House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told reporters on Thursday he’s not worried about Democratic concerns over the tough position he struck on the debt limit earlier this week. As the deadline for raising the amount of money the government can legally borrow approaches, business groups have started to get skittish, warning of dire consequences for the national economy if Republicans stick to their guns on demanding politically unlikely cuts in return for the boost in the debt ceiling needed to keep America from going into default.
In his big New York speech Monday, Boehner laid out the plan: In return for an increase in the debt limit, Democrats on the Hill and the White House will have to agree to cuts that are greater than the level of the the increase.
This sets up a high stakes game of chicken that business groups told Congress in a letter Wednesday the economy can’t afford. On Thursday, Boehner dismissed the concerns coming from his political opponents as little more than hand-wringing.
“Clearly we struck a nerve, and the response from the White House and Demcorats from the left has been panic and hysteria,” Boehner told reporters.
Boehner gave little hint of what the final negotiations will look like, and stood his ground on tying himself to significant changes in the budget ahead.
“There are going to have to be budget process reforms,” he said. “I don’t want to tie myself down in terms of what those are, but I don’t want phony caps, I don’t want phony targets, we know what the challenges are, why don’t we go tackle the problem.”
As he did in his New York speech, Boehner suggested that reforms to Medicare and Medicaid will be part of what Republicans demand to keep the country from the economic catastrophe business groups and the White House say default would bring.
“The only way to do this is the right way,” he said, “and that’s to go in and make real program changes that will put these entitlement programs on a much stronger foundation where they can preserve for tens of millions of Americans who count on them.”
