O'Reilly ignores McCain's shifts on a time frame for balancing the budget

Summary: Bill O'Reilly stated that Sen. John McCain "says he's going to balance the budget before the four-year -- the first four-year term is over," failing to note that McCain has previously shifted on his time frame for balancing the budget, originally claiming he would balance the budget in four years, then pledging to do so in eight years, before reversing himself again to return to the four-year pledge.

On the August 11 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, O'Reilly stated that Sen. John McCain "says he's going to balance the budget before the four-year -- the first four-year term is over" -- without noting that McCain has previously shifted on his time frame for balancing the budget, originally claiming he would balance the budget in four years, then pledging to do so in eight years, before reversing himself again to return to the four-year pledge.

Both McCain and his economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin reportedly said on April 15 that, in the words of Reuters, "McCain believes he can balance the budget in eight years." This represented a shift from McCain's pledge in February to balance the budget by the end of his first term, as Media Matters for America has documented. On April 16, New York Times reporter Michael Cooper wrote that McCain said that "economic conditions are reversed," requiring him to reconsider his four-year pledge. However, on July 7, Holtz-Eakin stated during a conference call with reporters that McCain was again promising a balanced budget by the end of his first term.

From the August 11 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

CALLER: I have a question concerning our deficit. In my opinion neither candidate, whomever gets elected, neither one of them are gonna raise taxes -- at least not in this current economy. What do you see is the way through to reduce our deficit?

OREILLY: Well, I think you're wrong. I think Obama will raise taxes. I think he will raise them on cap gains and I think he will raise the personal income tax on people earning more than 250, and I think he will raise the tax on the Social Security fund to unlimited for people over 250, so I think you're wrong there, even though he's been warned by economists that doing so will worsen the recession.

McCain says he's going to balance the budget before the four-year -- the first four-year term is over. I mean, I think that's the key, that you've got to send the world -- you've got to send the world a signal and say, look, we're not going to spend any more money than we take in, and then we'll pare it down, but first we'll stop the hemorrhaging.

So, you know, in order to heal a patient you've got to stop the bleeding. So I think that's where McCain is heading, but he's going to have a tough fight if the Democrats control the House and Senate because the Democratic Party -- and we're going to get into this tonight, too, with [former Sen. Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Howard] Wolfson, they're basically saying, look, we're going to give money to everybody except rich guys. Everybody's going to get money from us. So that's just going to double the current deficit. It's pretty frightening.

1-877-9-NO-SPIN. Lines are poppin'.

—M.A.