Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, who had a role in the House leadership change when he defeated Majority Whip Eric Cantor in the 2014 GOP primary, says the next House speaker must put his plan on paper — and follow through.
Brat's unexpected defeat of Cantor caused House Speaker John Boehner to delay his resignation from Congress for a year, Boehner said in announcing his departure last week.
Brat said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" that he admires Boehner personally, but that neither he nor Cantor had followed through on their promise to reverse several gains made by Democrats.
"Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor made a pledge to America to replace Obamacare, keep the budget caps, three days to repeal, to rebuild, reform Fannie and Freddie, enforce sanctions in Iran, roll back non-discretionary spending," Brat said.
"So who set the expectations? The speaker did, and Eric Cantor set the expectations when they were running for office."
Boehner criticized those in the more conservative wing, calling them
"false prophets." Brat, a seminary graduate, said Boehner and Cantor put their promises on paper, which he compared to the Ten Commandments, then didn't follow through.
"I ran on the
Republican Creed in Virginia and I'm very serious about putting your ideas on paper," Brat said, adding he will support for speaker whoever most abides by those principles.
Brat said accusations that conservatives want to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding are false.
"The Planned Parenthood films are awful, but that's a shiny object that the end of the debate," he said. "Our own team and our own leadership announced we were going to break the budget caps four months ago. Planned Parenthood only came up about a month ago."
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