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A bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, 
quotes in the liberal media.


May 5, 1997

Tell a friend about this site

(Vol. Ten; No. 9)  

 

Many of the quotes in the second half of the edition, under the Volunteering for Liberals Upset by Imaginary Budget Cuts, claim that not only will welfare reform mean program cuts but that America has long ago abandoned the safety net. The numbers show otherwise. In a report for the Cato Institute, Stephen Moore detailed how social spending is rocketing upward. In constant 1995 dollars, AFDC soared 31 percent between 1989 and 1995. Food stamps jumped 53 percent, housing assistance expanded by 67 percent and Medicaid skyrocketed 110 percent. (To read Moore's report, go to: http://www.cato.org/dailys/1-24-97.html)

The only people really being hurt are the taxpayers who are funding this extravagance only to have millionaire TV anchors lecture them on how greedy they are instead of focusing on the never satisfied welfare bureaucracy.
-- Brent Baker (Notable Quotables below)

 

The Liberal Advocacy Operation that Calls Itself, Quote, "CBS News"

"The head of the Republican political lobbying group that calls itself, quote, 'the Christian Coalition' said today he's leaving to start a political consulting business. Ralph Reed's group took a beating on some of its hard-right agenda in the last election."
-- Dan Rather, April 23 CBS Evening News.

 

Bob Dole: Bail Bondsman for Newt Gingrich

"Dole's a charter member of the GOP establishment. He was the establishment once again bailing out the young upstarts who had gone too far, just like in the government shutdowns."
-- CNN analyst William Schneider, April 18 Inside Politics.

"Bob Dole is not a lobbyist, but he's about to work for one of the biggest, most high-powered lobbying firms in town, including one that's representing tobacco interests in these negotiations. Do we really want a Speaker of the House who owes $300,000 to a guy who's a principal in a major lobbying firm? Also, I do think that he reminded me a little bit of Bill Clinton frankly in his talk. He says I'm taking responsibility, but really it was my lawyer's fault. Grow up, Newt. Take responsibility. Don't put it off on other people."
-- Former New York Times and U.S. News & World Report reporter Steve Roberts on CNN's Late Edition, April 20.

"It's not so much that it's bad for Gingrich, but it's weird for, I mean Bob Dole, look at, Bob Dole fails to become President of the United States, leader of the free world, continue his life of service. Instead he's become an influence peddler so he can post bail for Newt Gingrich."
-- Evan Thomas, Newsweek's former Washington Bureau Chief, April 19 Inside Washington.

 

So We Are Clinton Suck-Ups, But We Don't Mean to Be

"So a couple of White House aides helped Webster Hubbell find work, and he did find work, some of it with Democratic donors. It may not look good, but is there any proof anything was done wrong?...All right, similar kind of question about Jorge Cabrera, a convicted drug smuggler who gave $20,000 to the DNC, wound up at a fancy dinner with Al Gore, wound up at a White House Christmas party with Hillary Clinton. But they gave the money back when they found out about his background. It may not look good, but is there any proof that anything was done wrong?"
-- NBC weekend Today co-host Jodi Applegate to Tim Russert, April 19.

 

If Lanny Davis Quits, Larry King's Available

"All right. So what if we made this case -- OK, he's pretty tough with fundraising. But there's no proof that the Chinese had any in, except they gave money. He did a bad deal for you. And he has turned on his friends maybe a little. But nobody made big money in Whitewater. It was years ago. He was in Arkansas. He's a good President. I am happy. No boy is dying overseas. Country seems to be coming around. Supreme Court is pretty good. Are you better off than you were four years ago? Yes. What I if I made that case?"
-- Larry King to Jim McDougal, April 21 CNN Larry King Live.

