GOP Candidates Comment on Boehner’s Budget Deal

Many of the potential Republican 2012 candidates have begun weighing in on the budget compromise reached late Friday night between House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama.

Michelle Bachman:

The deal of $38 billion in cuts announced early this morning between GOP Leadership and Harry Reid is a pittance compared to the $3.5 trillion+ we are on pace to spend this year alone. Since Republicans took the Majority, I have been vocal about what the American people sent us to Washington to accomplish. As I said in my last RedState post, we must fight over trillions in cuts, we must fight over defunding ObamaCare and we must fight over defunding Planned Parenthood.

I wanted the GOP to fight for more in this week’s negotiations. I wanted them to fight for significant spending cuts before this debt cripples our children and grandchildren like it is crippling our economy right now. I have demonstrated my commitment to these values by voting “no” on past continuing resolutions and I will continue to oppose any spending measure that fails to take up these crucial issues. And rest assured, I will continue to fight for them when the battleground shifts to the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget.

Haley Barbour:

At this weekend’s Greenville, South Carolina GOP Convention, former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour declared that if this weekend’s budget deal had been played out on a baseball diamond, then Republicans had a nice first trip to the plate. But, now it’s time to keep swinging.

“You can’t always get everything you want in the first time at bat,” Barbour said. “The good news is, Boehner and his good Republicans have left us two more times at bat just in this inning.”

Those next at-bats will be the upcoming debates on raising the debt ceiling, and the 2012 budget. Barbour also said the 2012 presidential election will be the most important in his lifetime.

Newt Gingrich:

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich thinks current Speaker of the House John Boehner did a nice job hammering out an agreement before a government shut down. But, like Barbour, Gingrich says now it’s time for bigger and better things.

“This creates an opportunity,” Gingrich says of the pending spending cuts. “This is a building block, and the next big step is the debt ceiling. And we should challenge President Obama right now. This doesn’t have to go down to the wire, this doesn’t have to go down to the last night. Spend more time leading and less time picking a final four.”

Sarah Palin:

Former Alaska governor, FOX News contributor Sarah Palin has been particularly harsh in her criticism of the way the President handled negotiations, expressing her distaste at the way he discussed American servicemen and women.

“What the president did is appalling,” Palin says. “The president used our troops as pawns in a political game. It was an act of the commander-in-chief to basically use our troops as the leverage.”

If you can find more commenting specifically on this budget deal, please post below. Notably Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty have not said anything regarding this budget compromise in the last 48 hours.


Nate Ashworth

The Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for over a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016 that continues today.

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