Boehner just talked about how doing nothing would be the equivalent of a root canal:

Root-canal economics has a name, and its name is Doing Nothing. The greatest threat to our economy and our future is doing nothing. We urgently need to enact reforms that will protect and preserve critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Root canal here would come from the consequences of not cutting spending. Back in the 1980s, during the heyday of the starve-the-beast theory, the root canal was to try to balance the budget by cutting spending. I welcome the change.