House Speaker John Boehner says no way will he push for a government shutdown, despite sequester buzz and chatter to the contrary.
“The president this morning agreed that we should not have any talk of a government shutdown,” he said in a news talk-show broadcast on Sunday, but taped on Friday, as Politico reports. “So I’m hopeful that the House and Senate will be able to work through this.”
Instead, the House will vote on a budget extension, so that government will keep operating to the end of the fiscal year, through September, Politico reports.
Some fellow conservatives, especially on the Senate side, aren’t happy with the extension and want to duke it out with Democrats. It’s been more than 1,000 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a budget — a core constitutional responsibility.
Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, said as far back as January that he was prepared to go the distance with Democrats.
“I think we have to be prepared to go so far as to shut the government down if we don’t get some serious policies to stop the out-of-control spending, to tackle the debt and to get economic growth,” he said then, in a Christian Science Monitor report.
SEE ALSO: McConnell and Boehner: Republicans united on sequesters
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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