No Tours, No Tax-Funded Tee-Offs?

Not everyone in Congress is cowed by the media-protected White House’s hysteria over Sequestration cuts.  

After the Obama Administration announced that the White House would be closed to tours due to budget cuts, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, introduced an amendment barring taxpayers from being dunned to pay for more of Barack Obama’s expensive golfing trips until the ban on White House tours is lifted.

“None of the funds made available by a division of this Act may be used to transport the President to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume,” Gohmert’s amendment to the continuing resolution to fund the government reads.

The House Republican leadership, however, declined to support Mr. Gohmert’s measure. The House Rules Committee adopted a closed rule, so it meant that Mr. Gohmert’s amendment would not be considered on the floor of the House.

Not surprisingly, some in the media were not impressed by Mr. Gohmert’s creativity, as revealed by the rawstory.com website.

On MSNBC, host Martin Bashir asked NBC News correspondent Luke Russert this question:


 “Doesn’t this reveal the petty and personal nature of Republican opposition to this president?”

“Well, I think it reveals a sort of pettiness on both sides,” Russert opined.

“How is it petty by the president to apply the sequester since it’s something that he didn’t want but it’s been imposed?” Bashir pressed.

“Because the idea, Martin, is by putting that forward that there would be no more tours of the White House, who does that stick it to? That really sticks it to rank-and-file congressmen, who ordinarily would promise those types of tours to their constituents,” Russert insisted.

“It sticks it to the public!” Bashir shot back. “And it’s the public who are being injured by the sequester.”

In MSNBC’s world, Barack Obama, who, as Bob Woodward reminded us, originated the sequester, has nothing to do with the sequester. Anyone who counters the White House’s bald-faced attempts to scare the public with unnecessary cuts is “petty.”

For much of the media, this kind of spin is par for the course.
 
--Robert Knight for Tea Party Unity (March 7, 2013)