The Media Research Center’s Joseph Vazquez gushed in a March 18 post:
MSNBC just cannot seem to help itself.
All In host Chris Hayes sent out a flippant tweet in response to reports that the Trump administration will be asking Congress for “more than $800 billion in economic stimulus: $500 billion in payroll tax cut, $250 billion in Small Business Association loans, $58 billion for the airlines, and a smattering of other items.”
Hayes tweeted, “BREAKING: We can, of course, afford a Green New Deal. That’s been true all along.” [Emphasis added.] He must have forgotten how much that monstrosity of an idea costs, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), was sure to remind him in a brutal tweet: “$800 billion is not equal to $93 trillion. Even on MSNBC.” [Emphasis added].
Ouch.
In fact, $800 billion is less than 9/1000th of what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) gargantuan Green New Deal would potentially cost taxpayers.
As we documented the last time the MRC did this, the $93 trillion figure is basically fictional and forwarded in bad faith. The American Action Forum — the organization that orginiated the figure — is funded by fossil-fuel interests, who stand to lose under the Green New Deal and have a vested interest in denigrating it. And Politico pointed out that even AAF leader Douglas Holtz-Eakin admits the number is bogus because any precision in that great of a number is “illusory.”
Ouch indeed — watch out for that errant Cruz missile, Joe! Though Vazquez likely didn’t feel the pain of promoting those bogus numbers since that’s what he gets paid to do.