Politico today features a story by Jennifer Epstein detailing 10 proposals from Obama’s previous State of the Union addresses that were mostly frustrated. The report begins with an utter distortion that is nearly universal in Washington reporting:
“Perhaps the proposal that generated the most conversation was Simpson-Bowles, which began with Obama’s 2010 State of the Union proposal for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Its recommendations were never adopted — Obama himself didn’t support them — but the broad strokes have helped shape Washington’s discussions of spending and deficits since.”
Why can’t reporters get this straight? Obama didn’t support the Commission’s recommendations because there weren’t any. There were recommendations by the co-chairs, Alan Simpson and Erskin Bowles, that failed to gain support of the National Commission. Their recommendations were never adopted – and for good reason. The co-chairs have since become a deficit hysteria road show on the corporate lecture circuit, touting Commission recommendations that were never adopted by the Commission. Their lie is purposeful. The press corps reporting of that lie as fact is inexcusable.
