GBPI Poverty Report

Georgia's Media Showing Liberal Bias 4-19-10

The Georgia Budget And Policy Institute… sounds like an official government agency, but it’s not. Yet over the past few years this group has become the “go-to” source for Georgia media outlets concerning state budget issues. You’ll see them quoted at the AJC, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Georgia Trend, Georgia News Network, and various other newspapers, television stations, and radio outlets… in fact GBPI is probably the most used source for commentary and analysis on state budget matters. However, what one thing is missing from these news stories?

Whenever the media uses a conservative organization like The Heritage Foundation in their reporting, the group is almost always referred to in the news piece as conservative, right wing, pro-business, or some other ideologically descriptive term. Yet when the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute is a source, there is no mention of its political leanings. At most GBPI will be referred to as non-partisan. While they may not be attached to any formal political party, they are far from center of the road. In fact they are a liberal/progressive organization connected to one George Soros… kingpin of numerous socialist far left organizations across the nation.

In doing some quick research on GBPI I discovered they are affiliated with SFAI, the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative. SFAI has a long list of affiliated state budget organizations and groups dedicated to increasing taxes and social welfare funding at the state level. So who else along with George Soros is funding this attempt to persuade the media to cover news from a liberal perspective?

The following statement was taken from the main web SFAI webpage: “Financial support for SFAI organizations comes principally from local and regional foundations, from individual donors, and from several national foundations including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Stoneman Family Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The SFAI network is coordinated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research organization and strategic policy institute that works on a range of federal and state issues.”

There’s not room here for a thorough analysis of the spider web of liberal/progressive groups such as ACORN, which are funded by some of these donors listed above. However there is no denying the fact that the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and it’s sister organizations under the SFAI umbrella exist solely to pressure state governments to increase taxes and social welfare spending by providing liberal talking points to the media… and the media is all too eager to fulfill their role as promoters of a pro-socialist agenda.

So to Georgia’s news editors and reporters… the jig is up. Georgia is a conservative state and we deserve honest news reporting. It’s time to reduce your dependence on GBPI as a source, and when you do use them please be honest by describing them as liberal, or leftwing, or progressive, or socialist, or some term that adequately portrays their agenda. And if you are a business owner or manager, before you spend one more dime on advertising, you need to contact the manager or editor of the news outlet you use and let them know about GBPI and request they change how they use GBPI in their reporting… or you will change where you spend your ad dollars. 4-19-10

Source: Chuck Shiflett’s Backroom Report, Cartersville GA  http://chuckshiflett.blogspot.com/2010/04/georgia-media-showing-liberal-bias-4-19.html  posted by Chuck Shiflett @ Sunday, April 19, 2010,  10:12 PM

GBPI: Recovery or Bust: Georgia’s Poor Left Behind December 17, 2013

More Georgians are living on the desperate side of the federal poverty line than at any time in the state’s recent history. At the same time, pathways to exit poverty are increasingly blocked as the state failed to make strategic investments when needed.  America’s Great Recession – the country’s deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression – officially ended June 2009. Georgia’s unemployment rate reached its worst point in February 2010.  The next month ushered in Georgia’s slow economic recovery. More than three years later, Georgia has recovered just two-thirds of the jobs lost in the economic crisis.  Download the full report. http://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Recovery-or-Bust-Report-Final.pdf http://gbpi.org/recovery-or-bust-georgia%e2%80%99s-poor-left behind#sthash.v9xsUNnY.dpuf

Comments:

Despite the Liberal Foundations funding GBPI, this report rings true except for the long term solutions in their conclusion:  “Long-term solutions to mitigate poverty include accessible early and postsecondary education, a higher minimum wage and affordable health insurance through Medicaid and other government supports. These investments can help 1.8 million Georgians better support their families and contribute to the state’s economy.” None of this actually works.

The real solution is to return manufacturing to the U.S. and concentrate on increasing U.S. production of everything we can sell.  The federal government gave our jobs away and they should abandon the treaties, taxes and laws that continue to prevent our recovery.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader