CNN’s Ali Velshi Talks To Mediaite About GOP, The Fiscal Cliff, And How Reporters Should Deal With Politicians
That focus on the future — a future full of innovation which will largely be taking place outside Washington D.C. — provides Velshi with some hope. “America is on the edge of an economic renaissance,” he said. “Natural gas, an oil boom, housing is coming back – so many things that are great could happen, and Congress is really standing in the way – or has been standing in the way – of natural prosperity.”
Don’t mistake that point of view for a libertarian brand of conservatism, however. When asked who is to blame for the “puny” resolution to the fiscal cliff that Congress agreed on only after the last minute had already passed, Velshi said most of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the most conservative members of the Republican conference in the House.
“This is dysfunctional government,” Velshi noted with disappointment. “I think everybody gets some blame, but nobody gets more blame than the conservative wing of the Republican Party.”
“The absence of pluralism, the absence of compromise is remarkably damaging to that economic renaissance that I was talking about,” Velshi added. “Getting people who are ideologically dug-in is not good for the economy.”
The CNN anchor spreads the blame around equally, though. While he concedes that Vice President Joe Biden appears to be enjoying an image boost due to his work with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to draft a resolution to the fiscal cliff which passed in the Senate, that is where his praise for President Barack Obama administration stops. Velshi said that the Obama White House’s consistent failure to sell to the public their reasoning for wanting to pass health care reform in the early part of the president’s first term was not a bug, it was a feature of this administration.
“When it comes to deals getting made in congress, I don’t think he gets high marks,” Velshi said of President Obama. “They had righteousness about them; ‘this is the way it’s going to be.’ But they haven’t been effective.”
“I’m not impressed with this administration’s ability to get things on a track that lets the economy grow and prosper,” he added.
Congress does not get a vote of confidence from Velshi either. From the GOP’s insistence that it will again leverage the debt ceiling limit negotiations to secure spending to House Democrats insisting that any future spending cut will have to be offset by new tax revenues, he said that Washington has proven that it is hopelessly “tone-deaf” to what voters profess to want: compromise.
“I don’t know if they come away from this thinking, ‘this is really embarrassing. This is a shame the way we conduct ourselves. We’re not worthy of the faith Americans put in us,’” Velshi opined about members of Congress. “As long as they don’t, everything will be a struggle.”
His advice to both parties: get in front of the conversation and abandon your dug-in positions. He said that the Republican Party should be able to see the public relations disaster that would result from holding the debt ceiling hostage a mile away, and they should adjust their positions as a result. Likewise, Congressional Democrats who appear prepared to balk at any spending cuts are courting a public relations disaster as they run up against the will of the voters who do want to see the country’s spendthrift ways scaled back.
Republicans, however, have the largest and most pressing problems to address as the party’s conference in the House is viewed by more and more voters as an obstacle to progress. “They really have to be careful not to become irrelevant,” Velshi concluded. “The tea party created an environment where people were sent to Congress to stand their ground and represent their constituents, and they didn’t get the memo that they have to deal with 434 others to do the American people’s business.”
“They have to reexamine how they do business,” Velshi concluded.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
