Media wield GOP's "welfare" attack on economic recovery plan
On February 7, Jason DeParle published an essay in The New York Times highlighting a resurgence of the use of the word "welfare" among conservatives, this time to attack President Obama's economy recovery plan. Indeed, while economists agree that provisions in the legislation targeting needy people are among the most economically stimulative, Media Matters for America documents below the pervasiveness of what DeParle called the "weaponiz[ation]" of the "very word, welfare," in the media, particularly, but not exclusively on Fox News, to denounce the stimulus bill. While DeParle noted that the word "was weaponized last week," Media Matters noted frequent attacks in the media of Obama's tax plan as "welfare" prior to the November 2008 election, attacks that have continued from the beginning of this year.
As Media Matters has documented, economists, including Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Douglas W. Elmendorf and Mark Zandi -- the chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com who was a McCain campaign economic adviser -- have stated that spending proposals that critics call "welfare" stimulate the economy effectively. In Zandi's words, "[A]id to financially-pressed state governments" is an "economically potent stimulus." H.R. 1, the House economic recovery bill, includes provisions that would grant such aid to states, including additional federal matching funds for Medicaid and the creation of an "Emergency Contingency Fund for State Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Programs." Similarly, economists have stated, in Elmendorf's words, that "[t]ransfers to persons" -- such as provisions in the bill that extend food stamps and unemployment insurance payments -- "would also have a significant impact on GDP." Elmendorf further stated: "Transfers also include refundable tax credits" -- such as the Making Work Pay credit included in H.R. 1 -- "which have an impact similar to that of a temporary tax cut."
As mentioned above, while DeParle noted that the word "was weaponized last week," conservatives did not rediscover the word last week. Before the election, Media Matters cited frequent attacks in the media of Obama's tax plan as "welfare." And from the beginning of this year, there have been numerous references in the media to "welfare" in the context of Obama's economic stimulus proposal. For example:
* During the January 6 edition of Fox News' Studio B, host Shepard Smith asked Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee: "Senator, the president-elect wants a big economic stimulus package ready to sign as soon as he take office. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 billion over two years, $300 billion of that in what we're being told is middle-class and business tax cuts. Senator, I know we don't know the details yet, but $300 billion in tax cuts -- how do you cut taxes on people who don't pay taxes?" Ensign replied: "What they want to do is give tax credits. It's basically like a welfare payment because it's up above and beyond whatever taxes that they pay right now."
* During the January 7 edition of CNN's American Morning, CNN political contributor and former Republican National Committee official Tara Wall claimed: "Republicans are concerned about, and conservatives are concerned about, is not giving tax cuts to those -- to those who don't pay into the income tax system, which would essentially be more of what would be considered government welfare in some cases."
