Boehner slams conservative groups' 'credibility' ahead of key budget vote

Bailey Comment: "Cry Baby".

House Speaker John Boehner escalated his battle with conservative groups opposed to the newly unveiled budget plan, saying they've "lost all credibility" as he charged ahead with a floor vote late Thursday.
"Frankly, I think they're misleading their followers," Boehner said at a press conference. "I think they're pushing our members into places where they don't want to be. And frankly, I just think that they've lost all credibility."
Boehner and other party leaders were voicing confidence that the bill, which would put in place a spending plan for two years and avert a partial government shutdown next month, will clear the House. Boehner is aggressively battling conservative advocacy groups trying to pressure the rank-and-file to block the budget -- a day earlier, he called their complaints "ridiculous."
The comments reflect an effort by Boehner to take on the right flank of his party, in contrast to the more conciliatory approach he took during the last budget showdown. The speaker even took a shot at them for fueling the last battle. "You know, one of them, they pushed us into the fight to defund ObamaCare and shut down the government," he said.
FreedomWorks, among the groups that oppose the current budget bill, shot back at the House speaker again on Thursday.
"Speaker Boehner may not care about what fiscally conservative groups do, but grassroots Americans still care about what he's doing in Washington," FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said in a statement. "When it comes to 'credibility,' actions speak louder than words. And right now, it looks like the Speaker is leading the charge for spending increases and recruiting Democrat votes in the House to help get it done."
House GOP leaders argue that the bipartisan plan is a good deal for conservatives, since they claim it will shave $23 billion off the deficit over the next decade. However, it also erases $65 billion in sequester cuts in the near-term, and conservative groups are worried the long-term savings might never materialize.
With the White House supporting the measure, GOP aides betrayed no nervousness about its chances for passage in the Republican-controlled House.
A Senate vote would likely wait until next week, and it was not yet clear whether Tea Party-aligned conservatives would require supporters to amass a 60-vote majority in order to pass it.
Nobody was claiming that the pact was perfect. Some lawmakers said they were troubled by short-term increases in the deficit, $23.2 billion in 2014 and $18.2 billion the year after that.
But the deal would put a dysfunctional Washington on track to prevent unappealing cuts to military readiness and weapons, as well as continued cuts to programs cherished by Democrats and Republicans alike, including health research, school aid, FBI salaries and border security. The cuts would be replaced with money from, among other things, higher airline security fees, curbs on the pension benefits of new federal workers or working-age military retirees, and premium increases on companies whose pension plans are insured by the federal government.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that "much of the spending increase in this deal has been justified by increased fees and new revenue. In other words, it's a fee increase to fuel a spending increase, rather than reducing deficits."

Rep. Issa accuses HHS of criminally obstructing probe into ObamaCare website

The Health and Human Services Department has told contractors working on the problem-plagued ObamaCare website not to release documents to congressional investigators, a mandate slammed as “criminal obstruction” by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa.
The Dec. 6 letter from CMS official Daniel Kane says that although the department understands Congress’ need for documents to continue its probe into the issues with Healthcare.gov, the agency is concerned about security risks from releasing testing information to third parties.
Therefore, the letter states, the agency has decided to not allow contractors to release any documents to any third party, telling the contractors to send congressional investigators to CMS, who will handle the request themselves.
The letter was sent after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee contacted 11 of the top contractors on the ObamaCare website as part of its investigation into its problems.
In a press release Wednesday, Issa, R-Calif., said the HHS’s request amounts to criminal obstruction, and he has sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius demanding the agency have no further communication with the contractors about the probe.
“The department’s hostility toward questions from Congress and the media about the implementation of ObamaCare is well known,” Issa said. “The department’s most recent effort to stonewall, however, has morphed from mere obstinacy into criminal obstruction of a congressional investigation.”  
Issa said that by requiring CMS handle the information requests instead of the contractors, the agency is breaking a federal statute that prohibits anyone from interfering with a worker’s right to cooperate with a congressional investigation.
“The federal obstruction laws reflect the fact that Congress’ right of access to information is constitutionally based and critical to the integrity and effectiveness of our oversight and investigative activities,” Issa said. “For that reason, it is widely understood that private citizens and companies cannot contract away their duty to comply with a congressional request for documents. “
The HHS did not respond to an email request for comment.