McCotter says that it wasn’t Boehner’s fault that the deal reached didn’t cut as much as people wanted:
And it certainly wasn’t the fault of Speaker Boehner or anyone else that the cuts weren’t as large as people wanted. You have to remember that it was the intransigents of the Democratic Senate and the White House that led to this issue being prolonged, that led to the resolution being less than people expected in many quarters.
I’m mixed on whether I agree with McCotter or not. In one sense I think McCotter is right, that if we had a Republican Senate and White House, that the cuts would be much larger. But in the other sense that Boehner was afraid to use his leverage point of a government shutdown, I think McCotter is wrong. Ultimately this war over spending cuts is being shaped by each and every battle that we fight, and the fact that Boehner settled on so little because of what appears to be fear doesn’t make our prospects for success look to be all that good as we approach the debt ceiling debate and the 2012 budget debate.
But there is a part of what McCotter says that rings true to me, and that is the fact that we should put the blame squarely at the feet of the Democrats because they are the ones who didn’t create a budget; they are the ones have been spending us into oblivion over the last few years; and they are the ones who are using vitriolic rhetoric to lie and deceive the American people. They want this country in ruin and they will say and do everything they can to get us there.
The fact that we may feel we have weak leadership is something we will have to deal with until 2012. But make no mistake about it. This war over spending is with the Democrats, not Speaker Boehner. And we should aim everything we have in their direction lest Obama gets reelected in 2012.
Here is McCotter’s full interview:
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