John Boehner On Entitlement Cuts: 'Everything Is On The Table'

UPDATED BELOW

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans remain divided on whether their upcoming budget for fiscal year 2012 will include cuts to government entitlement programs, but Speaker John Boehner suggested Tuesday that reductions in Social Security and Medicare funding were indeed possible.

"Republicans will not punt," Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a press conference on Tuesday. "Everything is on the table."

But Boehner said he would defer to House Budget Chairman Ryan (R-Wis.), who led the Republican effort to draft a budget proposal this spring, as to whether the budget would include changes to Social Security and Medicare. On Monday, Boehner and Ryan both declined to comment on specifics, even after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters the GOP proposal would include "bold reforms" to entitlement spending.

"We will be presenting our own budget, a serious document that will reflect the type of path we feel we should be taking to address the fiscal situation, including addressing entitlement reforms," Cantor said Monday. "It's high time we see from Harry Reid and the president their plans ... Where's the demonstration that they're willing to make tough decisions?"

For his part, Ryan said Monday that he supports entitlement reform but could not comment on the GOP's budget proposal because it has not yet been drafted.

House Republicans have criticized Democrats, including President Barack Obama, for failing to come forward with similar proposals. Obama left changes to Social Security out of his budget proposal, and senior adviser David Plouffe said Monday that the president would support only reforms that do not "slash" or "reduce benefits."

Even before facing Obama, any House GOP efforts to cut Social Security would have to get through the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has declared them "off the table."

"As long as I'm the majority leader, I'm going to do everything within my legislative powers to prevent privatizing or eliminating Social Security -- put simply, say, 'It's off the table,'" Reid said last month.

Still, Republicans hinted that they plan to take on the issue. "We will be specific about reform, unlike any of the Democrats on Capitol Hill or the president," Cantor said at a press conference on Tuesday.

UPDATE, 3 p.m.: The House Budget Committee confirmed in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that its upcoming budget proposal will include entitlement reform. "Our budget will lead where the President has failed, and it will include real entitlement reforms so that we can have a conversation with the American people about the challenges we face and the need to chart a new path to prosperity," Ryan said in the statement. 

Comments

[treadway123]

01:23 PM on 02/17/2011

So they will wait till the Presidents Budget, Yet they don't have a Budget-----ONLY Everything is on the table! If they take my SS, than I won't pay tax's, if they Cut Education----Than I want it cut out of my Property tax's, Electric Bill Tax's, Heating Bill Tax , even my Telephone gets taxed for local programs like education! This people are real Ediots! I get taxed on everything for Education, all my kids are growen up! Will any of these cuts put people to work or out of work? Cutting SS means a few hundred workers will be out of work-----does that creat Jobs? They need to start cutting all the Sen/Congress Health Care programs out, make them pay for Ins. just like we do! Cut their retirement plan, most of us have lost ours during the recission! That is were it should start!

[USMilitaryRetired30Years]

09:14 PM on 02/16/2011

YO,why is it that people in CONGRESS always make up new Slang Words( ENTITLEMENTS) for SS,PENSIONS,MEDCAD,and MEDICARE that working people have PAID into from their PAYCHECKS.If CONGRESS ,wants to cut SPENDING donot forget about some of their STAFF too.They are also Goverment Employees.....

[gwhitejr]

07:01 PM on 02/16/2011

Everything is on the table??? REALLY??? Everything? How about tax exempt status for churches?
I really dont think that EVERYTHING is on the table....sober up John.

[RightNotWrong]

05:28 PM on 02/22/2011

What about the liberal mantra of separation of Church and State? And you think that churches should be taxed? I'm not sure if that's Hypocrisy, Heresy, or both. Certainly hypocritical.

[Alex Croley]

04:05 PM on 02/16/2011

There was an editorial cartoon in the Courier-Journal today. On one side was a pie chart showing the budget as it would be, hypotheticly shown, in proportion to what is spent. On the other side was what the 'average American' perceived, only a small portion of what affected them and everything else, which was called of course Waste.

