One Needs Multiple Sources of News

For John, BLUF:  When much of the news media are Democratic Party operatives, or at least on the side of "Never Trump", one must make sure one samples a number of different news source, and then compare  As you do, John.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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MEDIA PRAISES ITSELF FOR MISLEADING AMERICANS ON TAX CUTS

From The Daily Caller, by Mr Andrew Wilford (National Taxpayers' Union Foundation), 15 April 2019.

This is from six months ago and will still be timely six months from now.

Here is the lede plus three:

While conservatives won the legislative war, polling shows that liberal groups are still winning the messaging battle around the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).  A very effective campaign convinced the American public that the “#GOPTaxScam” would take from their paychecks and hand the wealthy a tax cut.

That this factually-bankrupt campaign was able to take place with so little resistance (and sometimes even with support) from major media outlets may strike many as unsurprising, but the messengers don’t usually so publicly pat themselves on the back for deceiving the American public in an open forum.

That’s what happened this month when Vox writer Matthew Yglesias praised progressives on Twitter for how completely they misled American voters on tax reform.  “Nobody likes to give themselves credit for this kind of messaging success, but progressive groups did a really good job of convincing people that Trump raised their taxes when the facts say a clear majority got a tax cut,” Yglesias wrote in response to CNBC reporter John Harwood’s article about how just 17 percent of Americans think their taxes would go down.

There’s a reason people don’t like to give themselves credit for lying.  Approximately 80 percent of Americans received a net tax cut in 2018, while only 5 percent saw their taxes increase.  On top of this, the tax cut actually made the tax code more progressive, not less.

From my point of view the tax cut in 2017 were important in freeing up money to be spent by consumers and money to be invested by investors.  The result was a reduction in unemployment, through job creation.  On the other hand, confidence in what the Federal Government will do played a part.  Impeachment, If it comes, could damage that confidence, sending the economy in the other direction.  I wish us all the best of British luck.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff