Boehner rejects Obama budget

The House speaker summarily dismisses the White House plan just hours after its release

Published April 5, 2013 3:50PM (EDT)

John Boehner                                   (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
John Boehner (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

So much for moving to the middle to find common ground with Republicans. Just a few hours after the White House released its official budget, which included the Social Security cuts that liberals hate, House Speaker John Boehner rejected it out of hand, saying it doesn't go nearly far enough. "Despite talk about so-called balance, the president’s last offer was significantly skewed in favor of higher taxes and included only modest entitlement savings. He said he could go no further toward the middle, and that’s why his last offer was rejected," Boehner said in a statement.

There's not even lip service paid to the fact that Obama is risking mutiny in his own party by putting Social Security on the table. Instead, Boehner sees Obama's move a sign of weakness and demands more. "If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there's no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes," he said.

There's no way Boehner even had time to read the whole thing. And thus, the problem with pre-conceding to something that Republicans were not even asking for.


By Alex Seitz-Wald

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