Know your GOP media shills: WaPo's Lori Montgomery

[ProSense]

About that GOP debt ‘deal’…

By Steve Benen

As the so-called super-committee inches closer to its deadline, talks on Capitol Hill continue to go nowhere fast. To understand the state of the negotiations, I’d recommend ignoring this Washington Post report.

The headline on reporter Lori Montgomery’s piece tells the reader: “Republicans offer tax deal to break debt impasse; Democrats dismiss it.” Here’s the lede:

Congressional Republicans have for the first time retreated from their hard-line stance against new taxes, offering to raise federal tax collections by nearly $300 billion over the next decade as part of a plan to tame the national debt.

The headline and lede make it seem as if GOP lawmakers are showing newfound flexibility and are finally willing to consider a more balanced approach to debt reduction, only to be rejected by Democrats.

That’s not even close to what happened.

Way down in the same article, in the 16th paragraph, the piece gets around to mentioning that Republican want to trade nearly $300 billion in new revenue for “permanently extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts past their 2012 expiration date, a move that would increase deficits by about $4 trillion over the next decade.”

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Benen also wrote about the GOP scam yesterday, posted here.

The media headlines varied, but none were as blatant as Montgomery's in attempting to create the impression that Republicans were being reasonable.

CBS: Republicans signal willingness to move on taxes to cut deficit

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One Democratic aide with knowledge of the Republican offer called it a "joke" and said that "Democrats have summarily rejected the proposal as fundamentally unserious."

The aide said "only Republican math would spend trillions in tax breaks for the wealthy and others and not actually save any money."

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MSNBC: Dems rebuff GOP tax proposal as 'insane'

GOP shill Montgomery was recently called out by Dean Baker and Krugman for a piece filled with distortions about Social Security. And they weren't alone.

Media Matters: Progressive Leaders Respond To Misleading Wash. Post Report On Social Security