Introduction

     In the midst of global financial turmoil, the American people are understandably focused on the economy as they examine presidential candidates. More than half of Americans said in a September 2008 CBS News/New York Times poll that the economy and jobs were the most important issues in the 2008 presidential election. 

     The next president will make key decisions that affect voters on every economic front – in their workplaces, their doctors’ offices, at the gas pump and in the grocery store. Yet as voters consider this critical choice, their main sources of information aren’t helping.  

     The media have not stopped at exaggerating financial woes and contributing to Americans’ low confidence in the economy. Journalists have failed to explore how the candidates’ proposals on major economic issues will affect the country during the next president’s first term – and beyond. 

     The list of journalistic failures is long. The media have failed to connect government regulation and manipulation of markets to a variety of problems – from major issues in the financial sector to food crises stemming from government-mandated ethanol. They have failed to explain the costs of higher taxes and increased government spending. They have failed to explain the effect liberal energy proposals would have – in the form of higher prices at a time when rising fuel, heating and grocery costs are already squeezing Americans’ pocketbooks.

     Instead, in their reporting this year, journalists have championed visions of a bigger, more expensive and more powerful government, where free markets and personal responsibility are limited. 

     In light of such lopsided and lacking information, the Business & Media Institute has done its own research and analysis of the country’s economic prospects. This report documents the media’s failures and the ways in which journalists have let down their audience. The report takes the candidates’ proposals, as articulated by them, and digs in. With the help of policy experts and economists, BMI shows voters the reality of Sen. John McCain’s and Sen. Barack Obama’s economic plans for America.  

     Beyond the campaign rhetoric, these policies – on carbon dioxide emissions, health care, taxes, alternative energy and government spending – will have real consequences. How will those policies affect the nation over the next four years? America 2012 attempts to answer that question.