MRC Writer Pushes Biased Economists To Attack ‘Liberal’ Claims About Economy

You know you’ve ticked off the Media Research Center in making a logical point when it essentially does duplicate posts to attack you.

Back in February, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt made the logical observation that the economy, as judged by GDP growth and job creation, does better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones, adding that “the pattern is so strong and long-lasting that coincidence alone is unlikely to be the only explanation.” Enter MRC writer Joseph Vazquez, who huffed in a Feb. 4 post:

Three economists lambasted a New York Times op-ed claiming that the Democratic Party is better for the economy than the GOP.

Times senior writer David Leonhardt’s main argument was that “The American economy has performed much better under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, over both the last few decades and the last century.” Economists ripped apart the op-ed as “nonsense,” “intellectually sloppy,” and filled with “numerous false claims.”

The piece further argued that Democrats have been more “pragmatic” by being “willing to heed economic and historical lessons about what policies actually strengthen the economy, while Republicans have often clung to theories that they want to believe — like the supposedly magical power of tax cuts and deregulation.” 

But Leonhardt wildly missed the mark. Economists Daniel Mitchell, Chris Edwards and Brian Riedl all hammered the op-ed for arbitrarily zeroing in on party affiliation, while dubiously brushing aside more important economic factors. Mitchell stated in a tweet that Leonhardt’s article was “intellectually sloppy for one obvious reason (failure to properly account for business cycles) and one completely overlooked reason (policy direction matters, not partisan affiliation).”

Vazquez, however, failed to disclose (beyond embedded links on their names) that these economists are not objective but, rather, quite biased. Mitchell is co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a conservative think tank that loves flat taxes and offshore tax havens; Edwards is with the libertarian Cato Institute; and Riedl works for another right-wing think tank, the Manhattan Institute. In other words, these are exactly the positions anyone would expect them to take.

For some reason, Vazquez was so annoyed by Leonhardt’s op-ed that he attacked it again a month later in a March 11 post, apparently because he scored an “exclusive interview” with Riedl, one of the (biased) economists  he had previously cited:

An economist ripped the media for pushing the false idea that Democratic administrations are better for the U.S. economy than GOP administrations.

New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt had written that Democratic administrations have been more “pragmatic” by being “willing to heed economic and historical lessons about what policies actually strengthen the economy, while Republicans have often clung to theories that they want to believe — like the supposedly magical power of tax cuts and deregulation.”

Economist and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Brian Riedl rebuked Leonhardt and the media for living in an “ideological cocoon” and pushing talking points on behalf of Democrats. “This is just partisan nonsense,” Riedl said of Leonhardt in an exclusive interview with the Media Research Center.

While Vazquez did identify Riedl’s employer, he did not explain its political slant and, thus, Riedl could just as easily be described as living in his own ideological cocoon.

Vazquez concluded by whining that “Leonhardt has not been the only one to advocate on behalf of the Democrats, however,” citing other assessment reaching the same conclusion. Of course, Vazquez would never describe himself or Riedl as “advocating on behalf of the Republicans,” even though that’s exactly what they’re doing.

This wasn’t the only time Vazquez called on biased economists to attack a viewpoint deemed “liberal.” In January, he trotted out Mitchell to help him rant against Washington Post article he ripped as “propaganda that former President Donald Trump’s economy was terrible for minorities.” In a March 3 post, he called on Cato’s Edwards to bash Times columnist Paul Krugman for having “attacked capitalism for promoting ‘too much choice’ for American consumers,'” touting how “Edwards ripped Krugman for blaming American capitalism while ignoring that government deserves much of the blame for making life more complicated for American consumers.” As before, Vazquez didn’t explain the bias from which Edwards and Mitchell are operating.