Boehner: ‘Pathetic’ if Obama State of the Union proposes ‘same old policies’

House Speaker John Boehner said that President Obama would be “pathetic” to propose the same policy prescriptions in Tuesday’s State of the Union that he has in his first three years.

“I’ve read a lot about what the president will talk about Tuesday night,” Boehner said on Fox News Sunday. “It sounds to me like the same old proposals we’ve seen — more spending, higher taxes, more regulation — the same policies that haven’t helped our economy, they’ve made it worse.

“If that’s what the president is going to talk about Tuesday night, I think it’s pathetic,” Boehner said.

Boehner was unrepentant about the record and public approval of Congress, and blamed the Senate for stalling House proposals to boost job growth. 

He brought a prop to his interview with host Chris Wallace: a laminated card that showed the 30 jobs proposals that have passed the House, but not the Senate.

When Wallace asked about the few laws Congress passed in 2011, Boehner responded: “Is the measure of the job that Congress does the number of laws we pass? No it isn’t. Most Americans think we’ve got too many laws already.”

Boehner said that the House is “doing what the American people are asking us to do.”

“Our job was to listen to the American people and follow their will, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Boehner said.

On extending the payroll tax cut, which will be one of the first issues Congress takes up in 2012, Boehner said the House may attach it to the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration rejected on Wednesday. Boehner wouldn’t tip his hand, saying “all options are on the table.”

The speaker also vowed that, despite it being an election year, “we will do a serious budget.”

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