House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday lambasted his colleagues in the Senate for not passing a bill to replace the automatic spending cuts set to kick in on Friday.
“We have moved a bill in the House twice,” Boehner said at a press conference. “We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to Boehner’s remark. “The Republican leadership says we passed bills last year,” Pelosi told reporters. “I remind them, that was a different Congress. That doesn’t count in this Congress. The Republican leadership says let the Senate begin. I remind them that the Constitution says that appropriations and revenue bills must begin in the House.”
Watch Boehner’s remark:
TPM’s Brian Beutler reported Monday on why Democrats are feeling confident of a sequester victory ahead of Friday’s deadline:
Democrats enjoy a massive public relations advantage over the GOP. Voters are prepared to blame Republicans. The Democrats have an unusually steady message. Republicans are lurching from message to message as they try futilely to blame Obama for sequestration’s very existence, while contending that its consequences won’t be so dire (except when they contend it will hollow out the military) and to argue just as futilely that Obama’s revenue demand is an act of duplicity.
Sahil Kapur contributed reporting.
