Boehner on Fiscal Cliff Impasse: 'I Did My Part, They’ve Done Nothing' - East Idaho News
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Boehner on Fiscal Cliff Impasse: ‘I Did My Part, They’ve Done Nothing’

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Getty 122012 JohnBoehner?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1356036087762Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that the House’s Plan B option on the fiscal cliff is dead-on-arrival in the upper chamber, House Speaker John Boehner said he is “not convinced at all that when the bill passes the House today that it will die in the Senate.”

“Rather than tell us what they can’t do, maybe they should tell us what they can do,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “If Senate Democrats and the White House refuse to act, they’ll be responsible for the largest tax hike in American history.”

The speaker also called on Reid “to make sure that we have a vote” to address the fiscal cliff “before the Senate adjourns.”

“At some point the Senate has to act. They’ve failed to act,” he continued. “We have a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate that protects all Americans from an increase in taxes. They could take up that bill sitting at the desk, they could pass it, they could amend it, and they could help move the process, but to date they’ve done nothing.”

Boehner claimed that he has made significant concessions in negotiations with the president, crediting House Republicans for passing multiple bills to address the looming crisis. But he chastised Democrats for inaction and wondered whether the president is “unwilling to stand up to his own party on the big issues that face our country.”

“President Obama and Senate Democrats haven’t done much of anything,” Boehner said. “Their Plan B is to slow-walk us over the fiscal cliff, and for weeks the White House said that if I moved on rates that they would make substantial concessions on spending cuts and entitlement reforms. I did my part. They’ve done nothing.”

While Boehner and Obama haven’t spoken since Monday, the speaker admitted that he and the president “have to work together” to address the obstacles preventing a deal.

“Our country faces serious challenges and the president and I in our respective roles have a responsibility to work together to get them resolved,” he said. “I expect that we’ll continue to work together.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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