On Friday night’s Politics Nation program, MSNBC host Al Sharpton denounced a Balanced Budget Amendment in the strongest terms. “This extreme piece of Republican mean-spiritedness could have destroyed up to 15 million jobs and slashed social programs.” It’s apparently why the popularity of Congress is so low, Sharpton insisted.
Washington Post reporter Nia-Malika Henderson agreed with Sharpton that the Republicans were both ideologically inflexible and tone-deaf to the public, and then suggested President Obama “Oddly, you have Mark Penn making this suggestion that Barack Obama shouldn't run as a populist, shouldn't run on raising taxes, but let's face it, that`s something that Clinton was able to do, and that ushered in a record number of jobs.”
Sharpton began the segment with this rant:
We all know how unpopular this Congress is, but let me show you just how unpopular. Richard Nixon's approval rating during Watergate was higher than of our current Congress. Remember BP, the company responsible for the devastating oil spill in the gulf? Well, even during the oil spill, Americans gave a higher rating to BP that to this Congress. If you want someone whose approval rating is on par with this Congress, then look no further than Hugo Chavez. Hugo Chavez and our Congress share the same nine percent approval rating.
Folks, there is a reason this Congress is so unpopular. They keep doing unpopular things. Today, 236 House Republicans voted for the balanced- budget amendment. This extreme piece of Republican mean-spiritedness could have destroyed up to 15 million jobs and slashed social programs. Given the fact that Republicans keep ignoring the will of the people, is it any wonder that the president is taking his message to the streets.
Sharpton also interviewed longtime Democratic strategist Bob Shrum in this segment. But he asked Henderson to share his disdain for the Republicans, and she did:
SHARPTON: Now, Nia-Malika, when you look at these polls that [Sen. Michael] Bennet has given, this comparison that I gave tonight, and you see obviously such a low, low rating of approval. Are these Congress members, Republican Congress members so ideological and so inflexible in their ideology that they just don't care? Or are they tone-deaf to where the American people's will and beliefs are?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Well, it seems like a little of both. I mean, if you look at what`s going on in Congress now, them trying to do this Balanced Budget Amendment in the House, clearly sort of an olive branch of the Tea Party there, and had no chance obviously of getting over in this Senate or even nationwide.
But Obama is apparently now locating a winning strategy that will bring the economy around in hiking taxes and avoiding any Balanced Budget Amendment:
HENDERSON: And one of the things he was also doing was using the bully pulpit and using his executive office to make some changes around mortgages and around student loans. And I think that's something that liberals certainly want to see him do. Because I think it makes a better argument. For him if he's able to say, he is able to get some things done, regardless of whether or not he`s able to have the Congress go along with him. Oddly, you have Mark Penn making this suggestion that Barack Obama shouldn't run as a populist, shouldn't run on raising taxes, but let's face it, that`s something that Clinton was able to do, and that ushered in a record number of jobs. Clinton was able to create 23 million jobs in eight years, and the unemployment rate until Bill Clinton dropped from 6.8 percent to about 3.8 percent by the time he was out of office.
I think there are some talk that the people on the hill want the president to come in and move this thing forward a little bit. But he's been pretty clear all along that he wants some mix of cuts and tax hikes. They talk about a balanced-budget amendment for instance, they didn't need a Balanced Budget Amendment when Bill Clinton was around. He was able to balance the budget four times. And he was able to do it by raising taxes. And that's something that most Americans actually want. They want some combination of tax hikes on the wealthy and some combination of cuts, but you have a Republican, a party there that aren`t willing to do that.
At least Sharpton acknowledged that Obama’s still trailing badly among independents, which pressed Henderson to put the Tea Party on the “far right” and Occupy Wall Street on the “far left.”
SHARPTON: Even with the gains, though, we see Nia-Malika that the independents, we`ll see a poll where the independents has Romney beating President Obama among independents by 12 points. Why? And what do you think the president`s reelection campaign has to do to try to bring more independents over?
HENDERSON: Well, as much as, you know, there`s a far right in this country, the Tea Party, and then there`s the far left, a lot of folks who are doing Occupy Wall Street. Those would be members of the far left. But there is a grand silent center in this country, and Barack Obama does have to appeal to those folks. And I think the way he does that is to appeal to that sense that Americans really do want bipartisanship. They really do want compromise. So, I think if he is able to continue to paint this Congress as radical, as being really being beholden to the Tea Party, that that gets him a long way. But I think Romney has actually done a pretty good job in really holding the Tea Party at arm`s length. There`s an event in Iowa this weekend with the religious right, he`s not going to be there. So, he`s in a pretty good job as appearing to be this moderate independent guy. So, Barack Obama has a challenge in getting those voters.