That thought line of if it doesn't effect me it doesn't matter mentality is of course not uncommon. This is some of the statments that can be heard with this sentiment:

Why does my taxes go to education? I don't have any kids. Cut education.

Why does my taxes go to the EPA? They over regulate us and keep us from our Coal and Oil. Cut EPA.

Why does my taxes go to fund the art? Some of it is grotesque to me and has no value either. Cut the Arts.

Why does my taxes go to National Public Radio or Public Broadcasting Services? I get no entertainment from them and they are nothing that I want to know about (same as the Department of Education). Eliminate the funding for both.

I could keep going including Medicare, Medicaid, or Veterans Affairs, but the point of this is that we, as a collective, only see what effects us, and not what other people's needs are for our taxes.

[TAMPA M]

02:26 PM on 02/16/2011

You have to ask John Boehner the right question. The question should have been, Sen. John Boehner how many more jobs will you create in China and other foreign countries?

[bluecollaramerican]

01:58 PM on 02/16/2011

And what environment is that? Government has been employing people for decades but they don't create jobs? Tell me all about it.

[RightNotWrong]

05:39 PM on 02/22/2011

However, government employees don't contribute to the economy, they draw on the economy. Not that their employment is less necessary than a private sector job,,,but the reality is that they don't put back into the general wealth/health of the money economy because they are paid through taxation. If you have more money paid out than you do paid in, you run a deficit. Government employment in its current form has outstripped the money going in.

We've got cauterize the bleeding...beginning with the vast government waste. All of which is due to overspending (whether it be entitlement programs, fleecing of funds funds from established programs, or ill-conceived programs).

[nypapajoe]

01:02 PM on 02/16/2011

I bet the republicans haven't considered cutting their staff, perks or health insurence benefits that we the people will never have access to!

[JDZSB]

10:03 AM on 02/16/2011

If the federal government (both parties) wanted to do something constructive in cutting the cost of the three major government programs that account for 60% of the cost of government (SS, Medicare, Medicaid), they would streamline the federal bureaucracy that administrates these programs. If these programs had to be competitive, they would periodically be streamlined and consolidated to be more efficient, but because they are government, this never happens. Based on my experience, we could reduce the "cost of administration" of these programs by 20 to 30 percent without affecting the services delivered. Why won't this ever be done? Because it would mean the loss of thousands of government employee jobs, most of which are union jobs.

[Roy49]

09:23 AM on 02/16/2011

John Boehner is not a very good Speaker of the House. Nancy was better, more accomplished.

[jws2346]

08:11 PM on 02/16/2011

faved Totally correct.

[Muzzle Me]

07:23 AM on 02/16/2011

"Everything on the table"? Ok, does that include an ethics violation of allowing newly elected legislators sleeping in their offices on the tax payer's dime? I mean, they make $174,000 a year. I think they can afford a $1,500 per mo apartment.

[UKNOWHOW ICM]

06:36 AM on 02/16/2011

So in other words the Republicans said: "Whaaa whaaaa whaaaa. Boo hoo. Boo hoo.". Spoil sports are still having a temper tantrum? Treasonous conduct indeed.

[ProudMilVet]

04:21 AM on 02/16/2011

Treasonous !

[dagnome27]

01:31 AM on 02/16/2011

Everything is on the table except 700 billion in tax cuts for rich folks!

[rissole]

02:48 AM on 02/16/2011

And the Pentagon.

[Hoosierbrad]

11:58 PM on 02/15/2011

"Everything is on the table." However, what he won't tell you is that, whether it is on the table or not, the Republicans will refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy, reduce subsidies to the oil industry, reduce the defense budget (even if that reduction would be the 3.5 billion savings in the extra engine for the f-35, which even the pentagon doesn't want), or any other thing which will have a hope and a prayer of actually reducing our deficits.

[smoke1]

11:33 PM on 02/15/2011

Why are these idiots so scared of teleprompters?

[PurpleTomato]

02:03 AM on 02/16/2011

It requires the ability to read.