Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? Jonathan Weisman Edition

Ezra Klein:

Ezra Klein - A deal based on the Fiscal Commission would include higher taxes: Jonathan Weissman's article that:

the deficit commission's version of tax reform would net $180 billion in additional revenues over 10 years.

[Jonathan] Chait notes that $180 billion would mean there's:

nearly ten times as much spending cuts ($1.7 trillion) as higher revenue ($180 billion.)... It's so nuts I'm tempted to assume this story couldn't possibly be correct."

At least as far as the Fiscal Commission's report goes, Chait is right and the number is incorrect. "Weisman said that the Fiscal Commission got $180 billion in tax revenue relative to the baseline over ten years," one of the commission's staff members told me. "That's wrong. The tax reform piece brought in $180 billion in 2020 alone, and $785 billion over ten years."... [T]he idea is to make the Fiscal Commission's report into legislation, not radically change its mix of revenues and spending cuts, and so I'd assume they're still targeting $785 billion.