Chris Usher/CBS, via Associated Press

Does Speaker John Boehner speak the same language as the rest of Washington?

Last week, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, told Congress that it was the biggest threat to economic growth in this country. And he wasn’t the least bit ambiguous about why: unnecessary austerity and dangerous threats to refuse to raise the debt ceiling.

“The risks remain that tight federal fiscal policy will restrain economic growth over the next few quarters by more than we currently expect,” Mr. Bernanke said, “or that the debate concerning other fiscal policy issues, such as the status of the debt ceiling, will evolve in a way that could hamper the recovery.”



But Mr. Boehner apparently heard a different speech. Or perhaps a different Fed chairman. Or maybe, like so many Republicans, he has his news pre-digested for him by media outlets so that it comes out more to his taste.

At a news conference this morning, Mr. Boehner was asked about Mr. Bernanke’s comments, and here’s what he said:

“Well, I think what the chairman’s referring to is the fact that we’ve got spending that continues to be out of control, a red tape that’s out of control.”

No. Mr. Bernanke wasn’t referring to either of those things, because spending and “a red tape” are not out of control, and have nothing to do with sluggish growth. The chairman was, in fact, saying exactly the opposite, urging Congress to spend more money.

But Mr. Boehner wasn’t finished with his extreme misinterpretation. After the usual demands for the Keystone pipeline and a delay in health care reform, he went on to do exactly what the Fed chairman warned against: threatening to send the country into default unless Democrats agree to more cuts.

“We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.” He added: “I believe that the so-called Boehner rule is the right formula for getting that done.”

The “Boehner rule,” for those of you who have blotted it from your memory, requires spending cuts in the exact amount of the debt ceiling increase. That ruinous formula plunged the country into a crisis in 2011, forced a downgrade of the country’s credit rating and produced the sequester, which costs the country more jobs every day.

Having said in the past that default is not an option, Mr. Boehner may be bluffing or playing to his most radical members, who would love nothing more than a dangerous confrontation with President Obama. But the effect is to once again raise expectations on the far right that the speaker really will take things to the brink this fall — expectations that he should be trying to lower if he truly wants the mantle of a national leader.

Mr. Boehner’s oppositional comments are the perfect prelude to the big economic speech Mr. Obama has planned for tomorrow. Americans who tune in will get a sense of everything that is being lost because the Republicans refuse to govern: millions of jobs, opportunities for the middle class, desperately needed repairs to infrastructure, and the learning potential of low-income kids.

Most economists, and clearly Mr. Bernanke, support the kind of vision Mr. Obama will describe. But with Mr. Boehner’s words ringing in their ears, at least Americans will know why that vision is likely to be ignored.