Boehner Now Directly Attacking Obama
Mar 5, 2009 10 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
By PATRICK O’CONNOR
After tip-toeing around the popular new president for months, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has shifted gears and gone directly at President Barack Obama and the budget blueprint his White House unveiled last week.
“Look, it’s the president’s budget,” Boehner said. “He sent it to the Hill.”
“The president certainly remains popular, but his policies are becoming less and less popular,” Boehner said, citing the continuing slide in the financial markets. “Certainly the stock market hasn’t acted very well” since Obama’s inauguration.
As the markets continue to falter, Republicans are becoming more confident in their criticisms of the president  some have already taken to using the phrase “the Obama economy.”
But the Boehner acknowledged that his team needs to be more aggressive in selling GOP alternatives. He told colleagues Wednesday morning that they always need to be talking about Republican alternatives, not just criticizing what the White House or congressional Democrats roll out to avoid the dreaded “party of no” label.
“We are going to have a better solution,” Boehner said. “We’re going to beat the drum on it. Of course, from a political standpoint they’re going to try to throw us into the ‘party of no’ column.”
But try as he might, Boehner can’t avoid the chatter on cable news and the Internet about Rush Limbaugh and his public feuds with the White House and a handful of Beltway Republicans.
“It’s a huge distraction created by the White House” to avoid talking about components of the budget, Boehner complained. “You would think the White House would have more important things to do.”
