In one of the worst examples I have ever seen of ignorance in the media (and that is truly saying something), Yahoo News has put out a piece called "Just Explain It -- How Will The Sequester Impact the Economy". Yahoo truly has some nerve using the word "explain" in that headline. The piece is filled with inaccuracy. Here are just a few examples:
1) According to Yahoo: "Parts of the economy are already showing signs of a slowdown due to uncertainty over the spending cuts. The Gross Domestic Product declined 1.3% in the fourth quarter last year."
This is idiotic. First of all, the gross domestic product declined by 0.025% in the fourth quarter last year according to the official government statistic. Yahoo multiplied the slight downturn by 52 time to come up with its number. Second, the idea that the economy slowed due to uncertainty over the sequester is nonsense. I guess Yahoo forgot all those articles it published before the election explaining that the economy was doing great and all the other articles after the election explaining that the economy could be slowed by fear of the fiscal cliff. Last fall, no one paid any attention to sequestration. Indeed, Yahoo's hero president Obama assured the country during the debates that the sequestration would never happen.
2) According to Yahoo, sequestration will result in the loss of 1.4 million jobs. Total federal employees number just about twice that amount or 2.8 million, and that includes the military. So half of them will lose their jobs according to Yahoo. Imbeciles! Even if Yahoo is counting jobs in the private sector among the 1.4 million that supposedly will be lost, Yahoo is still indicating that about 1.2% of all employees in the country will lose their jobs. Remember this: even with sequestration, the federal government will still spend more this year than last. There is no way that this could result in so many lost jobs.
3) My favorite nugget from Yahoo comes with the breathless claim that about $1 billion will be taken from the FEMA budget. Just imagine! That means that all those who helped after hurricane Sandy will see their budget reduced.
I guess that Yahoo forgot that Congress just passed measures to increase the FEMA budget and other emergency relief for Sandy victims by just under $60 billion. No one is going to be denied help because the budget gets hit now by one sixtieth of the increase. Indeed, if there is a shortfall, Congress will inevitably restore it.
It really annoys me to see dishonest idiots putting out propaganda filled with errors to mislead the public.
Yahoo News needs to drop the word "news" from its name. Otherwise, someone should bring a class action against it for fraud.
1) According to Yahoo: "Parts of the economy are already showing signs of a slowdown due to uncertainty over the spending cuts. The Gross Domestic Product declined 1.3% in the fourth quarter last year."
This is idiotic. First of all, the gross domestic product declined by 0.025% in the fourth quarter last year according to the official government statistic. Yahoo multiplied the slight downturn by 52 time to come up with its number. Second, the idea that the economy slowed due to uncertainty over the sequester is nonsense. I guess Yahoo forgot all those articles it published before the election explaining that the economy was doing great and all the other articles after the election explaining that the economy could be slowed by fear of the fiscal cliff. Last fall, no one paid any attention to sequestration. Indeed, Yahoo's hero president Obama assured the country during the debates that the sequestration would never happen.
2) According to Yahoo, sequestration will result in the loss of 1.4 million jobs. Total federal employees number just about twice that amount or 2.8 million, and that includes the military. So half of them will lose their jobs according to Yahoo. Imbeciles! Even if Yahoo is counting jobs in the private sector among the 1.4 million that supposedly will be lost, Yahoo is still indicating that about 1.2% of all employees in the country will lose their jobs. Remember this: even with sequestration, the federal government will still spend more this year than last. There is no way that this could result in so many lost jobs.
3) My favorite nugget from Yahoo comes with the breathless claim that about $1 billion will be taken from the FEMA budget. Just imagine! That means that all those who helped after hurricane Sandy will see their budget reduced.
I guess that Yahoo forgot that Congress just passed measures to increase the FEMA budget and other emergency relief for Sandy victims by just under $60 billion. No one is going to be denied help because the budget gets hit now by one sixtieth of the increase. Indeed, if there is a shortfall, Congress will inevitably restore it.
It really annoys me to see dishonest idiots putting out propaganda filled with errors to mislead the public.
Yahoo News needs to drop the word "news" from its name. Otherwise, someone should bring a class action against it for fraud.
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