Winning the future? Try imprisoning the future says Speaker of the House John Boehner.
In an appearance on Thursday’s Laura Ingraham radio show, Boehner expressed his displeasure in President Barack Obama’s so-called budget address at George Washington University yesterday. However, he did point out that at least the debate had changed from stimulus spending to budget cutting.
“Look at how the debate has changed dramatically in Washington, away from more stimulus spending to the fact that we have to cut spending and get our fiscal house in order,” Boehner said. “The debate has moved dramatically and it would not have happened if we had not won the majority last November. The debate is going to continue to shift in the direction of taking on our long-term fiscal calendar.”
But just shifting the debate alone according to Boehner wasn’t enough and the president isn’t demonstrating much interest in participating.
“We have a plan,” he said. “We went to the White House, had a nice meeting with the president and while we had our differences, at least at the White House it seemed that the president understood that we had these challenges. And then he goes out and gives the most partisan speech that I can imagine. Eighteen months before an election, he’s out giving an Election Day speech where frankly he has no plan to deal with our long-term challenges and apparently has no interest.”
Host Laura Ingraham pressed him on his working relationship with the president after that admission and asked that if in the wake of the recent budget deal which $38.5 billion was said to be cut, where does he go from here on negotiating? Boehner explained he wasn’t going to get in a back-and-forth with Obama, but did express his frustration.
“[I] can tell you, I was very disappointed in the president’s speech yesterday,” Boehner said. “He clearly is not ready to grapple with the long-term debt that is staring us down and is going to imprison the future for our kids and our grandkids and if he won’t lead, we will.”
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