MediaWatch: August 1996
Table of Contents:
Reaganomics, the Scary Sequel
Bob Dole's surprising advocacy of an across-the-board tax cut drew quick criticism from reporters as the unwelcome return of deficit-ballooning Reaganomics.
Hours after Dole's tax cut announcement on August 5, NBC Nightly News reporter David Bloom declared: "Most economists say the Reagan tax cuts did worsen the budget deficit and many are skeptical of Dole's plan." NBC's Mike Jensen agreed about "most economists" minutes later: "They say these tax cuts could cause huge budget deficits as they did during the Reagan years."
CBS Evening News reporter Linda Douglass warned Dole weeks before on July 23: "Each of the proposals he's considering would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Dole will have to convince voters that won't drive up the deficit."
Newsweek's Joe Klein pronounced: "The Dole tax cut stands, to all but hard-core taxophobes, as a transparent and rather pathetic bit of politics. He wants to cut $548 billion over six years? And balance the budget? Does anyone actually believe this?"
The August 12 Investor's Business Daily noted the real Reagan record: that Clinton's own Economic Report of the President showed "receipts from individual income taxes rose to $446 billion in fiscal `89, Reagan's last budget, from $286 billion in fiscal `81, the year Reagan began to slash personal rates. That's a 56 percent gain...Spending rose to $1.143 trillion in `89 from $678 billion in `81. That's a 69 percent gain."
Skepticism of Reaganomics stood in stark contrast to the media's salesmanlike reaction to Clinton economic proposals in 1992 and 1993. On the September 15, 1993 Sunday Morning, CBS's Douglass simply passed on the notion that Clinton could insure 37 million uninsured Americans with a cigarette tax: "They have a very elaborate plan to pay for this revolution in health care. It doesn't provide much in the way of taxes, just a sin tax, cigarette tax. They claim the money's going to come from savings in spending."
After years of stopping deficit-busting stimulus packages and nationalized health plans, Newsweek's Howard Fineman awarded the credit for the deficit not to Dole, but to his rival: "Clinton, meanwhile, can brag that the annual deficit has been cut in half on his watch -- and that he's a champion of fiscal responsibility. In other words, he can be Bob Dole."
The next week, Time contributor George J. Church echoed Fineman: "A case could be made that the candidate who best represents the fiscally conservative, moderate Republican tradition is, believe it or not, Bill Clinton."
