Only the New York Times op-ed page could offer two ridiculous and obviously contradictory statements in two succeeding sentences and believe it was making sense. In “Defensible Missile Defense,” Professor Ted Postol declares that US missile defense “performance is unproven, it requires unending additional resources and it faces problems that cannot be solved with existing science. Russia, for its part, has long perceived missile defense as a threat to its security — a concern the administration chose to ignore, worsening tensions with Moscow.” If missile defenses are scientifically impossible how …
I am sure the folks at The New York Times can add, but they make no sense when they talk about defense dollars. The latest headline trumpets, “Proposed Military Spending Is Highest Since WWII” . Here are the numbers that really put defense spending in their proper perspective. When the United States fought WWII, war costs accounted for about 46 percent of GDP. Today the Pentagon costs us about 4 percent of GDP. It is equally stupid to argue that defense spending is at the root cause of our economic …
If there was an award for bonehead defense reporting it should go to The New York Times for “Military Contractors Await Details of Obama’s Budget.” The opening paragraph includes this howler…”The good news for big military from President Obama’s budget this week was his proposal to increase the basic budget by 4 percent to $534.” If the reporter had bothered to talk to any credible military analyst, he would have learned Obama’s plan will likely be anything but a “real” increase in the budget. Here’s why: The Pentagon budget looks …
The Cato Institute sought to make clear where they and the world’s smartest economists stand on the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt plan by running a full page ad in the New York Times, Washington Post and other major newspapers this week that includes 200 signatures from major economists who oppose the stimulus: Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by …
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was less than honest when he totally misrepresented my 2001 essay, “Taking Charge of Federal Personnel.” My point was simple: To achieve significant change, a president needs key appointees dedicated to pursuing his vision and mandate, not entrenched D.C. “wise men” intent on pursuing policies that reflect their own “expert” views. To promote his own “expert” view that the Bush Administration was unqualified to govern, Krugman lifts a sentence fragment from my essay and places it in a false context. Yes, I urged then …
The Bush administration is hopping mad at the New York Times for a story the Gray Lady published Sunday, “White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire.” The White House will have to defend itself on this one, but we are concerned that the Times, in its partisan desire to tarnish President Bush, provides far too narrow a focus on the government’s central role in creating the current crisis. By pretending troublesome government policies that contributed to the housing bubble began with Bush, the Times makes it easier for those inclined to …
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman did some fine work on international trade theory 20 years ago. When he writes about economic policy today, however, he often just gets his facts dead wrong. This past summer Krugman devoted an op-ed to exonerating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their key role in the current financial crisis. We called him out on it at the time. This past Friday, National Journal‘s Stuart Taylor finally got around to noting where Krugman erred: Fannie and Freddie appear to have played a major role in causing …
We don’t know what reality the New York Times editorial board lives in, but it is definitely not the same one Los Angels Times hard news reporters operate in. Today the NYT editorializes: In an election year, sound policy making is almost always trumped by political posturing, making the situation even bleaker. A case in point is the new foreclosure-prevention law. President Bush threatened for months to veto it, before signing it in July. The law’s main feature — allowing the government to guarantee hundreds of billions of dollars in …
The New York Times has repeatedly asserted on its editorial page that lifting the bans on oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be resisted since they would “make only a modest difference, at best, to prices at the pump.” Well, the NYT’s editorial writers should really try reading NYT’s hard news where we learn today: Oil production has failed to catch up with surging consumption in recent years, a disparity that propelled oil prices to records this year. Despite the recent decline, …
Yesterday, the New York Times shamelessly politicized Memorial Day by publishing an editorial attacking President Bush and Sen. John McCain for not supporting Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act.” The New York Times is free to criticize the president as much as it wants (we sure do) but it’s editorial writers owe our men and women in uniform an honest debate on an issue that greatly affects their lives. And this editorial leaves out half of the GI Bill story. The paper completely fails to mention that …
