This page was last updated on April 14, 2011.
Totally unreal; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 14, 2011.
If you’re familiar with previous Times editorials on this topic and your head didn’t explode while you read this editorial, more power to you.
Let’s look at the Times credibility on the topic of debt and deficits. The Times has published a series of editorials that alternated between lobbying for more spending and complaining about spending. You’ll recall this paper cries crocodile tears about deficit spending and debt one day and the next day pitches a fit if anyone proposes spending cuts or adhering to “pay-go” rules. For at least the last four years preceding the 2008 election, and likely from the first day of the Bush administration, Times editorials constantly and correctly complained about federal deficit spending, the country’s growing debt, and the burden that debt puts on us and future generations. Referring to these complaints as crocodile tears, I questioned the motives in my critiques because Times editorials concurrently lobbied for more spending on just about every proposal that came down the pike. As I’ve noted previously, since we elected President Obama, Times editorials now support deficit spending. Seven previous examples are “Last resort,” “Limited options,” “Budget crunch,” “Making the grade,” “Failing grade,” “Move it along,” and “Double-dip recession.”
In the case of the Pennsylvania 2011-2012 budget proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett, every Times editorial on the topic has bashed every proposed spending cut. Other than symbolic cuts by the General Assembly on itself and the executive branch on itself, the Times “solution” to our debt/deficit problems is increasing taxation. To the best of my knowledge, only once has the Times conceded “Raising taxes could slow the economy.”
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