Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer gave quite a tongue lashing to Mark Shields on Inside Washington this weekend.
When the liberal PBS contributor said Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) budget proposal lacked vertebrae, Krauthammer scolded, "Talk about absence of spine, your guys haven’t introduced a budget at all on anything" (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo):
MARK SHIELDS, PBS: It is in fact ten trillion dollars in tax cuts for the next ten years. We extend the Bush tax cuts in perpetuity under Paul Ryan. The reality is there are no spelled out eliminations of tax expenditures. That is the bold. That would be courageous. Are you going to do home mortgage? Are you going to do charitable deductions? Are you going to do state and local taxes? Because that’s where the money is when I see some vertebrae. And make one thing absolutely clear about Simpson-Bowles that Charles referenced and that is it had at its guiding principle that it would not increase poverty, and it would not increase the income disparity. And it does.
Indeed.
Congressional Democrats have not offered a budget in over 1,000 days, and folks like Shields totally give them a pass for this while they excoriate Ryan for at least putting something on the table that tries to address the nation's looming fiscal crisis.
Even worse, President Obama ignored his own commission's recommendations (Simpson-Bowles) on how to get the budget back in line.
The reality is the Republicans and Ryan are the only ones that have shown any spine concerning this issue while the Democrats cower under the covers aided and abetted by their media minions.
If there were a requirement for someone like Krauthammer to be on every talk show panel to set people like Shields straight, the public would be far more knowledgable about where the responsibility lies for the nations current budget stalement.
Bravo, Charles! Bravo!
