MSNBC Casts Budget Battle as 'Big Heart' Dems vs 'Meanie' Republicans

Opening Wednesday's 12PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer proclaimed that President Obama was "driving Republicans in a corner" by calling their "budget bluff with his big proposal to slash spending." In reality, Obama's budget is projected to increase the national debt by $7.2 trillion over the next decade. [Audio available here]

Brewer argued that the President's supposed "slash" in spending, "forces Republicans to take an even stricter stand if they want to appear to be spending hawks." As a result, she warned: "...if the Republicans embrace the role of meanie money enforcer it gives Democrats an opening to show a big heart." Brewer cheered that "while both parties try to avoid getting too specific about spending cuts, the President gets to take a higher road, promising to veto any bill that undermines critical priorities."

Wrapping up her show introduction, Brewer cited left-wing economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, who on Wednesday's Morning Joe lamented the continuation of the Bush tax rates: "Both parties are phonies, completely....They are both going after rich campaign contributors by giving them tax cuts and then turning around and saying, 'Oh, my God, we have no money.'

Here is a full transcript of the February 16 segment:

12:00PM ET

CONTESSA BREWER: Good day, I'm Contessa Brewer, covering the big news coast to coast. And the big story we're watching right now, President Obama grabbing the reins in the budget battle and driving Republicans in a corner they may not like being in.

TIM GEITHNER: The budget presents a detailed, multi-year, comprehensive plan to cut spending and reduce deficits.

BREWER: In the Senate this morning, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner lays out the President's 2012 budget for the Finance Committee.

ROBERT GATES: We have protected programs that support military people, readiness, and modernization.

BREWER: In the House today, the Defense Secretary at the Armed Services Committee weighs in on what will be a tug-of-war over how much money the Pentagon gets. All over Capitol Hill, general anxiety about spending cuts and the political consequences. The President called Republicans' budget bluff with his big proposal to slash spending.

BARACK OBAMA: It will mean freezing salaries of hard-working federal employees for the next two years.

BREWER: That preemptive move forces Republicans to take an even stricter stand if they want to appear to be spending hawks.

JOHN BOEHNER: Over the last two years since President Obama has taken office, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs. And if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it. We're broke.

BREWER: But if the Republicans embrace the role of meanie money enforcer it gives Democrats an opening to show a big heart.

NANCY PELOSI: Speaker Boehner said that if jobs are lost as a result of Republican spending cuts, so be it. So be it? Maybe so be it for him but not so be it for the people who are losing their jobs.

BREWER: And while both parties try to avoid getting too specific about spending cuts, the President gets to take a higher road, promising to veto any bill that undermines critical priorities.

JEFFREY SACHS: Both parties are phonies, completely.

BREWER: Economist Jeffrey Sachs on Morning Joe says they're all talking out both sides of their mouth.

SACHS: They are both going after rich campaign contributors by giving them tax cuts and then turning around and saying, 'Oh, my God, we have no money.'

— Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.