The House Majority Leader speaks out in defense of Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the House Budget Committee chairman, who will deliver the official GOP response to the State of the Union:
“The other thing of note around here is this morning we have seen many begin to attack somehow the Republican plan for how we take the country forward. In particular, Leader Reid and Senator Schumer have been out hurling criticisms about Paul Ryan and him being the individual giving the Republican response tonight. Well, just to sort of put all of these attacks and criticisms into context, it was Leader Reid who appeared on one of the Sunday shows a couple of weeks ago that said there were no fiscal problems with Social Security. Now, I think that is obviously an irresponsible statement. Clearly that puts Leader Reid in opposition to statements made by the President and members of his party on this side of the Capitol.”
“Again, it brings us to the point, we have to stop the criticisms and accusations and act in a responsible way to cut spending and to show the American people that we’re going to take this country responsibly into the future. But first things first. We have to cut spending because that has shown to be the largest impediment in the way of job creators and we need to pull government back.”