Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement Tuesday to complain that President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans will be dining at an “upscale restaurant”and offered to order the lawmakers pizza, even though the dinner scheduled for this week will be held at the White House.
As he did last month, Obama will break bread with Republican senators on Wednesday. In his statement, Priebus said that, in light of the budget cuts associated with sequestration, it would be hypocritical for the President to run up security costs by taking the lawmakers out for dinner. But unlike last month, when the bipartisan group dined at the Jefferson Hotel, Obama will be hosting the senators at the White House, as White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“I’m glad to see that as he enters his fifth year in office, President Obama is finally trying to reach across the aisle in the form of dinners with Senate Republicans. However, I would like to offer some advice. Since the president has been complaining loudly about the cutbacks they’ve had to make at the White House—including tours for schoolchildren—due to the sequester, it only seems appropriate that they avoid the considerable security expenses of dining at an upscale restaurant,” Priebus said in a statement. “Instead of eating out as the president and senators did last month, I suggest they eat in. With their budgets tight in the struggling economy, many families are doing exactly that. It’s only fitting our leaders do the same with the government facing such a large budget deficit.
Priebus continued, “In fact, I’d like to offer to order pizza for them and have it delivered to the White House. I know I’m not invited to dinner, but as RNC Chairman I’m happy to do my part to foster a spirit of bipartisanship if it means we can tackle the debt and deficit—and achieve real spending and tax reform. If we’re lucky, maybe the pizza will serve to illuminate an important economic point for President Obama: instead of redistributing the slices, the best way to make everyone happy is to make the pie bigger. It’s as true for dinner as it is for economic growth and opportunity.”
