Under attack from Senate majority leader Harry Reid, whose spokesman alleged Speaker John Boehner has a “credibility problem,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel pushed back against Reid and congressional Democrats:
Passing a spending bill at the level required by law isn’t a ‘concession’ – so it’s time for Senate Democrats to stow their faux outrage and deal with the problems at hand. The federal government is shut down because Democrats refuse to negotiate, and the debt limit is right around the corner. A ‘clean’ debt limit increase can’t pass the Senate, let alone the House. It’s time for some Washington Democrat[s] to step up, act like an adult, and start talking about how we reopen the government, provide fairness for the American people under ObamaCare, and deal with the drivers of our debt and deficits.
In reference to a Politico interview with Reid in which he discussed his reelection campaign, a senior GOP aide also said, “Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed, default is ten days away, and Senator Reid is giving interviews about his re-election campaign in Nevada in 2016 — what planet are these guys on?”