By CNN Political Unit
(CNN) — House Speaker John Boehner had some choice words Tuesday for his colleagues in the Senate over the forced spending cuts set to begin Friday.
Boehner, known for his at-times colorful language, said the House won’t move a budget bill until the Senate “gets off their ass and begins to do something.”
He made his comments to reporters after speaking to the House GOP conference on Capitol Hill. Ahead of President Barack Obama’s trip to Newport News, Virginia Tuesday afternoon, Boehner criticized the president for holding campaign-style events about the spending cuts, rather than acting to prevent them.
At issue is a disagreement over how to stave off the automatic, across-the-board cuts, known in Washington as the sequester. Democrats and Obama want to replace it with a mix of more specific cuts and an increase in taxes through the closing of certain loopholes.
Republicans, on the other hand, say taxes are out of the question.
“He’s gotten his tax hikes,” Boehner said, referring to the-end-of-the-year fiscal cliff bill that raised tax rates on top earners. “It’s time to focus on the real problem here in Washington and that is spending.”
Building onto the criticism, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Obama is hardly willing to meet Republicans in the middle.
“The president says we can’t have any progress on this sequester unless we get the second tax hike in eight weeks. That’s not compromise,” Cantor said.
Later Tuesday, Senate Majority Harry Reid responded to Boehner’s remark.
“I was raised in a little town that had 13 brothels in it,” the Nevada Democrat said. “So I am used to some pretty salty language as you know.”
Reid then read out Boehner’s quote.
“I think he should understand who is sitting on their posterior,” Reid added. “We are doing our best here to pass something. The speaker is doing nothing to try to pass anything over there.”
Earlier in the day, Reid said Senate Democrats have a “balanced proposal” to replace the sequester with “smart spending reductions” and “measures that close corporate tax loopholes and wasteful subsidies and revenue from the very wealthiest among us.”
Despite their proposal, however, Reid definitively stated the cuts will still take place due to GOP opposition.
“My Republican colleagues are standing in the way of a solution,” he continued. “They only want cuts and more cuts. They are willing to sacrifice three quarters of a million American jobs rather than ask multi-millionaires to pay a penny more.”
CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
