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Boehner, White House face off over local impact

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 1:13 AM Thursday, August 12, 2010

HAMILTON — U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner’s hawkish budget stance has drawn fire from those who say his constituents would suffer from federal spending cutbacks.

On Tuesday, Aug. 10, Boehner opposed a $26 billion public sector jobs bill — “Where do the bailouts end?” he said — that the nation’s largest teacher’s union said would save 212 teaching jobs in his district.

Then on Wednesday, he faced off in a war of words with a top White House staffer over the West Chester Twp. Republican’s comments on the Sunday talk-show circuit.

“There’s still about $400 billion or $500 billion of the stimulus plan that has not been spent. Why don’t we stop it. It’s not working,” Boehner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to the vice president, shot back Wednesday on the official White House blog.

“Though we’re sure he didn’t know it, the congressman is advocating to kill the expansion of the Butler County Community Health Center and bring some of the 25 highway projects across the district to a grinding halt,” Bernstein wrote.

Bernstein went on to list other things that would happen if the stimulus were stopped, including ending a tax credit for 4 million Ohioans, halting unemployment checks and unfunding more than 100 clean-energy projects across the state.

Finally, Bernstein took issue with Boehner’s numbers, pointing to a Politifact report that only $292 billion of the $787-billion stimulus plan has not been spent, and much of that has already been obligated.

A few hours later, Boehner issued his own statement.

“The people of my district are looking at President Obama’s ‘stimulus’ policies and asking a simple question: Where are the jobs?” Boehner said. “The fact is, the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending spree is not delivering the results he promised it would, whether you’re looking in Ohio or anywhere else in America.

“A nation in our fiscal condition should be spending less, not more,” he said, decrying Democrats’ call to end tax cuts enacted under President George Bush that Boehner said would amount to a tax hike on 50 percent of small businesses in America.

“I hope Vice President Biden’s economist today will provide the people of the 8th Congressional District with an explanation of how raising taxes on small businesses will do anything but further hinder job creation in Ohio and across the country,” he said.

Justin Coussoule, Boehner’s Democratic challenger this year, called Boehner “out of touch with what working Americans are dealing with” and said he sided with the White House on these issues.

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