GOP budget missing at press conference
GOP budget missing at press conferencefrom http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/04/republicans-have-no-budget-at-press-conference/
At a press conference Wednesday, the two top Congressional Republicans -- House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) addressed a crowd of some 50 Republicans and their colleagues and ripped Obama's multi-trillion-dollar budget as too expensive. But they didn't, apparently, have a copy of their own budget, according to reporter Sam Stein.
"Do you guys have a formal budget yet?" asked a reporter.
"Mr. Ryan will outline the Republican budget at 10:30 this morning. And yes we do have it," replied Boehner, referring to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.).
A silence followed, with reporters apparently unsure what to ask next.
Democrats mocked the GOP budget, details of which appear fully in the Wall Street Journal.
"If you expected a GOP alternative to the failed policies of the past that got our country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, then I have two words for you: April Fool's," Kenneth Baer, the Obama Office of Management and Budget communications director, said.
"Well, look, I thought it was most appropriate that this thing came out on April Fools' Day because this thing is the biggest April Fools' Joke and cruelest that we have had in years," Huffington's Sam Stein quoted Obama's Austan Goolsbee as saying. "If you look at what they are doing...they are calling for putting in a multi-trillion dollar additional tax cut for the highest income Americans, they are now talking about privatizing Medicare turning it into a voucher so that they can cut it substantially. That's not the reform of an entitlement -- it is the gutting of a program."
Earlier this month, Raw Story noted that Republicans were mocked for introducing a budget that contained no specific budget -- or plan for government spending.
The Republican Road to Recovery, as the 19-page document is titled, is a three-part outline of where congressional Republicans stand on Obama's budget plan. Curbing government spending, creating jobs and lowering taxes, and controlling the debt are the foundations of the Republican's argument. Much of the "Road to Recovery" is specific criticisms of the Democrat budget and policies, like energy and health care reform.
However, it is not a budget. There is no plan for government spending, nor are there tables illustrating how money will be allocated. When reporters received copies of the document, they realized that an alternative Republican budget wasn't going to be announced, even though the press conference was supposed to be the announcement of that budget.
According to the Huffington Post, reporters began questioning Boehner on specifics. "Are you going to have any further details on this today?" one reporter asked. "On what?" responded Boehner. "There's no detail in here," the reporter explained.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was visibly pleased by the lack of detail in the Republican's budget. "It's interesting to have a budget that doesn't contain any numbers. I think the 'Party of No' has become the party of no new ideas."
-John Byrne
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