Boehner’s Summer Plans

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From TIME’s Sophia Yan:

There’s no dilly-dallying before Congress’s August recess for House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.  At a Christian Science Monitor lunch with reporters today, he brushed aside questions unrelated to health care and the economy, including one on the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate and another on a DNC ad spelling out GOP involvement, saying it led to today’s rough-and-tumble economy.

“I thought the issue du jour was health care!” Boehner said.  He wants to “scrap the proposal on the table and hit the reset button.” Republicans are ready to work with Obama on health reform, he says, but true bipartisanship must start from the very beginning.

Between mouthfuls of a lightly dressed salad, he ticked off items on his agenda.  “My focus is on trying to get this economy moving again, stopping [Democratic Party] efforts on a national energy tax, and stopping their government takeover of the health care system.”

Silverware clattered lightly as Boehner reaffirmed, “I know there are a lot of issues that are out there, but that’s where my focus is.”