Although
many people will be focused on football Feb. 3, the date also marks a
less-enjoyable event — the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax.
On that day in 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified making it possible
for Congress to tax citizens’ income.
When
it comes to taxes, the liberal media have been biased against tax cuts,
especially President George W. Bush’s, and for tax hikes. These seven
journalists all make millions delivering the news, but promote liberal
views on taxes. From Mika Brzezinski’s call for a return to “normal tax
standards,” to George Stephanopoulos’s arguments for higher gas taxes,
they aren’t content with how much money the government is already taking
from taxpayers.
Rates
have gone up considerably since the institution of the income tax. Back
then, the highest tax rate was 7 percent. A far cry from the 39.6
percent top rate signed into law in the wee hours of Jan. 1, 2013. If
Investor’s Business Daily’s warnings prove true, more tax increases are
on the way — and, no matter the rhetoric, don’t expect them to only
punish the rich.
IBD warned readers on Jan. 24, “Middle Class Beware: Tax Hikes are Coming [1].”
IBD cited reports from The New York Times, Fortune, CNBC and even CNN
pointing out that tax cuts on the middle class are “inevitable.” Why?
Because President Obama has made it clear he will oppose cuts to
spending. Taxing the rich can’t possibly bring in enough to solve the
debt problems, as Fortune’s Shawn Tully wrote “steep deficits will rise
even after the new revenue is counted.”
If
history repeats itself, the media will firmly support attempts to raise
taxes — especially these seven millionaire journalists who have been
voicing support for various tax hikes for years.
1. George Stephanopoulos: Clinton Aide Turned Reaganomics-Hating ABC Anchor
George
Stephanopoulos’s transition to “journalism” from working in the Clinton
White House disturbed even liberal New York Times editor Max Frankel,
who wrote in a January 1997 column that it “highlights a disturbing
phenomenon: the progressive collapse of the wall that traditionally
separated news from propaganda.” Stephanopoulos currently makes $6
million a year doing some combination of the two, according to Celebrity Net Worth [2].
Stephanopoulos said one of his reasons for being a Democrat was his opposition to Reaganomics. “I didn’t think supply-side economics would work, and I didn’t believe it was fair, [3]”
he wrote in his 1997 memoir. And it has showed in his 15 years with ABC
on the issue of taxes and many others, although his colleagues have
claimed he’s “been completely non-partisan.”
In
2008, he trashed John McCain’s tax plan, as a hard sell using figures
from the Tax Policy Center. He failed to tell viewers that TPC is a
joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, two
liberal think tanks.
In a 2007 interview with Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Stephanopoulos asked if he would push for energy “sacrifice [4]” and of course: higher gas taxes.
“You
were Secretary of Energy. Energy independence, as you say, is going to
be one of the number one issues in the campaign. And you’ve talked about
alternative energy. but isn’t it going to take real sacrifice, real
cutbacks in consumption ... higher gas taxes?” When Richardson disagreed
about taxation, he pushed again “aren’t higher energy taxes the best
way to get people to conserve?” Stephanopoulos also pushed the “serious
energy tax” idea in a 2006 interview with Democratic presidential
candidate Tom Vilsack.”
Years
earlier, in 2003, Stephanopoulos saw higher taxes as the solution to
the deficit, asking former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, “So what
would you do about those deficits if you were Treasury Secretary today?
What taxes would you raise?”
2. Katie Couric: It Takes Courage to Raise Taxes
Katie
Couric has had an extensive TV career, from co-hosting NBC’s “Today,”
to anchoring CBS’s “Evening News” and now on her own show “Katie.”
Celebrity Net Worth says she makes $15 million a year [5]. She also supports higher taxes, which she deems “courageous” to impose.
As CBS “Evening News” anchor, Couric asked presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2007 if Americans should “sacrifice” more. "With
the country fighting a costly war and going deeper into debt should the
American people be expected to sacrifice more, and if so, specifically
how? [6]" Couric didn't specifically cite raising taxes but "sacrifice" is the common media code word for tax hikes.
Earlier
in 2007, following the tragic collapse of a bridge in Minnesota, Couric
wondered “are taxpayers ready to spend the billions, maybe trillions,
it would take to fix all the pipelines, tunnels and bridges?”
In 1993 she said Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, was “courageous” because he’d raised taxes [7].
She told him, “Just last night on television I saw your opponent for
Governor complaining about your record, saying how you had raised taxes,
how it had cost 300,000 jobs. Are you afraid your politically
courageous moves are, in fact, going to cost you the election?”
