AP’s Budget Surplus Report
Deceitful article leaves out facts.
The AP’s Josh Boak writes, “The Treasury Department said Friday that its June surplus totaled $71 billion, following a $130 billion deficit in May. The government also ran a surplus in June 2013, bolstered by dividends from Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant under federal conservatorship for the past six years.” All fine and dandy, right? Not exactly. “Boak ‘somehow’ forgot to tell readers that the surplus in June 2013 was $117 billion, meaning that the June 2014 surplus came in $46 billion lower,” notes Newsbusters’ Tom Blumer. Boak further asserts, “Republicans have accused President Barack Obama of failing to propose significant cost cuts to reduce soaring entitlement costs. Democrats counter that Republicans would rather impose sharp cuts on needed government programs than impose higher taxes on the wealthy.” For the record, “Tax increases on ‘the wealthy’ … have already been passed,” Blumer reminds us. “Many of them are embedded into Obamacare. Others came about to head off a budget stalemate in early 2013.” All too predictably, that little tidbit was likewise left out of the AP story. More…