CBS’s Bob Schieffer hit Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie from the left on Sunday’s Face the Nation, claiming he has “demonized” teachers and urging him to give some “straight talk” about the necessity to raise taxes.
After asking if he thinks “Governor Walker out there in Wisconsin has gone too far?” in trying to end collective bargaining, Schieffer ludicrously asserted “everybody in this country on all sides of this thinks we need education reform,” but he wanted to know if Christie realized his stance has “demonized teachers and will raise questions in young people's minds as to whether they want to go into the profession?”
“Banal Bob” soon implored Christie with his standard plea: “You have a reputation as a straight talker, I think. Do you believe that the budgetary problems across this country can be resolved without raising taxes?”
On increasing taxes: “We raised taxes and fees 115 times in the last eight years. And we still have one of the worst budget problems in America.”
From the Sunday, February 27 Face the Nation on CBS:
BOB SCHIEFFER: You really came on hard against the teachers' union. I think everybody in this country on all sides of this thinks we need education reform, that we got to do something to make our educational system better. Do you worry that the stance you have taken has somehow demonized teachers and will raise questions in young people's minds as to whether they want to go into the profession?
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: No, I don't. I think quite the opposite. Listen, I think that the teachers in New Jersey and there's thousands and thousands of great ones, deserve a union as good as they are. They don't have it. And I disagree with the premise of your question which is that everybody agrees there should be education reform. It’s everybody but the teachers union who believes that everything is fine. If you listen to them in New Jersey they'll tell you everything is fine. It's great. It's great except for the 104,000 kids in New Jersey that are stuck in 200 chronically failing schools....
SCHIEFFER: You have a reputation as a straight talker, I think. Do you believe that the budgetary problems across this country can be resolved without raising taxes?
CHRISTIE: Let's take New Jersey, for instance, Bob. We raised taxes and fees 115 times in the last eight years. And we still have one of the worst budget problems in America. And so I think unless you deal with the underlying structural expense problems -- and we've been dealing with them in New Jersey -- there’s no amount of taxation will keep up with the amount of spending increase that we have....
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
