In yet another "fair and balanced" segment on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) called out his cohort, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), when Blunt attempted to lay the blame on Democrats rather than Republican obstruction for the lack of appropriations bills passed in the Senate. What he got in response was host Chris Wallace changing the subject back to one that suited him and telling Durbin their audience didn't want to hear about the topic.
They're more than happy to talk about the subject all day long on Fox as long as they can blame Democrats for legislation being stalled and on President Obama's "failure to lead" that they parrot on there endlessly -- and as long as there's no one to push back and put the blame where it belongs as Durbin did here -- then it's suddenly too into the weeds or boring for the likes of Wallace.
You've got to love the conversation leading into Wallace's comments as well, where he allows Blunt to pretend that Republicans are ever going to agree to closing any tax loopholes. Blunt: "Who's not for that?" Well, if memory serves, that would be you guys senator.
Full transcript below the fold.
WALLACE: Well, it raised its head (ph) even before I brought it up, and that's what I suspected you're going to say, Senator Durbin, which is it can't just be short term spending increases for long term spending cuts.
Revenue, is that a nonstarter? One of the ideas is not raise rates, but just that you would close some loopholes, tax reform and use some of that money to cut the deficit.
BLUNT: You know, I don't know anybody that's opposed to closing loopholes. In fact, if we were going to do a revenue neutral tax rewrite, Chairman Camp, Chairman Bachus could do that and do that pretty quickly.
BLUNT: The amount -- the percentage of the wealth of the country, the gross domestic product of the country that's coming to the federal government right now is pretty much where it has been at the high numbers since World War II.
WALLACE: About 18 1/2 percent, 19 percent --
BLUNT: About 18 1/2 percent, 19 percent, why does it need to be more that? This is not -- you know, this is not about closing loopholes. Who's not for that?
This is about whether you close those loopholes to make tax rates lower, or you close those loopholes so that you have more than 20 percent of the gross domestic product coming to the government, and then -- you know, the Congress just failed today do it's job. Still, the unwritten story about the shutdown was that we were at the last day of the spending year, and not a single appropriations bill had passed the Senate of the 12 it need to fund the government. Only one of them had been brought to the floor, and it was the one -- it was one that the majority leader knew couldn't pass.
WALLACE: Well, I don't -- let me go back to taxes, because I do think that always seems to be the big problem here. Senator Durbin, why is it any different than Republicans refuse to raise revenues, than President Obama's refusal to make in changes in ObamaCare.
DURBIN: Let me just tell you this before we go any further. I want to correct the record for Roy.
The one appropriation record that we brought to the floor, the transportation bill, was a bipartisan bill -- Senator Murray, Senator Collins. When we brought it up for a vote to go forward, with the only appropriations bill we brought to the floor, Senator Blunt and all of the Republicans, except Senator Collins, voted against going forward on the bill.
So, don't criticize us. We tried to move forward on appropriations bill.
WALLACE: OK. You guys are so far beyond what most people know or I think care about.
Go back to taxes. Why is it that Republicans are unreasonable when they say no new taxes, but President Obama is perfectly reasonable when he says no changes to my health care reform plan?
