News outlets still accept Bush's bull

Why is it that even now, as Bush is headed out the door and being blasted by everyone as terribly incompetent, especially on the economy, CNN and others still buy into his crap? Bush, for the millionth time, claims that he inherited a recession. The article even notes that he uses this as his primary defense to his economic record. So why is it that I never see any of the news articles refute the claim? Factually, its wrong. This isn't a debateable topic. Its not something that is questionable, its quite clear. Recessions are 2 consecutive quarters of zero growth or contraction. There was no recession, as only 1 quarter of negative growth occurred. Furthemore, the 2 quarters that ALMOST fit the definition of recession both occurred DURING Bush's term NOT prior to it. In fact, the market plummeted on news that Bush's initial tax cut was going to pass Congress.

One might wonder how tax cuts could actually hurt the economy. Its quite simple, tax cuts can, and in this case clearly would have and did, result in deficits. Deficits are funded by borrowing. The more people who borrow money, the more expensive it is to borrow it. Simple supply and demand. More bidders = higher prices, and the government borrowing billions certainly counts as increased demand. That means private citizens and corporations have to pay more to borrow money. Higher costs = smaller profits. Sometimes deficits are inevitable and help the economy, but in general they are a bad idea. Wall Street, not surprisingly, recognized this after nearly a decade of fiscal restraint and prosperity under Clinton. The worst part about Bush's tax cuts wasn't just the fact that it would cause deficits but that it signaled a departure from fiscal restraint that was likely to last for years.

Unfortunately news organizations don't seem to want to take the time to simply say Bush's claim is unfounded because a recession did not actually occur in 2001. How hard is that? I guess that would take some actual research instead of simply taking the stories they are fed and running them and God forbid they actually do a little work.

Madison