Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The case of the disappearing story

First you see it, then you don't.  Reuters reported that Obama's budget contained a series of taxes that would hit the middle class but that story didn't sit too well with the White House:

White House Gets Reuters To Pull Budget Story

Obama administration aides appealed to the Reuters White House reporting team to kill a story by another reporter of the news service that suggested the president's new budget blueprint included "backdoor" tax hikes.

A White House official told TPMDC the Reuters story was "falsely stating that the President's budget raises taxes for middle class families, when in fact the opposite is true."

The official said when the administration saw the story, published yesterday afternoon, they contacted one of the Reuters White House correspondents.
So Reuters caved to the White House.  Makes one wonder how many other stories have been pulled or stopped outright at the behest of the Administration.  Dan at The Riehl World has some details from the budget:

The $3.8 trillion budget request rolled out by the White House on Monday would renew the Making Work Pay tax credit for fiscal 2011, but then would have it sunset.

That’s a switch from last year, when Obama’s budget called for making the tax credit permanent. The cut costs the federal government about $63 billion in annual revenue while putting up to $400 in the pockets of workers making less than $95,000. It was approved for the first time in last year’s $787 billion stimulus package.

An administration official said the tax credit reflects changing realities in Congress on climate change legislation. (emphasis added)

Climate change legislation?  Hasn't the White House heard that climate change is dead?  Perhaps Reuters pulled the story.

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