Howard Dean: John Boehner 'A Good Speaker' (VIDEO) <...>
"I think John Boehner's a reasonable person. I certainly don't agree with his political thought philosophy, but I think he's a good Speaker, and I think he understands how you get things done in Washington," Dean said on CNBC's "Squawk Box," adding that he hoped cooler heads would prevail in the ongoing battle to reach an agreement on a plan to fund the government through September.
President Obama signed a temporary solution last week, a two-week
stopgap spending measure that prevented a government shutdown. The White House has also sought to
take the lead on the next steps to reach a longer term accord.
What Dean said he didn't find reasonable, however, was the GOP's recent insistence on mounting larger ideological battles by tacking on social spending cuts to its budget proposals.
"No one's going to get everything they want here, but the ideological stuff is the stuff that needs to be put aside," Dean claimed, mentioning Republican-led
initiatives to
defund Planned Parenthood and
public broadcasting. "Then I think we can get some serious cuts in the budget."
WATCH:
moreOn edit, Dean makes some good points, but he also says some strange things. Watch the video.
Updated to add this from Daily Kos:
Republican governors push for Medicaid block grants<...>
It's not a new idea, by any means. President Reagan wanted to implement a block grant program for Medicaid back in 1981. President Clinton vetoed legislation in 1995 that would have done the same. It's a go-to "solution" for conservatives who want to dismantle entitlement programs.