Over the past month, there have been 13 stories written by Lori Montgomery. Some of the ledes are revealing:<\/p>\n
One<\/a> tells the reader how Obama won\u2019t be able to overhaul the tax codes because of the tax compromise. (\u201cExtension of tax cuts chokes Obama\u2019s deficit plans\u201d)<\/p>\n Another story<\/a> complains that Obama hasn\u2019t embraced the deficit commission plans. (\u201cObama not likely to call for Social Security cuts\u201d)<\/p>\n She ridicules<\/a> the president by calling his plans for more spending as \u201cinvestments\u201d in quotes, a writing device used to deride the use of the word. (\u201cEveryone wants budget cuts, but will they work?\u201d)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, she writes<\/a> about how the GOP pledges \u201cto slice more than $32 billion from agency budgets.\u201d (\u201cHouse Republicans propose $32 billion in budget cuts\u201d)<\/p>\n Or how they \u201csketched their vision for a smaller government<\/a>,\u201d again by cutting programs that would make a miniscule reduction in the deficit. (\u201cHouse GOP points budget knife at EPA, top Obama priorities\u201d)<\/p>\n She writes<\/a> about House GOP leaders are hoping to enact \u201cmassive and unprecedented cuts,\u201d again for the portion of the budget that would be meaningless in light of the long-term deficits. (\u201cRift over spending cuts tests the GOP\u201d)<\/p>\n But then today, when the president presents a 2012 budget with significant cuts, he is derided by Montgomery<\/a>: \u201cObama will avoid politically dangerous recommendations to wipe out cherished tax breaks and to restrain safety-net programs for the elderly\u2026.\u201d Sunday, she wrote<\/a> that the proposal \u201cwould barely put a dent in the deficits that congressional budget analysts say could approach $12 trillion through 2021.\u201d <\/p>\n Why hasn\u2019t she written during the past month about the GOP avoiding those same cuts? It\u2019s laudable to Montgomery that the GOP is making small cuts in programs they ideologically oppose while she gives them a free pass on the larger budget items, i.e. Social Security and Medicare. But the fact that the party has avoided the big cuts is ignored, even as Speaker Boehner said again this weekend that the party will address those issues sometime in the vague \u201cfuture.\u201d<\/p>\n No wonder the GOP wins the message wars. The party just issues a press release and Montgomery provides the megaphone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past month, there have been 13 stories written by Lori Montgomery. Some of the ledes are revealing: One tells the reader how Obama won\u2019t be able to overhaul the tax codes because of the tax compromise. (\u201cExtension of tax cuts chokes Obama\u2019s deficit plans\u201d) Another story complains that Obama hasn\u2019t embraced the deficit… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[125,78],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}