March 04, 2014
Of course most NYT readers are well aware of the fact that the government is projected to spend around $48.5 trillion over the next decade, so they realized that President Obama’s proposal to spend $60 billion more on the Earned Income Tax Credit is no big deal in terms of overall spending. That’s why this NYT article saw no reason to put the number in any context. However for that tiny group of readers who don’t have the total budget in their heads and may have thought this proposal would be a big deal in terms of federal spending, the CEPR Responsible Budget Reporting Calculator would quickly tell you that this spending amounts to 0.14 percent of projected spending.
The piece also includes a quote from Harvard economist Nathaniel Hendren, saying “we’re rightly concerned about budget deficits.” It would have been worth reminding readers that the efforts to lower the budget deficit have cost the country at least $5 trillion (@ $17,000 per person) in lost output over the last six years and kept millions of people from working. Some NYT readers may not realize the costs the country is enduring because some people like smaller budget deficits.
Comments