Budget Deal Is 'Ridiculous'

John Boehner: Conservative Groups' Reaction to Budget Deal Is 'Ridiculous'

By Matt Berman

House Speaker John Boehner went off on outside conservative groups Wednesday morning for pushing against the new budget deal.

"They're using our members and they're using the American people for their own goals," he said. "This is ridiculous."

Several key conservative groups are against the sequester relief within the new budget deal.
"Though conservatives support more spending restraint, the discretionary spending limits defined in the Budget Control Act represent a promise to the American people to marginally slow the growth of government," reads a letter signed by the heads of Heritage Action, the Family Research Council, and the American Conservative Union. Heritage Action's Michael Needham penned an op-ed in USA Today on Tuesday calling the deal "a step backward." The Cato Institute called the deal a "huge Republican cave-in."

Dan Holler, the communications director at Heritage Action, responded to Boehner's comments Wednesday morning:

Americans are deeply concerned about the direction of the country. Over the next few days, lawmakers will have to explain to their constituents, many of whom are our members, what they've achieved by increasing spending, increasing taxes and offering up another round of promises waiting to be broken. That will be a really tough sell back home. Meanwhile, we'll continue fighting to achieve our goal, which is create an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish.

Rep. Paul Ryan also addressed his conservative critics Wednesday, calling the attacks from the right "a strange new normal." Ryan, for his part, is doing everything he can to remind his critics that he's a conservative.

Boehner has a tough path ahead of him as he tries to get this deal passed with Republican support. But, so far, he's making it clear that he won't go down easy.