i think washington is going to work better over the next four years than it has in a decade. let me take the under on that. i agree with you about chuck schumer. i was his finance chair in 1998. one of my closest friends. i like paul ryan. i worked with him on auto bailout. serious guy with serious ideas. the question is and problem is can he control his caucus? as we sit here today, since he became speaker, they ve passed, i think, two significant pieces of legislation. highway bill and raised spending caps to deal with spending problems. there are 11 appropriations bill for the fiscal year that started a month ago. they have not passed a budget. his caucus is talking about not to cut you off. i m waving you off because i could say the same thing about harry reid. harry reid is a this is not a partisan comment. i know it s not. i m saying that harry reid is a poison when it comes to personal relations on the hill and
speaker, john boehner, threw in the towel on efforts to attach other items to the bill. just 28 republicans joined 193 democrats in approving the so-called clean debt limit increase. boehner was unable to get all of his colleagues on the same page, although many republicans want to avoid the kind of political brinksmanship that led to the government shutdown last fall, the latest example of the house speaker getting stymied by conservatives in his own party. but boehner tried to shift blame away from his republican colleagues to president obama. you won t negotiate, you won t deal with our long-term spending problems without us raising taxes, won t even sit down and discuss these issues. he s the one driving up the debt. the question they re asking, why should i deal with his debt limit? and so the fact is, we ll let the democrats put the votes up. we ll put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.
from now on and will take an avalanche safety course. just when you thought we had reached bipartisan bliss senator ted cruz reappears as the spoiler. cruz said he ll filibuster a house passed bill to raise the debt ceiling. his plan is at odds with his fellow republicans. they want to avoid a filibuster and any accusations of obstruction that could come with it. cruz s vow came after the measure passed through a narrow vote. house speaker john boehner spoke about his party s frustration with the process and president obama. listen, you all know that our members are not crazy about voting to increase the debt ceiling. our members are also very upset with the president. he won t negotiate. he won t deal with our long term spending problems without us raising taxes. won t even sit down and discuss these issues. he s the one driving up the debt and the question they are asking why should ideal with his debt
of how the government this administration unilaterally decides which portions of the law tone force and which ones not to enforce. then there s house speaker john boehner who may be in the best position of the three politically after he was proven right about the political folly of the government shutdown. boehner signaled this week that he s unwilling to repeat another confrontation next month on the debt ceiling, telling reporters, quote, no one wants to fault, but he blamed the president s intransience for why he has to fall on this issue. it s become obvious to me after having tried to work with the president for the last three years he will not deal with the long-term spending problems unless republicans agree to raise taxes, and we are not going to raise taxes. and so, while the options available continue to be narrower in terms of how we address the issue of the debt ceiling, but i m confident that we ll be able to find a way. boehner can t sound like he s being concilia
money. this is just an example of showing they haven t figured out what the priority is for nasa. nasa is national a aeronautics and space exploration. it s not about the garbage we see here. you outline 100 examples of what you have zoned in on as egregious federal spending problems. total 30 billion. one of which is studying whether wives should calm down or not. i say yes. $325,000, i ll double that if they will. how can we right now hearing all this waste? you need to tread carefully with that one because i m not sure that the results of that study are well received by wives. no kidding! they were calm until we told them about the study. we don t like waste. that s why. zombie math game for $150,000. senator, you re going to be leaving soon. is your book getting any thinner when you put these things out,