The DNC is hitting back at House Minority Leader John Boehner for comparing financial reform to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” saying Boehner is turning “a mountain into an ant-hill by diminishing the need for reform.”
Boehner (R-OH) made the remark in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Monday, and the DNC says they plan to use it in ads this fall. “This fall’s elections will be a choice,” they said in a statement, adding that “in the process of trying to turn a mountain into an ant-hill by diminishing the need for reform, John Boehner just made that choice a little clearer.”
A new DNC web video shows some ants, followed by news reports about the financial crisis. It asks: “Congressman Boehner, any questions?”
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel had this to say yesterday of his boss’ remark: “It’s clear Boehner is not minimizing the crisis America faced — he is pointing out that Washington Democrats have produced a bill that will actually kill more jobs and make the situation worse.”
Here’s the DNC’s full statement:
That John Boehner would minimize the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and all the pain, suffering and sacrifice that hard-working Americans endured as a result of Wall Street’s greed shows just how out-of-touch Republicans are with the lives of Main Street Americans. This fall’s elections will be a choice. A choice between a party who seeks to hold Wall Street accountable for the lives they ruined and the hardship they caused, a party which will put in place new rules and standards to ensure that we never again find ourselves on the brink of economic collapse - or - a party who believes that tougher rules and stricter standards for Wall Street are an overreaction, a party who would rather buddy-up to the banking lobby than stand-up for the families they represent. In the process of trying to turn a mountain into an ant-hill by diminishing the need for reform, John Boehner just made that choice a little clearer.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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