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Deficits

• March 31 -- An "Embarrassing" Win for Bush Tax Cuts
Poor Bush. Even when he wins, he loses. Yesterday Bush notched another "embarrassing" win, according to Richard Oppel: "House Republican leaders avoided an embarrassing setback on Tuesday, barely defeating a nonbinding resolution favoring new restrictions on future tax cuts that are the centerpiece of President Bush's economic program."

• February 17 -- Bush's Costly Tax Cuts
David Sanger helpfully reminds readers of the deficit and pins it on Bush's tax cuts: "Mr. Bush said nothing of the long-term cost of making those cuts permanent. Neither the White House nor many in Congress want to dwell on additions to a deficit projected to hit $500 billion this year."

• February 2 -- Still No Liberals Here
Once again, a Robert Pear story finds no liberals in Congress, only "conservatives" and Democrats.

• December 1 -- Uchitelle's Hard-to-Tell Take on Consumer Spending
It's clear economics reporter Louis Uchitelle thinks Bush's tax cuts will backfire. But Times Watch is still trying to figure out his take on consumer spending.

• November 18 -- Uchitelle Hits Damaging U.S. "Allegiance to Deregulation"
In the liberal American Prospect magazine, Times economic reporter Louis Uchitelle praises a book by Clinton administration economist Joseph Stiglitz for its bashing of Clinton policies from the left: "Stiglitz is particularly good at describing the failure to strengthen government's hand in a market economy."

• November 4 -- More on Bush's Terrible Tax Cuts
David Leonhardt spells out the problems a surging economy poses for Democratic candidates, but then blames the deficit on Bush's tax cuts.

• September 18 -- Bush Chided for Spending Too Much, Not Enough
Bush asks Congress for $87 billion for the war effort, setting off criticism from Democrats that David Firestone helpfully passes on: “Democrats…accused the administration of being stingy at home and generous abroad.”

• August 1 -- Krugman’s Dubious Proposition
Paul Krugman’s op-ed on California’s massive deficit absolves Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of blame and instead fingers the 25-year-old tax-limiting measure Proposition 13, which he claims “led to a progressive starvation of California's once-lauded public schools.”

• July 31 -- Our Incoherent President
A Times editorial argues: “Bush should have been able to come up with better responses to two big and obvious questions: why he ordered the invasion of Iraq and why he pushed for tax cuts that have left the nation sinking into a hopeless quagmire of debt.” That’s before it lambastes “Mr. Bush’s vague and sometimes nearly incoherent answers.”

• July 17 -- Tax Cuts Cause Deficits, But Medicare Spending Doesn’t?
David Rosenbaum’s front-page story is headlined: “White House Sees A $455 Billion Gap In The ’03 Budget -- Would Be Biggest U.S. Deficit -- Democrats Point to Tax Cuts.” Why not “Conservatives Point to Medicare Drug Spending?”

• July 2 -- The Times’ Tax-Hike Crusade Trickles Down
The Times’ tax-hike crusade trickles down to the states, as the myth of falling tax revenues in Oregon resurfaces in a story on state budget woes.

• May 29 -- Oh Those Terrible Tax Cuts
Richard Stevenson’s story on Bush’s tax cut opens: “President Bush signed into law today the third tax cut in three years, dismissing criticism of the legislation's cost, fairness and effectiveness, while casting the measure as ‘essential action to strengthen the American economy.’”

• May 27 -- The Krugman Crack-Up
Conspiracy-mongering columnist Paul Krugman accuses the Bush administration of being out to wreck the American economy: “The people now running America aren't conservatives: they're radicals who want to do away with the social and economic system we have, and the fiscal crisis they are concocting may give them the excuse they need.”

• May 23 -- Oh No, Not Another Tax Cut!
The bias in David Rosenbuam’s tax-cut story starts with the headline “A Tax Cut Without End” and concludes with a sentence on Bush’s tax-cut enthusiasm: “So be prepared for another tax bill next year.” Another tax cut? Oh, the horror.

• May 13 -- Firestone’s Tiresome Anti-Tax Tirade
Reporter David Firestone again takes a liberal assumption as proven fact, writing that Democrats are demonstrating “their refusal to make it easy for the Republicans to increase the deficit with their tax cut.”

• May 2 -- Times Calls Bush "Fiscal Nero"--But Fiddles With Facts
A Times editorial warns the White House: “It must hear the measured warning from Alan Greenspan… that new tax cuts are definitely not needed now. They will probably harm the economy, not help it.” But Greenspan strongly supports the president's tax policy. How do I know? It’s in the Times.

• April 29 -- France’s “Fiscal Discipline”
“Europe has imposed on itself a fiscal discipline so tight that it leaves little room for economic pump priming,” writes James Tagliabue. “The U.S. is back to cutting taxes and running up record deficits.” “Fiscal discipline” among European welfare states?

• March 24 -- Pleading Democrats Try To Halt Record Republican Deficits
Times reporters Carl Hulse and David Firestone implied it was unseemly for Congressional Republicans to promote Republican legislation during wartime. “Though Democrats pleaded for a halt after the war began, the Republican leaders of the House and Senate chose not to stop their march toward tax cuts and record deficits…”