From this Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer brought on the Heritage Foundations' new wingnut president, former Sen. Jim DeMint to discuss Ted Cruz sticking a knife in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's back on the debt ceiling vote.
What the audience was treated to was Schieffer looking like he was auditioning for Faux "news" and allowing DeMint to pretend that the record amount of obstruction we've seen from Republicans in the Congress is just "normal."
Schieffer also apparently couldn't be bothered to bring up the fact to DeMint that raising the debt limit is not giving President Obama a "blank check." It's paying the bills that he and his fellow members of Congress voted for and ran up. Schieffer also failed to mention the fact that Bush and the Republicans were cooking the books by putting the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions in supplemental budgets to hide their true costs and that Bush was the one that blew a mile wide hole in the budget before President Obama took office -- or the fact that stimulus spending was required to get our economy out of the free fall it was in during the financial crisis that started under Bush's watch as well.
On the topic of the debt ceiling, it also seems to be too much to ask for any of these Sunday show hosts to point out just how completely irresponsible it would be for the Congress to refuse to raise it. Instead it's all about the politics and who is up and who is down. The GOP leadership knows it, which is why they voted for it when they were cornered and had no choice. But here's Jim DeMint pretending that Cruz is the one that acted responsibly.
DeMint has absolutely no credibility, but the networks keep inviting him back on as a guest week after week.
SCHIEFFER: Well, we're going to turn now to the indoor news. While most of the news this past week did focus on the weather, one big story that didn't get much play, Congress raised the debt limit and they did it without a big fight. House Speaker John Boehner cleared the way for passage in the House. Republican leader Mitch McConnell maneuvered around a potential filibuster led by Ted Cruz and got it through the Senate. Well, we're joined now by former Republican senator, Jim DeMint, who heads up the Heritage Foundation. He's also the author of an upcoming book, "Falling in Love with America Again." Well, Senator, the good thing for us about this storm is you were going back to South Carolina...
JIM DEMINT, PRESIDENT, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: That's right.
SCHIEFFER: You couldn't get there. So you're...
DEMINT: I'm glad to be here in person.
SCHIEFFER: Well, you're here with us. Well, let's talk about this. Now, you know, what are you and the Tea Party folks going to do now? John Boehner cleared the way...
DEMINT: Yes.
SCHIEFFER: -- for getting this done. This was not something Tea Party folks were looking to do. And are you going to try to topple John Boehner now, the speaker of the House?
DEMINT: I'm amused when folks talk about the Tea Party. This is just millions of Americans who are concerned about spending and debt and thousands of little groups. So they're -- they're not a political party and they don't speak with one voice. But I think a lot of folks who believe in limited government, less spending and debt, are concerned that under this president, we've had more debt than any president in history. It's very possible that by the end of his term, that he would have allowed more debt than all the presidents before him combined. So a lot of us are wondering how long can this go on? It was a defining vote this week. I think it showed that all the Democrats in the Congress were completely willing to give the president a blank check to borrow whatever he wanted. Most of the Republicans weren't. But the Republican leadership, Bob, has figured out either they give the president all the money and debt he wants or he's going to close the government down and blame it on them. So I think they did what they thought was the only thing they could do. And, frankly, the way it's been reported about the vote in the Senate, actually, the normal rule is it takes 60 votes to move to a final vote, what they call cloture. And I think several members, including Ted Cruz, were -- were simply asking let's keep the normal rules here. And that didn't suit some folks.
SCHIEFFER: Well, it didn't suit Mitch McConnell...
DEMINT: Right.
SCHIEFFER: -- who was the leader, because what -- by forcing that to a 60 vote vote, it meant that a lot of Republicans, who maybe didn't want to vote for this, had to vote for it, to get the filibuster broken...
DEMINT: Yes.
SCHIEFFER: -- including Mitch McConnell. So Ted Cruz put his Republican colleagues in a tough spot there...
DEMINT: Well, he...
SCHIEFFER: Now, over in the House, John Boehner, some people said, really did his members a favor...
DEMINT: Yes.
SCHIEFFER: -- because he let the Democrats pass this and a lot of Republicans that knew it was going to happen didn't have to vote for it.
DEMINT: He still had to get 20 some odd Republicans...
SCHIEFFER: Yes.
DEMINT: -- to vote for it. But the reason there's a 60 vote rule in the Senate and the reason Republican leaders fought so hard to keep it for nominations is it requires some bipartisan working together to pass something. And the debt limit and just giving the president a blank check is an important vote. And to say we're going to waive the rules to make it easier if it -- if Ted Cruz hadn't have required a standard procedure, there were several others who would have.
