Boehner wants a deal, but wants it on his own terms. Boehner: 'I don't like the sequester'

The narrative gripping Washington this week is that House Republicans want the sequester to go into effect.

But there’s at least one man in the House Republican Conference who seems to think that’s an epically bad idea: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).


“Let me make clear: I don’t like the sequester,” Boehner said at his weekly news conference in the Capitol. “I think it’s taking a meat ax to our government, a meat ax to many programs and it will weaken our national defense. That’s why I fought to not have the sequester in the first place. But the president didn’t want to have to deal with the debt limit again before his reelection.”

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Boehner, though, is willing to let the sequester take hold if he doesn’t get the cuts and reforms he’s seeking.

House GOP leadership points to a bill it passed last Congress that blunted the cuts, which take effect March 1. But Boehner on Wednesday morning said he is “more than willing to work with my Senate colleagues on a plan that would have cuts and reforms that would put us on a path to balance the budget in 10 years.”

Boehner’s remarks are the clearest sign yet about the unease with which GOP leadership views the sequester. Boehner wants a deal, but wants it on his own terms.

“We know what the menu of options are: cuts and reforms that we can put in place to put us on a sound fiscal path, help investors and business people in America understand where it is the government is going, being more responsible about our debt and those cuts and reforms ought to be put in place,” he said.