Boehner: Dems twiddling thumbs on spending

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WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he was the hardest working man in Washington when it comes to getting the economy on track and ending the sequestration.

Boehner said on NBC's "Meet the Press" it was the Democrats in the White House and Congress who were twiddling their thumbs rather than buckling down and addressing the serious issue of out-of-control federal spending.

"There is no one in this town who's tried harder to come to an agreement with the president and to deal with our long-term spending problem, no one," said Boehner. "And we've not been able to come to an agreement. But the House did its work to avoid this sequester, to avoid these random and automatic spending cuts."

"The fact is, the president and Senate Democrats have done nothing to pass a plan to avert this and to deal honestly with the spending problem the country has," Boehner added.

Boehner most recently has said it was the Democratic-controlled Senate's turn to compile a plan to slash the budget and present it to the Republican-dominated House.

Boehner told NBC the sequester, a massive package of spending reductions, was a poor way to achieve the necessary cuts and the key was tax reform that lowered rates on all Americans regardless of their income.

"We've got to find a way through our tax code to promote more economic growth in our country," Boehner said. "We can do this by closing loopholes, bringing the rates down for all Americans, making the tax code fairer. It will promote more economic growth."