Boehner: Obama should skip trip to Copenhagen

House GOP Leader John Boehner urged President Barack Obama to skip his overseas trip to lobby for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics and instead focus on more pressing business at home.

{mosads}The president is scheduled to make the trip to Denmark on Thursday night, where he will make the case before the International Olympics Committee (IOC) that the 2016 Summer Games should be held in his adopted hometown.

“The president of the United States is not the mayor of Chicago and the problems we have here at home affect all Americans. That’s where his attention ought to be,” Boehner (Ohio) told reporters following the weekly closed-door House GOP conference meeting.

Though he noted that the goal was commendable, Boehner cited healthcare reform and job creation among the reasons why Obama should not be distracted by a jaunt to Copenhagen.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs laughed off similar criticism on Tuesday from Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who also suggested Obama skip the trip.

Obama intends to meet with a number of the 106 IOC members, according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.