FBN: Fair and Balan--Oh, the Hell With It

The afternoon's Fox Business Network Fair and Balanced Moment comes courtesy of afternoon anchor duo Cheryl Casone and David Asman. The pair introduced a report from Fox's Adam Shapiro on the campaign promises of presidential candidates--mostly Democrats--and what they would cost taxpayers. "Bottom line," Shapiro concluded, "Democrats saying raise taxes, Republicans saying hold the line on taxes."

Back to Casone and Asman:

Asman: Well, where will Washington get the money to do everything it wants to do? Which is a lot of cash.

Casone: From you, of course, in the form of higher taxes. For a look at which candidates want to take the most of your hard-earned dough, Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform.

This leads to a friendly interview of several minutes with Norquist, who--although Fox doesn't identify him as such--is one of the leading conservative advocates of small government. After Norquist holds forth on why the candidates should sign his no-new-taxes pledge (singling out Mitt Romney for praise), Asman turns this, ahem, tough question on Norquist, noting that his group has criticized Bush's spending as well.

Asman: So it's not just partisanship, it's a matter of power. Whoever is in power, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, if they get used to being in power too long, they take advantage of it. Maybe it is time for a change then!

Norquist: Well, they all move in the wrong direction. There is a big difference, though. Going into 2006, the average Republican was cosponsoring legislation that would spend $14 billion more. That's too much. They should be sponsoring cuts. The average Democrat was sponsoring spending increases of $400 billion. ... What we'd like to see is both Republicans and Democrats bringing spending down.

Asman: And maybe term limits as well.

Norquist: Yes. That would help.

Well, there you have it--we made a fair, objective effort to raise the possibility that Democrats are not evil bloodsuckers who want to steal bread from the mouths of your babies. But facts are facts! Also, we need term limits.

Up next: Are scientists pretending to believe in global warming because they just want the grant money? I can't wait.