3. Diane Sawyer: Bush’s ‘Massive’ Tax Cuts Won’t Help Middle Class
ABC
News viewers have seen Diane Sawyer on the network for many years, as
co-anchor of several programs including “Primetime Live” and “20/20”,
“Good Morning America” and these days as the anchor of “World News.”
Before joining ABC in 1989, she worked for CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Sawyer, like all the journalists on this list, rakes it in, to the tune of $12 million a year [8].
Also, like the others she’s expressed support for increased taxes and
opposition to “massive tax cuts.” She also promoted the liberal talking
point that Bush’s tax cuts would not benefit really help the middle
class.
She
pushed against tax cuts in 2003, saying to Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn., “Democrats are out there hammering hard on what they say
is the basic inequity that cannot be disputed, based on a couple of
facts of the President's tax plan. For instance, they say that somebody
in this country who is making a million dollars or more is going to
benefit $29,000 from the President's tax plan, but if you're making
$30,000-$40,000 a year, which the average American [makes], you're only
going to get $42, and there will not be rejoicing in America by all of
these middle-class taxpayers for $42."
On the March 5, 2005, broadcast of “Good Morning America” she labeled the proposed cuts “massive.”
More recently, as President Obama has demanded taxes rise on the rich, Sawyer has done her part: hounding Rep. John Boehner on the issue [9] and practically drooling over a “tax revolt” “against a man who had convinced them to take a [no tax hikes] pledge [10].”
In 2009, she even lobbied Obama’s environmental adviser Carol Browner,
“why not just go to a gas tax” to reduce gasoline use. She asked
variations on that question six times during the interview [11].
She, along with others in the media, have also bolstered liberal billionaire Warren Buffett’s calls for higher taxes. [12]
But in one report on the subject, she incorrectly claimed that “working
men and women” “pay the most taxes” when the wealthy actually pay a
disproportionate share of income tax, while half of all households pay no income taxes. [13] According to a 2011 article by the Tax Foundation [14],
“The United States currently boasts the most progressive income tax in
the industrialized world. Meaning, our wealthy pay a greater share of
the tax burden than do the wealthy in any other capitalist nation.”
4. Matt Lauer: Raise Taxes to Help Debt Crisis
NBC
“Today” co-host Matt Lauer greets morning viewers cheerily day in day
out, and he makes a mint doing it. Lauer earns $25 million a year
according to Celebrity Net Worth [15]. He also thinks raising taxes is a solution to the debt crisis.
In
a May 10, 2011, interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner, Lauer
pushed for higher taxes “to help with that debt problem.”
“Why not use an increase in revenues [16]?”
Lauer asked before attacking the Bush tax cuts saying “What is the
evidence that you can present that the tax cuts of the Bush era have
actually accomplished their goals.”
In fact, the Bush tax cuts increased tax revenue by 47 percent [17]according to IBD. so perhaps Lauer should have been pushing for cuts instead. Author and economist Thomas Sowell referenced [18]
the Nov. 30, 2012, IBD in which graphs showed that tax revenues
increased “after tax rates were cut.” He backed that up with a 2006
quote from The New York Times which said, “An unexpectedly steep rise in
tax revenues ... is driving down the projected budget deficit this
year.”
In
July 2011, as the debt ceiling deadline loomed even closer, Lauer asked
radio host Laura Ingraham “when it comes to taxes, this issue of
revenues, is there any way this deal gets done without the Republicans
compromising somewhat on taxes?” He prodded her further by demanding the
GOP cave: “President Obama talks about shared sacrifice. Where is the shared sacrifice going to come from on the Republican side?” [19]
The Congressional Budget Office has reported that Obama’s tax hikes on the rich won’t reduce the deficit at all [20], according to the Washington Examiner.
Lauer’s
calls for higher taxes shouldn’t shock anyone who has been watching him
for years. Back in 2004, he implored President George W. Bush directly
to raise taxes in his second term. He brought up the $445 billion budget
deficit for that year and asked Bush “Does the deficit matter?” A bit
later he asked, “If the deficit doesn’t come down, if you can’t pay it down by half by 2008, will you raise taxes?” [21] Bush replied that “raising taxes now would be a disaster.”
5. Mika Brzezinski: Praises Call for ‘Equitable’ Taxes, Supports Gas Tax
Since
MSNBC is an incredibly liberal cable news outlet, it isn’t difficult to
see that its reporters and anchors lean left. “Morning Joe” co-host
Mika Brzezinski is no exception. Before joining MSNBC, she anchored CBS
“Evening News Weekend Edition” and contributed to CBS “Sunday Morning”
and “60 Minutes.” Brzezinski, who has also contributed to popular
left-wing blog The Huffington Post, has praised “equitable” taxation and
called for “normal” aka higher tax rates.
