CBS’s Schieffer Frets ‘Ultra-Conservatives’ Blocking Congress from ‘Addressing the Country’s Problems’
Resurrecting an ideological tag from the 1980s media era, on Monday’s CBS Evening News, the network’s chief Washington correspondent, Bob Schieffer, fretted over how “ultra-conservatives” in the House – a label he used twice – are making a mess of things.
A rankled Schieffer asked: “Will the moderate and more establishment Republicans continue to go along with the ultra-conservatives who are determined to delay health care?” He soon mused: “The real irony here is that unless the gridlock is broken, health care – which Republicans want to stop – will be funded while other parts of the government will shut down, exactly the opposite of what the ultra-conservatives wanted.”
Without any consideration for how those, to whom he applied a pejorative label, believe they are the ones trying to address the problems ObamaCare would cause, Schieffer despaired: “All I know is the big losers are the American people because everyday these games continue Congress is not addressing the country’s problems.”
Schieffer, on the September 30 CBS Evening News:
What makes different is this is now coming down a debate, not among Democrats and Republicans, but among House Republicans. The question: Will the moderate and more establishment Republicans continue to go along with the ultra-conservatives who are determined to delay health care? Because if they do, the President made clear this afternoon again, he will never agree nor will the Senate and Republicans simply don’t have the votes to change that.
The real irony here is that unless the gridlock is broken, health care -- which Republicans want to stop -- will be funded while other parts of the government will shut down, exactly the opposite of what the ultra-conservatives wanted. At this point, I think we’re headed to a shutdown unless the moderates in the House revolt. There will be debate in days to come about whose fault all of this was and which party won.
All I know is the big losers are the American people because everyday these games continue Congress is not addressing the country’s problems.
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.
