President Obama questioned whether House Republicans’ brinkmanship over the debt ceiling is really an effort to reduce the deficit during a press conference Monday, arguing that the GOP actually appears to be motivated by their vision for the role of government.
“It seems as though what is motivating this from the House Republicans is more than debt reduction,” Obama said. “They have a vision about what government should and should not do. They are suspicious about government policy commitment to make sure that seniors have decent health care as they grow older. They have suspicions about Social Security. They have suspicions about whether government should make sure that kids in poverty are getting enough to eat or whether we should be spending money on medical research.”
These suspicions, he said, were rejected in the 2012 elections.
“That deal was rejected by the american people when it was debated during the presidential campaign,” he said. “I think every poll out there indicates that the American people think our commitment to Medicare or to education is really important.”
