Um…cutting 4% of the massive budget irresponsible??? I don’t think so…I’d go for AT LEAST 25%!!!

On Thursday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Nancy Cordes portrayed the Tea Party movement as the cause of the budget stalemate in Congress: “With a government shutdown looming, sources say negotiators are homing in on a package of cuts worth $33 billion. That’s roughly what Republican leaders proposed last month, before the Tea Party wing demanded that they double their proposal to 61 billion.”

Cordes went on to note how “sniping between party leaders is escalating,” which was followed by a clip of House Speaker John Boehner calling on Democrats to “have real negotiations” instead of “rooting for a government shutdown.” She then remarked: “Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid snapped back that it was Speaker Boehner who had been holding up negotiations, not him.” In a sound bite, Reid said of Boehner: “I’m glad he’s returned to the conversation. It’s obvious that he has a difficult situation on his hands.” Cordes added: “The situation he’s talking about is the group of Tea Party freshmen Republicans who are insisting that Boehner hold firm on large cuts.”

At no point did Cordes entertain the idea that Democrats in Congress would be to blame for the potential shutdown.

Concluding her report, Cordes warned that the current budget battle was “only a warm-up for the huge fight that’s going to break out next week when Republicans introduce their budget for 2012. It is sure to feature far deeper cuts than the ones they proposed for this spending bill.”

Co-host Chris Wragge worried over “what programs are going to get the ax” in the short-term proposal. Cordes replied: “Democrats and Republicans were just trying to get to a number that they could both live with before they figured out what would have to get cut in order to reach that $33 billion.”