Boehner "Not Wedded" To Ryan Budget

Politico reports:

So maybe it wasn’t the best timing in the world: Even as House Republicans face tough questions at their town hall meetings about Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, Speaker John Boehner has given an interview in which he said Ryan’s plan was an idea “worthy of consideration” and that he wasn’t “wedded to it.”

Democrats and liberal groups said Boehner’s comments to ABC News, in an interview posted Tuesday afternoon, make it sound like he’s backpedaling from the House vote two weeks ago in which all but four Republicans voted for Ryan’s budget plan — including the Medicare overhaul that’s raising so many questions at their town hall meetings.

In the interview, Boehner said Ryan “has an idea that’s certainly worthy of consideration in terms of, how do we do this in a more efficient way? And frankly, having the private sector run the program is far more efficient than having the government run it.”

“I voted for it. I’m for it. It’s our idea,” Boehner said. But then he added: “It’s Paul’s idea. Other people have other ideas. I’m not wedded to one single idea, but I think it’s — we have a plan. Where’s the president’s plan to deal with the nightmare that’s facing Americans?”

Technically, Ryan’s plan is only a non-binding spending blueprint, and is just the start of a longer process that would be needed to make the actual changes, including legislation in more House committees and negotiations with the Senate and the White House.

But it’s not clear that any of the other steps would actually happen, since officials at the House Ways and Means Committee — which would have to write the legislation to change Medicare — declined to say whether or when the panel will do so.

It’s not the first time Boehner has called the Ryan plan just an idea “worth considering” — he used almost the exact same language shortly before the House began its debate on the plan.

But his comments provoked a different reaction now that the House has approved the plan — and now that rank-and-file Republicans are trying to sell it to their constituents. Ryan himself was explaining his plan Tuesday at town hall meetings throughout his district.

The group Americans United for Change, which has been running ads against Ryan and other Republicans who voted for the budget, quickly circulated Boehner’s comments in an email chiding the speaker: “Sorry Speaker Boehner, there’s no ‘take-backs’ or distancing from this one — you and the 224 other House Republicans that voted for the Ryan plan for turning Medicare into Coupon Care now own it.”

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