November 01, 2013
Most people have no clue how much the government will spend this year and even less idea of how much money it will spend over the next decade. That is true even of the highly educated people who listen to National Public Radio. That is why it is just awful reporting on NPR’s part when it tells listeners about a $5 billion cut to food stamps this year or a Republican proposal to cut benefits by $40 billion over the next decade.
This provides no information whatsoever to the overwhelming majority of NPR’s listeners. On the other hand, it would be informative to tell listeners about a cut to food stamps equal to 0.14 percent of the budget this year and the Republican proposal to cut benefits by an amount equal to 0.09 percent of projected spending over the next decade. (Both numbers immediately available through use of CEPR’s extraordinary Responsible Budget Calculator.)
The key point that many NPR listeners likely missed is that these cuts could be a big deal for food stamp beneficiaries, but they are trivial in terms of total federal spending. Many NPR listeners may wrongly been led to believe that the decision on these cuts will have a substantial impact on the budget and the deficit.
Unlike NPR, the New York Times recognizes this problem and has committed itself to present big numbers in a way that are understandable to its audience. Maybe one day NPR will begin to take news reporting seriously.
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