http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2013/10/boehner-insists-hes-leading-house-gop-it-is-time-for-174374.html By JENNIFER EPSTEIN |
10/6/13 9:39 AM EDT
House Speaker John Boehner says he wasn't pulled into demanding concessions from Democrats to keep funding the government - he willingly joined with fellow Republicans.
"I and my members decided that the threat of Obamacare and what was happening was so important that it was time for us to take a stand. And we took a stand," the Ohio Republican said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
That's even though he had offered a clean government funding bill to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over the summer. "There was a conversation about doing this ... several," Boehner said, but he ultimately decided against it.
"I, working with my members, decided to do this in a unified way," the speaker said -- with demands to defund, delay or otherwise alter the Affordable Care Act.
"You've never seen a more dedicated group of people who are thoroughly concerned about the future of our country," he said of House Republicans. "It is time for us to stand and fight."