Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Democrats of planning to block military pay raises as lawmakers head toward a showdown over defense spending.
Senate Democrats are planning to block consideration of a defense spending bill on Thursday that lifts funding beyond budget caps, in order to force Republicans into talks on lifting caps on non-defense spending, too.
{mosads}Republicans are characterizing the move to block the defense spending bill, which funds the military and its programs, as blocking troop pay raises next year.
“We live in a dangerous world, and whatever our troops need, they should get. And they ought to get a raise, too,” Boehner said in the video statement.
“But now the Democrats are playing politics. They don’t want to support a raise for our troops until they get more spending on their big government programs. And the president has actually threatened to veto the bill,” Boehner said.
“I get that Democrats want to spend more — they always do — but that shouldn’t get in the way of fulfilling our most serious responsibilities. Our troops come first. Save the politics for another day,” he said.
Senate Democrats are also posturing themselves ahead of the showdown, where both sides are expected to blame each other for the gridlock over the defense spending bill.
They are holding a press conference before Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to bring up the defense spending bill for consideration, to ask Republicans to begin budget talks as early as next week.
In a press release announcing the conference, they characterized the budget caps as “cuts that shortchange our military and middle class families.”
“Thus far, despite repeated requests from Congressional Democrats for bipartisan negotiations, Republicans continue their efforts to write partisan spending bills at levels both that the President and Democrats have consistently articulated they will not support,” said the release.
“Senate Dems to GOP: Come to the table and let’s negotiate a bipartisan budget that supports both national defense and domestic investments,” it said.