House Speaker John Boehner released the following statement in response to President Obama’s speech on Paul Ryan’s budget proposal:
“Our country faces serious economic and fiscal challenges. Americans continue to be disappointed that the president is shrinking from those challenges rather than displaying the courage needed to solve them. Instead of reaching across the aisle to enact the changes needed to restore America’s prosperity, the president has resorted to distortions and partisan pot-shots, and recommitted himself to policies that have made our country’s debt crisis worse. He’s so unserious about our country’s problems that he’s offered a budget that failed to garner a single vote in the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. And his own party leadership in the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in more than 1,000 days.
“If the president were serious, he would put forward a plan to deal with our debt crisis and save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for future generations of seniors without raising taxes on small businesses that are struggling in this economy. Instead, he has chosen to campaign rather than govern, and the debt crisis he is presiding over is only getting worse.
“House Republicans, led by Chairman Ryan, passed a responsible budget that would help put Americans back to work, protect our seniors, close President Obama’s massive budget deficits, and do ‘all of the above’ to address high gas prices. It makes the tough choices the president refuses to make to address the staggering deficits and debt that are slowing our economic recovery, costing jobs, and threatening to destroy the American dream. Republicans are committed to the budget we’ve put forward, and committed to solving the serious economic and fiscal challenges our country faces. It’s time for the president to join us.”
