One of the moderators of CNBC’s October 28 Republican debate, John Harwood, called out several members of the GOP presidential candidate field in a New York Times article that debunked their attempts to frame major tax cuts for the wealthy as “populist” tax reform proposals. Will Harwood hold the candidates to the same standard during the live, televised debate?
John Harwood One of Three Moderators for CNBC Debate
CNBC’s Harwood, Quick, Quintanilla to Moderate GOP Debate. On October 21, CNBC announced that daytime anchors Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla would join Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood as moderators of the third Republican presidential primary debate on October 28. The network said the two-part debate would focus on “job growth, taxes, technology, retirement and the health of our national economy” and feature a total of 14 Republican hopefuls:
The debate will be divided into two parts. The candidates with an average of three percent in this specified group of national polls will take the stage shortly after 8PM ET for a two-hour debate. The candidates who met the minimum threshold of one percent in any one of the specified group of national polls will take the stage at 6PM ET. [CNBC, 10/21/15]
Harwood Criticized GOP’s “Populist Talk” on Tax Reform in NYT Article
Harwood Criticized GOP Candidates Who Have “Shied Away From Economic Populism.” In an October 14 article for The New York Times, CNBC’s Harwood wrote that although GOP candidates have offered “populist talk” on tax reform, their individual plans would disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans. Citing GOP criticism of former (Republican-appointed) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s stated wish that “some Wall Street executives had gone to jail” after the 2008 financial crisis, Harwood explained that “Republican candidates have shied away from” that kind of “economic populism” in the 2016 campaign, despite their campaign trail rhetoric, and instead offered tax reform proposals that “deliver disproportionate gains to the most affluent” and “reflect[] a party still wedded to the theories of supply-side economics.” [The New York Times, 10/14/15]
Media Have Fallen for Candidates’ Faux Populism in the Past
Outlets Praised Trump’s “Populist” Tax Plan That Cuts Taxes For The Wealthy. On September 28, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump offered a tax plan that promised to drastically cut the top marginal tax rate from 39.6 to 25 percent, cut corporate tax rates to 15 percent, and eliminate the estate tax. Numerous media outlets erroneously claimed that Trump’s plan was a “populist” proposal, despite all evidence to the contrary. Politico even ran a headline that said Trump planned to “hike taxes on the wealthy,” when in fact his plan promised to do the opposite. [Media Matters, 9/28/15; 9/28/15]
Media Claimed Bush’s Traditional Republican Tax Proposal Was “Populist” And Anti-Wall Street. Republican candidate Jeb Bush outlined his tax and economic reform proposals in a September 8 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, presenting them as policies that would invigorate President Obama’s “anemic economy.” Bush promised to cut the top marginal tax rate to 28 percent and reduce the corporate income rate to 20 percent, a plan modeled on reforms instituted during his tenure as governor of Florida. (Bush previously promised that his plan would result in 4 percent economic growth, a figure economists consider fantastical.) Several mainstream media outlets claimed that Bush’s proposal was a “populist” reform that “hits Wall Street,” despite widespread criticism that it amounted to a “budget-wrecking gift to the wealthy.” A September 14 article by Vox Executive Editor Matt Yglesias blasted media outlets for glossing over the glaring flaws in Bush’s tax reform proposals and economic promises, warning that they were repeating the same mistakes made during the 2000 campaign, when George W. Bush ran on a similar platform and received lax vetting. [Media Matters, 6/17/15; 9/10/15; 9/14/15]
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.