Boehner Goes to Bat for Ryan's Budget

Yesterday the speaker of the House issued a statement of support for Paul Ryan's budget, and today John Boehner reiterates his support, defending the GOP budget from the White House's attacks:

I’m disappointed but not surprised that the White House has chosen to attack Chairman Ryan’s budget proposal.  Chairman Ryan has put forth a "serious, honest, and straightforward approach’ to addressing our nation’s enormous fiscal challenges."  Those aren’t my words, but rather those of the bipartisan co-chairs of the president’s own deficit commission, whose recommendations he ignored when putting together his budget.  Instead, he presented Congress with a budget that punts on the drivers of our debt while raising taxes by $1.5 trillion, a surefire recipe for destroying jobs in America.  The president is certainly entitled to disagree with our budget, but what exactly is his alternative?  If he wants to have an "adult conversation" about solving our fiscal challenges, he needs to lead instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, the chairs of the president's own fiscal commission, Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles, call Ryan's plan a "positive step" in a blog post today at the Hill, praising the overall idea while only objecting to certain provisions.