Conservative leaders are hitting back at House Speaker John Boehner after his remarks about the newly unveiled budget plan.
House Speaker John Boehner and tea party-aligned conservatives groups are approaching an all-out war.
Conservative leaders have signed a statement expressing their fury with Boehner after his explosive remarks Thursday afternoon, escalating an ongoing feud over the budget deal.
“It is clear that the conservative movement has come under attack on Capitol Hill today,” the statement from the Conservative Action Project read.
On Wednesday, conservative groups urged lawmakers to oppose the budget deal, prompting Boehner to dismiss the idea that conservatives still havelegislative pull with the party. At his weekly briefing on Capitol Hill, Boehner said conservative groups “pushed” Republicans into the government shutdown debacle and have “lost all credibility.”
Conservative leaders also signed the letter in solidarity to protest the firing of the House Republican Study Committee’s executive director. RSC chairman Steve Scalise fired the committee’s executive director, Paul Teller, on Wednesday for leaking classified House intel to conservative groups. He announced the decision at a weekly RSC meeting.
“Speaker Boehner thinks ‘outside groups’ are the problem?” asked Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, in a statement. “Does he really think the American voters who are involved in the tea party, who got him elected, should not demand accountability of their elected representatives? The Speaker’s anger and ire is misdirected towards the wrong people.”
“Frankly, Mr. Speaker, continuously making promises and then breaking them is how you lose credibility with the American people. Pitting your colleagues against their constituents is how you lose credibility with your conference. Not upholding conservative principles is how you lose credibility with the voters who will find someone else if you are not willing to do your job.”