Many conservatives believe the fiscal cliff deal from President Obama that was delivered to Capitol Hill on Thursday by Treasury Security Timothy Geithner will not solve the government's financial problems despite the positive coverage the mainstream media is giving the plan.
One of those expressing concern about the proposal and the media attention it has received is Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe program, who said during his Friday broadcast that “there is such an arrogance in the media since the president won."
During an interview with Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein, the host stated that people in the “mainstream media” generally think that “House Republicans have absolutely nothing to say.”
“They act as if that GOP members in the U.S. House of Representatives “weren’t elected by 60 or 70 or 80 percent of their own districts,” he noted.
And let’s take that debate, and guess what, Republicans will win big in the off-year election.
Later in the segment, Scarborough attempted to describe for viewers how the Republicans are preparing their game plan.
“This is the only point I’m making, and I could be wrong,” the morning show host said.
All I’m trying to do for people watching the show is to give the perspective of conservatives like me who are anti-tax, who was anti-tax in Congress and let people know how those Republicans that people aren’t focusing on enough, who have basically one-third of the power in this process -- how they are thinking, the pressures that they are facing and also what they believe.
“So for years, the mainstream media has said 'throw Grover [Norquist] under the bus',” he continued. “They’ve said, oh, you’ve got to agree to new tax revenue. [House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor came on the show the other day and said that we agree: We need new tax revenue.”
“Those were pretty extraordinary moves forward,” Scarborough noted. “And then having this proposal [from Obama] come out, I think it’s a problem. I think the president’s going to have to come out today, and he’s going to have to clean this up some way.”
The former Florida congressman added that the current President and leaders of Congress should follow the example set by their predecessors from almost two decades ago.
“I keep going back to the 1990s,” he stated..“Who would ever look at Bill Clinton and think -- would look at Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich as the models of, you know, of compromise in the age of impeachment? But those guys did not like each other at the beginning of the process. In fact, they hated each other in ’94.”
“But they spent four years behind closed doors, you know, knocking each other’s heads,” he continued. “They figured out how to balance the budget together.”
I’m rooting for the president. I am. I’m rooting for [Republican House Speaker John] Boehner. I really am. I want them to all succeed. I want us to avert this crisis. It depresses me, though, the way the president’s team is having him perform on the national stage. I think this is a bad mistake.
“It begs the question, really -- it’s a question that we have to be asking or at least I’m asking, why is the president in Philadelphia holding a campaign rally instead of sitting behind closed doors, you know, with John Boehner?” Scarborough asked.
At one point in the discussion, the host found an unusual comparison for the federal government's current problems and the media coverage they receive.
They think they’re going to sit down, like who in ‘Star Wars,’ who was it that Luke [Skywalker] would always strike down? You know, all -- Darth Vader’s guys in white suits that just would have walked into … the storm troopers. They were the worst fighters ever. How did Darth Vader get to where he was with those guys that were patsies? There were so many of them.
As one prominent character in George Lucas's popular fantasy might say, “here's hoping the Force will be with leaders in the White House and Congress so put together a plan they can to balance the budget and more of our money they will let us keep.”