"Let's run some things down: the travel office, was that an example of your saying 'I'm unhappy,' and then people taking it further than that? Was that an example of what you spoke about earlier, you have to think of everything you say. What did happen?...Have you felt, like with grand juries and the like, beleaguered, put upon?...You may be too close to the forest for the trees, but with all the attacks that have occurred, how do you explain the popularity of Bill Clinton?....Mr. Hubbell, were you just being a friend?"
-- Some of King's probing questions to Hillary Clinton, April 29.

 

Volunteering for Liberals Upset by Imaginary Budget Cuts

"Are some current policies in Washington, however, exacerbating the problem? For example, the new welfare reform bill is going to put about a million kids on the street without a safety net beneath them. We're also now pulling back from the benefits that we've provided in the past to legal immigrants in this country and it's putting a big burden on a lot of the states out there. You come from an immigrant experience yourself. Do you think that the welfare reform bill went too far in just those two areas?"
-- Tom Brokaw to Colin Powell, April 27 Meet the Press broadcast from the volunteer summit in Philadelphia.

"The Presidents involved in today's summit are the very same people who are being blamed for the crisis that's facing the nation's children. Opponents say that a few days of good will will not make up for years of neglect. Critics are calling it Clinton's cutback summit....Advocates for the poor report homelessness is increasing since President Clinton signed a bill last year to cut welfare by $55 billion dollars over six years."
-- ABC reporter Karla Davis, April 27 World News Tonight/Sunday.

"Some of the things though have to also be done by the government. I mean, you know the criticism, it's the cutbacks in government programs that's now bringing this big call for volunteerism about. Are there some areas where the government really has to do more?"
-- ABC's Joan Lunden to Colin Powell, April 28 Good Morning America.

"Seventy-four percent of the respondents in a recent poll think young Americans without education or job prospects is the greatest threat facing the country. If that's the case, if that many people think this is such a serious problem, shouldn't government be increasing its role rather than decreasing it? Many people think that your signing the welfare bill only exacerbated the situation of poor kids at risk."
-- NBC's Katie Couric to President Clinton, April 28 Today.

"But 15 years after the government first began retreating from social programs, some volunteers say they have been strained to their limits, especially when it comes to solving the most time consuming, difficult societal problems."
-- ABC's Tom Foreman, April 28 World News Tonight.

"There are also some protesters here this weekend who say that you're asking people to volunteer to do what the government is not doing. You're asking them to help the people that the government has, sort of, turned its back on by closing down some of the projects that are helping the people you're asking volunteers to help. Is there an element of truth to that?"
-- CBS This Morning's Mark McEwen to Powell, April 28.

"And yet, I would think, I mean I could raise some notions here to a sometimes liberal Democrat like yourself on social issues that says this sort of volunteerism becomes more necessary at precisely the times when people start cutting social programs, and I'm not sure that you would want to participate in something that helps make it easier to cut those social programs."
-- Ted Koppel to Jimmy Carter, April 24 Nightline.

"What do you say to people who say we need volunteerism because we have abandoned the safety net which we used to have under welfare?"
-- ABC's Barbara Walters to Colin Powell, April 11 20/20.

Reality Check:
"[Aggregate spending on the seven welfare programs affected by the welfare reform bill] was scheduled to grow by nearly 50 percent over the next seven years (an annual growth rate of roughly 6 percent.) The congressional reform legislation will slow the rate of growth to around 35 percent over seven years (an annual growth rate of roughly 4.5 percent)."
-- From the Heritage Foundation's How Congress Reformed the Welfare System, by Robert Rector.

 

Arms Control Idolatry

"What happened here is that the hard right thought they could make this a big mail, kind of money raising issue and they failed to do that, number one. And number two, the entire Republican presidential establishment lined up against them and they began to look like extremists and Trent Lott, in the end, decided not to do something that would have been damaging to the country."
-- NPR's Nina Totenberg on why the Chemical Weapons Convention passed in the Senate, April 26 Inside Washington.

 

L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher
Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters; Media Analysts
Kristina Sewell, Research Associate
Carey Evans, Circulation Director
Brian Schmisek, Intern

 

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