House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters today he finds it “troubling” that President Obama “doesn’t share my optimism about fixing this town.”
Obama’s been taking heat from the right since saying in a Univision interview, “I think that I’ve learned some lessons over the last four years and the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside.”
“You actually can change Washington from the inside. It takes courage, it takes determination, and it takes sincerity. And it’s called leadership,” the speaker said.
“And I’ve been here for 22 years. I’ve been involved in changing a lot of things in this town, from my days as a member of the Gang of Seven, closing the House bank, trying to get Congress to run more efficiently and more professionally.”
Boehner chided Democratic colleagues who protested today’s adjournment on the Capitol steps, saying “maybe they should have had it on the Senate steps.”
“You know, it was Steny Hoyer a couple years ago who said, ‘The most important part of governing is doing a budget.’ Senate Democrats have not done a budget for three-and-a-half years,” he said. “And you think about the letter that they sent to me, about us doing our work, how about the 40 jobs bills that are sitting in the United States Senate?”
“The House is the only body to have passed a bill to stop all the coming tax hikes. The House is the only body that’s passed a bill to stop the sequester. We have done our work. But Senate Democrats and the president, where is their responsibility? Where is their leadership? It just doesn’t exist.”
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