Speaker of the House John Boehner excoriated the White House over comments made by an unnamed senior Obama administration aide in the Wall Street Journal Friday at a GOP press conference.
The unnamed source is quoted as saying "We are winning...It doesn't really matter to us how long" the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."
Boehner described how he tried to negotiate with Democratic leaders at the White House only to find out via the Wall Street Journal that the Obama administration's sole objective is "beating" the GOP.
In stark terms, the speaker slammed the White House telling the assembled media "this isn't some damn game":
JOHN BOEHNER: Good morning, everyone. When we have a crisis like the one we're in the middle of this week, the American people expect their leaders to sit down and try to resolve their differences. I was at the White House the other night and listening to the president some 20 times explain to me why he wasn't going to negotiate. I sat there and listened to the majority leader in the United States Senate describe to me that we're not going to talk until we surrender. I get the Wall Street Journal out and it says "we don't care how long this lasts because we're winning." This isn't some damn game. The American people don't want their government shut down and neither do I. All we're asking for is to sit down and have a discussion and reopen the government and to bring fairness to the American people under Obamacare. It's as simple as that. But it all has to begin with a simple discussion.