Fox News Hypes GOP Adopting Fox's Debt Ceiling Plan

Fox News host Jenna Lee touted the fact that a proposal by Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer was being considered by House Republicans. Fox has a long history of attempting to influence GOP policies and campaigns.

During the January 18 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jenna Lee reported on a House Republican plan to increase the debt ceiling through May 1 in order to get the Senate to pass a budget. Lee noted the plan's similarity to a recommendation by Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer in an op-ed published by The Washington Post and Fox News, concluding “That was the idea put forward by Charles Krauthammer, maybe it was in the works already.”

Lee is right that the GOP is considering a plan bearing a striking resemblance to Krauthammer's proposal. In an op-ed titled "How to save the Republican Party" Krauthammer noted that Republicans could not “govern from one house of Congress” but they could find “some offer that cannot be refused” :

The more prudent course would be to find some offer that cannot be refused, a short-term trade-off utterly unassailable and straightforward. For example, offer to extend the debt ceiling through, say, May 1, in exchange for the Senate delivering a budget by that date -- after four years of lawlessly refusing to produce one. 

Not much. But it would (a) highlight the Democrats' fiscal recklessness, (b) force Senate Democrats to make public their fiscal choices and (c) keep the debt ceiling alive as an ongoing pressure point for future incremental demands.

Go small and simple. Forget about forcing tax reform or entitlement cuts or anything major. If Obama wants to recklessly expand government, well, as he says, he won the election.

According to a summary of Cantor's plan, the two are very similar:

House Republicans will scale back their ambitions in an upcoming fight over the nation's borrowing limit, saying Friday that they will try to pass a bill next week to raise the debt ceiling for three months. But they indicated that the Senate must pass a budget before the lawmakers would agree to a longer-term increase in the limit.

Under a bill to be considered next week, members will propose raising the debt ceiling through mid-April -- long enough, they say, to give both chambers time to pass a budget. Under the measure, if either chamber fails to adopt a budget by April 15, Congress would not be paid.

Fox News regularly gave the GOP advice during President Obama's first term. During the 2012 election, they regularly advised Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on how to defeat Obama. While Fox has been generous with its advice for Republicans, many in the media concluded after the election that Fox News hurt Republicans more than they helped.