WASHINGTON — Forget about passing new laws — House Speaker John Boehner says Congress should be getting rid of old ones.
“We should not be judged by how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal,” Boehner said yesterday. “We’ve got more laws than the administration could ever enforce.”
Boehner also slammed ObamaCare as a “train wreck,” days after the House voted on its 39th failed effort to repeal or change the law.
Congress has passed only 15 laws this year, on path for a record low.
“Did Speaker Boehner really say that the Congress should be judged on the number of laws they repeal, not the number they pass?” tweeted Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer.
Boehner slammed the Senate-passed immigration bill for lacking “serious triggers” to guarantee security gains at the border.
But with action on the critical issue now switching to the House, Boehner is refusing to say for sure whether he’d let a bill containing a “path to citizenship” come to the floor.
“It is not about me,” the Ohio Republican told CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday.
“This is about allowing the House to work its will.”
Boehner said the House would push its own legislation in “chunks,” but conservatives fear they’ll end up with a path to citizenship if they negotiate a final bill with the Senate.
Pressed on the path to citizenship, Boehner said he wouldn’t predict “what’s going to be on the floor and what isn’t going to be on the floor.”