Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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Why do they let Cokie Roberts get on NPR and say such things? (Sorry, it’s not posted yet.) Yes, the numbers may have been worse than what the experts whom NPR relies upon expected, but it was not a big surprise to people who follow the economy closely. (My forecast was 150k. The March jobs number, plus upward revisions for the 2 prior months, was 149k.)
Roberts also claimed that President Obama’s budget proposal, with its big cut to Social Security, is an effort to appeal to centrist voters. There is no polling data that show cuts to Social Security are popular among centrist voters. In fact, polls have consistently shown that cuts to Social Security are hugely unpopular across the political spectrum.