Fox News Watchdog

Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron claimed that “budget and deficit reduction” and “fiscally frugal principles and proposals” are “Republican issues.” Cameron’s claim is belied by Republican support for Bush policies that are far more responsible for current and projected deficits than proposals enacted since President Obama took office, as well as Republican opposition to health care reform legislation that would reduce long-term deficits.

Cameron says “fiscally frugal
principles” are “Republican issues”

From the January 27 edition of Fox
News’ The Fox Report with Shepard
Smith:

CAMERON: Listen, they know that the
polls are favoring them and that history suggests they’re going to pick up seats
in this election year. But they do recognize that one of the complaints of the
electorate is that they don’t want the opposition to sort of be just
obstructionist. And so Republicans have to be at least looking as though they’re
ready to play to a bipartisan tone in this election year.

And one of the places
that they’re already doing that, frankly, is when it comes to the budget and
deficit reduction. You’ve got John McCain, the former Republican presidential
candidate of ’08, now working with Evan Bayh, the centrist from Indiana — a
Democrat — on exactly that: fiscally frugal principles and proposals. And
Claire McCaskill, a liberal Democrat from Missouri, is now working with Jeff
Sessions, a conservative Republican from Alabama, on that sort of stuff.
Fiscally responsible things. And it’s worth noting, Shep, that these are
Republican issues that they are now sort of setting the tone on.

The GOP has the
opportunity only with 41 seats to make the president engage with them. It’s not
– it’s far from a majority, but with 41, they get listened to. [The Fox Report,
1/27/10]

FACT: GOP supported Bush policies
that are largely responsible for turning surplus into deficits

Fiscal analyses:
Bush policies supported by GOP explain much of current and projected deficits.
Cameron’s claim advances the myth that Republicans
are more fiscally responsible than Democrats. The claim completely absolves
Republicans from responsibility for current and future deficits, despite the
fact that economists including Paul Krugman and Dean Baker have noted that the
Bush tax cuts —
supported by Republicans — added “more than $2 trillion in debt” and
the Iraq war “has cost at least $700 billion.” In a December 2009 analysis,
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote, “In fact, the tax cuts
enacted under President George W. Bush, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and
the economic downturn together explain virtually the entire
deficit over the next ten years.”

FACT: GOP opposes health care reform
that would decrease long-term deficits

CBO: Health care
reform will reduce deficits by more than $100 billion through
2019. In portraying Republicans as more
concerned with fiscal discipline than Democrats, Cameron made no mention of GOP
opposition to health care reform legislation. The most recent Congressional Budget Office analyses of the health care reform bills
estimate that the legislation would
actually reduce deficits by more than $100 billion through 2019 and would
continue to reduce deficits in the subsequent decade.

FACT: Majority of 2009 deficit is
attributed to Bush policies

$1.2 trillion of $1.4 trillion
deficit was already projected before Bush left
office.
The CBO projected on January 7, 2009, that,
including spending authorized under the Bush administration for the Troubled
Asset Relief Program TARP and government takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, the deficit would total $1.2 trillion. According to the CBO, the actual FY
2009 deficit was $1.4 trillion.

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