Obama Slams Boehner: Americans Know The Country Needs More Than An ‘Ant Swatter’ To Recover

By Think Progress In recent weeks, Republicans have been making headlines for their unabashed advocacy on behalf of Wall Street and big business at the expense of American taxpayers. In a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) compared the financial crisis to a poor little ant, and criticized Democrats for “killing” it with a “nuclear weapon” (i.e. financial reform).

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs went after Boehner and called him “completely out of touch with America.” A staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded, “An ant, Mr. Boehner? It was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression — Americans lost 8 million jobs and $17 trillion in retirement savings and net worth.”

Today at a town hall event in Racine, WI, President Obama went directly after Boehner, telling him that most Americans don’t think “the financial crisis was an ant and we just need a little ant swatter to fix this thing”:

The leader of the Republicans in the House said that financial reform was like — I’m quoting it — “using a nuclear weapon to target an ant.” That’s what he said. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes, their life savings. He can’t be that out of touch with the struggles of American families, and if he is, he should come here to Racine and ask people what they think. Maybe I’m confused. Do you think that the financial crisis was an ant and we just need a little ant swatter to fix this thing, or do you think that we need to restructure how we regulate the financial system so you aren’t on the hook again and we don’t have this crisis again?

When you ask men and women who’ve been out of work for months at a time, who talk about how they’ve been barely hanging on, they don’t think this financial crisis was something where you just need a few tweaks. They know that it’s what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again.

Watch it:

Yesterday, ThinkProgress caught up with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who said that he agreed with Boehner’s comparison of the financial crisis to an ant.

Transcript:

As we speak, right now, we’re on the verge of passing the most comprehensive financial reform since the Great Depression — reform that will prevent a crisis like this from happening again. It will protect our economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility of a few on Wall Street. It will protect consumers against the unfair practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders. It’s a reform that ensures taxpayers never engage in a bailout for Wall Street’s mistakes.

But I have to tell you — you would think this would be a bipartisan issue, don’t you? I mean, you’d think everybody would say, “Alright, what we were doing — that didn’t work. We really have to tighten things up a little bit.” But right now, most of our friends in the other party are planning on voting against this reform.

The leader of the Republicans in the House said that financial reform was like — I’m quoting it — “using a nuclear weapon to target an ant.” That’s what he said. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes, their life savings. He can’t be that out of touch with the struggles of American families, and if he is, he should come here to Racine and ask people what they think. Maybe I’m confused. Do you think that the financial crisis was an ant and we just need a little ant swatter to fix this thing, or do you think that we need to restructure how we regulate the financial system so you aren’t on the hook again and we don’t have this crisis again?

When you ask men and women who’ve been out of work for months at a time, who talk about how they’ve been barely hanging on, they don’t think this financial crisis was something where you just need a few tweaks. They know that it’s what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again. So there may be those in Washington who want to maintain the status quo. But we want to move America forward.

Update Earlier today, Boehner responded to the criticism he's been receiving:

"They're the ones who are out of touch with what the American people expect of Washington," he said of the administration. "The American people want us to deal with the economy and jobs. And what have they dealt with? They've dealt with health care. They've dealt with cap and trade. And then they've gone overboard with financial regulatory bill. Growing the size of government, taking more from the American people at a time when Americans want them to focus in on the economy.

Boehner said his reference to an ant "was not a judgment of the financial crisis. It was how to fix it. Clearly there were holes in our regulatory process and we could have fixed those holes but that's not what this bill does. This bill goes way beyond all of that and puts the federal government in a huge role in terms of how our whole financial system's going to work in the future. That's what I was talking about."