When
Hillary Clinton told Clinton Global Initiative 2012 attendees that she
had been “preaching” about “equitable” taxation because “elites of every
country are making money ... [but] do not contribute to the growth of
their own countries,” Brzezinski could not contain her enthusiasm. The
co-host who earns $2 million a year according to Celebrity Net Worth [22], called Clinton “fantastic” and gleefully told Sept. 25, 2012, “Morning Joe” viewers: “I love her. She’s right.” [23]
Like
Stephanopoulos, Brzezinski has also supported calls for higher energy
taxes. When journalist Carl Bernstein pressed for a gas tax to help deal
with record Obama deficits, “Morning Joe” co-anchor Mika Brzezinski bolstered his argument [24].
Bernstein
said on March 3, 2011, “Have a gas tax in this country. We could solve a
lot of economic problems if we raised the gas tax.” Later when he
mentioned it again saying that if the country was serious about the debt
situation we would have a gas tax, Brzezinski said, “I agree with that,
by the way.” But the government already makes more money from gas taxes
than gas companies do. As Drew Johnson of the Taxpayers Protection
Alliance wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 2, 2012, “Exxon made seven cents per gallon in 2011. Federal, state and local governments siphoned off 50 cents in taxes.” [25]
Of course she also flagrantly advocated raising taxes on rich, white men claiming “we need to balance things out.” [26]In July 2011, she wanted a return to “normal tax standards, [27]”
meaning pre-Bush tax rates. In that same segment she insisted that
wouldn’t be “raising” taxes and wouldn’t be a break of the no-tax hikes
pledge many Republicans had signed.
6. Wolf Blitzer: Higher Taxes on Rich, Just a ‘Beginning’
CNN’s
lead political anchor and “Situation Room” anchor, Wolf Blitzer is a TV
journalism veteran. He joined CNN in 1990 after working for Reuters and
The Jerusalem Post. These days he makes $2 million a year according to Celebrity Net Worth [28],
and in spite of being one “the rich” he has called tax increases on the
wealthy a “beginning” of a solution to the debt crisis.
On
Dec. 6, 2012, Blitzer did his best to persuade Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.,
(now president of Heritage Foundation) to raise taxes on the rich. When
DeMint protested that raising the rate on the top two percent of wage
earners “doesn’t solve the problem,” Blitzer pushed: “Doesn’t solve, but
it’s a beginning.”
“It runs the government for five or six days,” DeMint rebutted. “But it’s a beginning [29] A billion here, a billion there, it winds up being real money,” Blitzer urged.
At
the November 2011 Republican presidential debate, Blitzer asked some of
the candidates if they would raise taxes in exchange for much larger
spending cuts. He even tried to cite Ronald Reagan as an example of a
Republican who had done just that. Of course, he failed to note that
what Reagan pointed out in his autobiography was that the Democrats had
promised those cuts, but later reneged [30].
7. Soledad O’Brien: Badgering GOP on Tax Hikes Over and Over Again
“Starting
Point” anchor Soledad O’Brien repeatedly pressed Republicans to give in
to Democrats on tax issues throughout the fiscal cliff fight. The
anchor, who went to work for CNN in 2003 and who used to co-host
“American Morning” currently earns $1.5 million a year [31]. She played hardball again and again with conservatives, pushing them to raise taxes.
On
Nov. 13, 2012, with the help of Christine Romans, she badgered Rep.
Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to rip up the taxpayer pledge he’d signed not to
raise taxes. “So would you be fine doing a compromise where you would
go against your signature on that pledge?” O’Brien asked. Again she
pushed: “Would you be fine to say this to the pledge?” [32] as she tore a piece of paper in half. She later tossed a softball question to Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
In December, she pressured Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, to cut a deal [33]. O'Brien
repeatedly jabbed Hensarling about raising taxes on the top two percent
of income earners. "[W]hy don't Republicans and Democrats vote for a
tax — to keep the taxes lower for middle class and people at lower
income and let the other ones expire? And you could do that now. And we
wouldn't go over the fiscal cliff," she pitched.
She
also favored liberal sources to conservative ones. Before the November
election, she cited a study from the liberal Tax Policy Center to attack
Gov. Mitt Romney’s tax plan, while simultaneously refusing to accept
the information Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., cited because it was “a blog
post.” McDonnell said there were six studies showing Romney’s plan could
work. O’Brien’s response was “those other six reports, one was a blog
post, some of those are completely partisan. So they’ve been debunked in a lot of ways.” [34]