House Dems are in ‘chaos,’ Boehner charges

House Democrats are muddled in “chaos,” House Republican leader John Boehner (Ohio) charged Wednesday.

Boehner seized on the lack of major legislative action on issues like passing a budget or a war funding bill, ridiculing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) recent remarks dismissing the GOP’s prospects of winning back the House.

“The majority leader is desperate. He’s got a caucus that’s in chaos. A leadership that is unable to function,” Boehner said at the Capitol. “They can’t even move a budget, for goodness’ sakes. And funding our troops, they’ve been trying to pass this bill for 12 weeks and been unable to do it. So, it’s not surprising to me that he wants the attention off of himself and onto someone else.”

Republicans have hammered away at Democrats on the budget and other legislative priorities. The war supplemental has been mired down in Congress as lawmakers dispute whether additional spending and other measures should be tacked on to the bill funding U.S. military operations.

Boehner has made House operations a key point of his election-year arguments as to why voters should oust Democratic incumbents for Republican candidates. If the GOP wins back the House, Boehner is likely to become speaker.

“Democrats say they’re focused on jobs, but they can’t even fulfill basic responsibilities of governing, like doing a budget or passing a troop funding bill to take care of our troops,” he said.

The majority leader also warned of passing legislation during an end-of-year lame-duck session, echoing other Republicans’ concerns that Democrats might look to pass stalled priorities before new members are sworn in next year.

"Seriously, the last time Congressional Republicans decided to speak about what they really believe in, Congressman Barton apologized to BP, Leader Boehner called the financial crisis an ant and Congressman Ryan offered to privatize Social Security," said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "So it’s much safer to attack the other side instead of talking about your friends in big oil and on Wall Street."

Updated 2:57 p.m.