Ryan J. Reilly April 8, 2011, 1:40 PM

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) says that Republican freshmen in the House want Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to stick to his guns in budget negotiations ahead of the impending government shutdown. “This is all about jobs,” Gingrey said, adding that it was about principle and not politics.

So how exactly is the rider banning federal funding for Planned Parenthood about jobs?

That’s a question Gingrey had a bit of a tough time answering at a news conference with freshman Republicans in the House on Friday morning.

“Well I think these policy riders are very, very important and our conference feels very strongly about this,” Gingrey said in response to a question from Chad Pergram of Fox News.

“For example, we have always been against spending the taxpayer dollars to fund abortion,” Gingrey said. “Elective abortion may be legal, but it should not be funded by the taxpayer and it never has. So to have that language very specifically in this CR, in this appropriation as a rider, is not unusual at all.”

But how is the abortion issue and defunding Planned Parenthood about jobs?

“Well, it’s about spending cuts, uh, certainly it’s about spending cuts. As you look at the two short term — the two billion and the four billion — every time we take a cut, we’re cutting things that we think are unnecessary spending on the part of the taxpayer,” Gingrey said. “So from that perspective, the main issue is to cut that spending and then we will grow jobs.”

Federal money is already banned from funding abortions. What the GOP’s rider would do is cut the $75 million that goes to Planned Parenthood and the $317 million aid program for family planning.

Video below.

Additional reporting by Melissa Jeltsen.

GOP, Government Shutdown, John Boehner, Phil Gingrey, Planned Parenthood