The Dumb Question That Reporters Need To Ask Republicans About
the "Fiscal Cliff"  A blog about business and economics. Nov. 12
2012 3:05 PM   Sometimes political reporters' sophistication and
knowledge of American politics becomes an impediment to audience
understanding. For example, news coverage these days is
dominated by the debate between the White House and House
Speaker John Boehner over the looming expiration of the Bush tax
cuts.  But these articles almost never explain why the Bush tax
cuts are expiring. The answer is pretty obvious—they're expiring
because the law was written with a sunset provision in place.
But why do that? It seems like an obvious question to ask. But
reporters tend not to ask it because everyone who follows
American politics closely thinks that we already know. The tax
cuts were written with a sunset in place in order to disguise
their true cost in a 10-year budget window. But as far as I
know, the authors never actually said that on the record and
still haven't said it today.