Boehner Takes Victory Lap In Connecticut
by Christine Stuart | Apr 9, 2011 7:34pm
A last-minute decision to allow the media to attend the Prescott Bush dinner was lifted when U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was successful in avoiding a federal government shutdown.
But Boehner refused to take too much credit for his efforts.
“The goal is not to shut down the government, the goal is to cut spending in Washington DC,” Boehner said. He argued that’s what the deal that was struck does, it cuts about $38.5 billion in spending this year.
But it was a negotiated deal and not everyone got what they wanted, including the Democrats and members of Boehner’s caucus focused on social issues like abortion.
“Some of my colleagues want me to throw fire out of my mouth, some of them want me to rant and rave and that’s just not who I am. I’m pretty upfront straightforward and what you see is what you get,“ Boehner said.
Boehner said he’s already looking forward to a longer term budget deal and will refuse to agree to increasing the debt limit as President Barack Obama has suggested.
During his first public appearance since a government shutdown was averted Boehner admitted he was a little tired, but not enough to tell a few stories from the past few days.
Boehner told the more than 550 Connecticut Republicans that he was at the White House Thursday evening with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It was around 9 p.m.
“Now I go to bed at 10 o’clock and so does Harry Reid,” Boehner said as the crowd chuckled. “And the last thing we wanted to do was be in the Oval Office haggling over how we were going to solve this budget impasse.”
He said the meeting was going along very well, and it was beginning to break up when “jovial, never says a nasty word Joe Biden jumps up and says, ‘Well I think we’ve had enough of this. I think we ought to just set it down and let the American people decide‘.”
“I looked over at Joe and said, Joe what the hell is that,” Boehner recalled. He said Biden feigned moral outrage and must have thought he was going to buy the act.
“He must have forgotten I grew up with eleven brothers and sisters and my dad owned a bar,” Boehner said. “I’ve seen this act before.”
“Don’t ever take my easy going nature for lack of resolve to deal with the issues we’re dealing with,” Boehner said. He meant that both as a message to the Tea Party members of his own caucus and the White House.
As Republicans dined inside at the $250 per person dinner, protesters gathered down the street from the Stamford Hilton.
John Olsen, president of the AFL-CIO, thinks Democrats in Washington didn’t get what they bargained for then they announced a deal that averted a last-minute government shutdown.
He argued the debate over the budget wasn’t about spending because no defense spending was cut.
“Tell me you hate it, but don’t tell me it’s about spending,“ Olsen said.
Olsen and a group of protesters gathered on the corner of Greenwich Avenue and South State Street in order to express their discontent with Republicans who were gathering at the Stamford Hilton blocks away for the annual Prescott Bush dinner.
Joining Olsen was Mary Elia, from the Alliance of Retired Americans, who was concerned about what the greater budget deal that cuts $39 billion may mean for the next generation.
“I might sneak out without being hurt too much, but what about the next generation?“ Elia said.
She said she’s concerned about the proposal to turn Medicare into a block grant program and cries to privatize Social Security.
“Republicans are now being twisted and turned by the Tea Party folks,” Elia said.
She said she doesn’t understand how so many people can vote against their own best interests.
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