Budget Debate Devolves Into Verbal Slugfest

The White House today ridiculed a budget proposal laid out by House Republicans, but the GOP gave as good as it got, the Hill reports. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the GOP document included a “picture of a windmill” but no substantive numbers. “It took me several minutes to read it,” he quipped. “I think the ‘party of no’ has become the party of no new ideas.”

Minority Leader John Boehner was quick to defend the proposal, saying Gibbs “didn’t get the memo that we had a two-part strategy in terms of releasing our budget—our vision today, with the details next week.” A Boehner spokeswoman was glad “Gibbs mentioned windmills. The administration must be tilting at windmills thinking their bloated budget puts our nation on a path to fiscal sanity.” (More President Obama stories.)