House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is watching events in Wisconsin, and he’s come to this conclusion: the thousands of union workers packing the Capitol are wrong and the governor is right.
In a statement to reporters this afternoon, Bohener said that Walker’s plan to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin teacher, nurses and other workers is just the kind of thing Boehner’s majority is trying to accomplish in Washington.
“Republicans in Congress - and reform-minded GOP governors like Scott Walker, John Kasich [OH] and Chris Christie [NJ] - are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity,” Boehner said.
The Speaker ripped President Obama for his words of support for the protesters, and called on him to “lead.”
He also slammed the Democratic Party for apparently providing support to the protesters, and called on Obama to put a stop to it.
“I urge the president to order the DNC to suspend these tactics,” he said. “This is not the way you begin an ‘adult conversation’ in America about solutions to the fiscal challenges that are destroying jobs in our country.”
It may not be long before Boehner is firing off one of these statements in support of the governor of his home state, Ohio. As TPM’s Brian Beutler reported earlier, the Buckeye State is on the short list of Republican-controlled states where anti-union measures like the one proposed by Walker in Wisconsin are springing up.
Read the full statement from Boehner:
“Republicans in Congress - and reform-minded GOP governors like Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie - are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity. I’m disappointed that instead of providing similar leadership from the White House, the president has chosen to attack leaders such as Gov. Walker, who are listening to the people and confronting problems that have been neglected for years at the expense of jobs and economic growth.“According to news reports, the White House has even unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin regarding the governor’s courageous actions. I urge the president to order the DNC to suspend these tactics. This is not the way you begin an ‘adult conversation’ in America about solutions to the fiscal challenges that are destroying jobs in our country.
“Rather than shouting down those in office who speak honestly about the challenges we face, the president and his advisors should lead. Until they do, they are not focusing on jobs, and they are not listening to the American people who put them in power.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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