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Blitzer Lies on CNN
Wolf Blitzer owes Clinton an apology.
He ran the slimiest piece of propaganda I have seen in this primary.
He is misinforming CNN viewers about Clinton's proposal to relieve consumers of gas tax.
The report told how Clinton wants to suspend tax on gas. But it went on to lament that this tax money goes toward restoring aging city infrastructure - so that we do not have disasters like the Minneapolis Bridge collapse.
Then, to show viewers just what a huge hypocrite Clinton is, they ran a clip of her saying that we must do more for updating our cities aging infrastructure.
Of course, the report on Blitzer OMITTED the most important part of her plan: She would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies - who are making money hand over fist, while the rest of us suffer.
Comments (18)
Agreed. He needs to make a correction and issue an apology. Once he does this, she should apologize to Barack Obama for her new ad that makes it seems like she is really helping people with gas prices while Barack is unwilling to help.
April 29, 2008 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Politics and the media, no candidate left un-smeared.
April 29, 2008 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem with Clinton's proposal is that there is NO windfalls profits tax, and to re-coup the money she wants to "save" you, she needs the WPT to pass Congress. So IF, that passes the money that is lost now, might get repaid to the highway fund later. Maybe.
Plus, it is a short-term fix that will hurt more when the tax is reapplied. Consumers will feel it more, because by Labor day, the price of gas will be higher. As the old saying goes, "you can pay me now or pay me later." Later always costs more.
Better to have a more realistic approach, and pandering short-term fixes won't help.
April 29, 2008 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
The subject of this piece is not whether you like Clinton's plan or not.
The subject of this piece is CNN deliberately giving misinformation as news.
April 29, 2008 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with the misrepresentation, but that's a "Dog bites Man" story. In all honesty this tax proposal is one of the dumbest things I have heard, and for Hillary to jump on it is embarrassing.
The average savings to each American might be about $30-$40, times the M3 multiple for reinvestment in the economy, minus the loss to the economy from the additional tax revenue reinvestment = 0.
Hyperbole.
The windfall profit tax on the Oil Companies issue has been frequently raised and legislatively it has been a non-starter.
April 29, 2008 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since Hillary is in the pockets of the oil industry lobby, who's to say that she would actually insist on the latter to achieve the former? I'm guessing that if this goes through, the gas tax gets dropped for a time, but somehow the windfall profits tax will never, ever have a chance of going through. Stop kidding yourself. Bush/Cheney and Big Oil are going to let a windfall profits tax see the light of day? Yeah, and we went into Iraq to spread Democracy.
April 29, 2008 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with others here that the gas tax holiday is an ineffectual idea and the windfall profits tax is a promise it might be hard to back up, especially for Clinton. (Of course, Obama's called for a similar tax, too.) But this is a fair criticism of Blitzer, no doubt. I think Blitzer's deficiencies are something we can all agree on.
April 29, 2008 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm laughing so hard at this that I'm nearly in tears.
"Windfall profits tax."
Shit, that's a good one.
April 29, 2008 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
That avatar juxtaposed with your bit on the slimiest propaganda...brilliant!
You're really a guerrilla artist...a master manipulator of new media!
And all this time I thought you were just being unreasonable.
April 29, 2008 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure that the oil companies won't pass the cost of the WPT on to the consumers.
April 29, 2008 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a better idea: Don't cut the gas tax, but do pass the windfall profits tax.
Eighteen cents a gallon is chicken feed and the oil companies will make up the difference and more, anyway. Also, cutting the gas tax pulls away revenue now. How long would it be before the windfall profits tax revenue started to trickle in?
April 29, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
No matter what Clinton says, remember she's lying.
April 29, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
This time Blitzer was right -- Hillary is pandering and she knows it
She is taking money from the infrastructure fund which will save the average driver $30 and cost the country @200.0 jobs -- gee which is better??
Pander or Poverty?
The so called windfall profit tax she will use to pay for this? She forgot to mention that will likely never happen (deifnitely never happen under Bush and maybe with a dem pres and a 60% congress majority maybe - but that is a big maybe and a long way in the future?)
Sorry poster this time you got it wrong
(Besides- Obama central tenet of his energy plan is an oil company windfall profut tax --)
April 29, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
If only we could insist that they pass the "windfall profits tax" first. Then let the fund build up to the point where the "gas tax holiday" would be funded from that. "Pay as you go", as Obama puts it.
April 29, 2008 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would love it if they passed it first. Then the oil companies can pass the tax onto the consumer at the pump and everyone can see what a sham this really is.
April 29, 2008 10:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's as stupid as the stupid rebate this year. It's a plain old pork-for-all ploy. It costs gazillions in government revenue, and ends up saving us maybe a third of the reduction in tax.
The Washington Post's fact-checker on the subject gives the tax holiday Two Pinoccios.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/?hpid=topnews
April 29, 2008 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
The subject of this piece is CNN deliberately giving misinformation as news."
Gee, how does it feel? The Obama campaign deals with this on a daily basis, along with the *misinformation* (I'm being generous here) dished out by Hillary and her surrogates. I find my empathy well dry today.
April 29, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, the media has certainly been generous to Hillary.
The NYT definitely favors Hillary over Obama.
He sure has it bad, doesn't he?
And he lost PA because people in PA are racist. Not
because he F*ks up on a regular basis.
April 30, 2008 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
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