WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney broke with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Monday, asserting that the country does have a spending problem.
"It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem, we have a budget deficit problem," Pelosi said on Fox News Sunday, a belief Carney said Obama does not share.
But on Monday Carney rejected that idea. "Of course the president believes we have a spending problem," he said, adding "The principal driver when it comes to spending of our deficits and debt is healthcare spending."
Speaker of the House John Boehner told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that during the course of the fiscal cliff negotiations Obama told him, "We don't have a spending problem."
A Fox News poll conducted earlier this month found that a majority of Americans believe that the country has a spending problem.