Politics

Boehner on budgets: ‘How much more money do we want to steal from the American people?’ [VIDEO]

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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House Speaker John Boehner said he favors pushing for more spending cuts instead of new revenues to get the federal budget under control.

“You’re talking about how much — you’re asking a question, how much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government? I’m for no more,” he said.

Boehner told reporters that President Obama wants to close tax loopholes as part of an agreement to avoid the looming sequester, but only so he can justify raising revenue for new government spending.

But Boehner said the revenue issue is “now closed.”

“The president talks about closing loopholes, but only as a solution to fund more government spending. Do we want to close loopholes? We sure do. But if we’re going to do tax reform, it should focus on creating jobs, not funding more government,” Boehner said at the Capitol on Thursday.

“Last year we proposed generating new revenue through tax reform. We did that as an alternative to the president’s demand for higher tax rates. Ultimately, the president got his revenues, and he got it his way, through higher rates. And given those facts, the revenue issue is now closed. Any revenue generated by closing loopholes should be used to lower rates across the board for American families. That will create jobs and make America more competitive.”

Making a case that Congress’s problems are tied to spending, not tax revenues, Boehner said the American economy is “going to create more tax revenue this year than any year in our history.”

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