Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal isn’t exactly popular with Democrats.
Democrats, however, have yet to offer a proposal of their own, and haven’t offered any sort of budget in 760 days. On Tuesday’s “Special Report,” Fox News senior political contributor Brit Hume argued that holding the congressional Democrats accountable will be a test for the media.
“What is happening right now in the political struggle over spending and debt will test both parties, but it will also test the nation’s news media,” Hume said. “Consider this: The Democrats having resisted the stringent Paul Ryan budget when it passed the Republican-controlled House have now united to vote it down in the Democratic-controlled Senate. They’re attacking the Ryan plan proposed overhaul of Medicare as a scheme to destroy that program. Never mind that everyone over the age of 55 is exempt. And never mind that Medicare will be insolvent with within a decade if nothing the done.”
Hume explained that some on the left side cite the health care reform bill that passed Congress last year as their major effort to get America’s fiscal house in order, but that’s not sufficient, he said.
“If Democrats were offering a competing plan of their own to achieve needed savings there would be nothing wrong with attacking the Ryan plan,” Hume continued. “But the Democrats have no plan of their own. They point to last year’s health care reform and its proposed cuts in Medicare but those cuts are used to finance the new ObamaCare entitlement. No savings there. Indeed, the Democrats are refusing to even pass a budget, despite the law’s requirement that they do so.”
Hume chastised the Democrats for not passing a budget and argued the press should hold them accountable because, he said, they would do so if it was the Republican Party who had not passed a budget.
“This is remarkably cynical, even by the primitive standards of contemporary Washington,” Hume said. “Reporters who cover this town know this. They know entitlement spending is out of control and must be restrained. They know the Republicans are trying. And they can see Democrats are not. But will they call them out as they surely would the Republicans if the roles were reversed? So far, it hasn’t happened, but one can hope.”
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