin as fact, that maintaining the same income tax
rates in place since 2003 constitutes a "tax cut," even though taxpayers
would pay the same amount on the same income, she led Wednesday's ABC
World News:
It will be the big battle to the finish line in November, and this is the question: How big a tax cut will you get next year?
In her very text sentence, however, she incongruently, but
accurately, recognized Obama's wish to return rates for some to their
pre-2003 level would constitute a hike: "And should taxes increase on
the wealthiest Americans?"
The
subsequent story dealt only with Obama v Republicans on income tax
rates for 2011, and a FICA tax cut is off the political table, so Sawyer
must have been talking about the income tax, not any FICA rate change.
Sawyer's no rate change equals a tax cut thinking matches the
reasoning from liberals who fret over the "cost" and "paying for"
continuing the rates set in 2003, as if all the money in the economy is
the government's, and so not letting the Bush tax cut rates expire -
maintaining the status quo - means a "tax cut."
Sawyer opened the Wednesday, September 8 World News:
Good evening. It will be the big battle to the finish line in November, and this is the question: How big a tax cut will you get next year? And should taxes increase on the wealthiest Americans? We have an exclusive interview with the President tonight. He walked into the lion's den today, challenging Republicans on taxes and the economy. The Republicans, quick to fire back.
That interview with President Obama amounted to an Obama soundbite
from an interview conducted by George Stephanopoulos which will run on
Thursday's Good Morning America.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
