Addressing the House Republicans’ stance on increasing taxes, House Speaker John Boehner compared raising additional revenues for the government to supplying a drug addict with more cocaine.
During his weekly press briefing, Boehner was asked if his party is willing to raise taxes as a way to reduce the nation’s $15.7 trillion debt.
“Well, you know, in the negotiations with the president, I had additional revenues on the table — revenues out of economic growth, revenues out of a more efficient tax system, revenues out of what I’ll call opportunity costs from having certainty about what the tax code looks like,” said Boehner.
“Listen, I do believe that there’s a way to resolve this. But at this point, giving this government more revenue would be like giving a cocaine addict who wants to quit more cocaine. We have to have controls on spending. We have to deal with the entitlement crisis that’s threatening the very existence of these programs. And so that conversation will continue well into next year.”
Boehner has said that he will “again insist” on a “simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase.” (RELATED: Pelosi says it’s ‘immature’ to cut spending more than the debt ceiling increase)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi disagrees.
“To toss this into the mix right now, saying we have to have cuts that exceed even the lifting of the extent to which we lift the debt ceiling is really immature, irresponsible, let’s get serious,” she said last month. (RELATED: Obama’s desire to raise debt ceiling increase took Boehner’s ‘breath away’)