Small businesses are facing an enormous tax hike and our military will be hit with disastrous defense cuts on January 1st because “the president didn’t want to be inconvenienced by having a second debt limit vote before his reelection,” Speaker John Boehner said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” today. Speaker Boehner highlighted Republicans’ commitment to stopping Democrats’ small business tax hike and took the president to task for having “checked out“ when it comes to jobs and the looming fiscal cliff threatening the already-weak economy. Below are several excerpts from the interview:

Boehner: President Obama “Checked Out Last Labor Day,” Hasn’t Even Met with His Own Jobs Council:

“[W]hy wouldn’t he meet with his own jobs council? Why wouldn’t he spend some time over the last nine months talking to the leaders here in Congress about what we can do together to get our economy going again? The president checked out last Labor Day and he’s been on the campaign trail nonstop ever since. It’s all about him.  When the American people elect us because it’s about them.”

Boehner: Raising Taxes on Small Businesses in a “Fragile” Economy “A Monumental Mistake”:

“Ernst and Young came out with a study earlier this week that made clear that the president’s plan to tax the so called top two percent will cost our economy about 700,000 jobs.  We all know that almost half that income, from that top two percent, are small business people who run their businesses as pass-through entities. So they end up paying their business taxes as part of their personal tax. This is the wrong thing to do. … In this economy, as fragile as it is, raising taxes on Americans, especially American small business people, is a monumental mistake.”

Boehner: “House Is Going to Extend All of the Current Tax Rates,” “No Reason” for Democrats “To Hold Our Economy Hostage”: 

“The House is going to extend all of the current tax rates, we’ll do this in a couple of weeks, we’ll send it over to the Senate, and hope that they act.  There’s no reason to hold our economy hostage because no one knows what the tax rates are going to be come next year.  They could act as early as September.”

Boehner: “Reason We Have” Looming Tax Hikes & Arbitrary Defense Cuts “Is That the President Didn’t Want to Be Inconvenienced”:

“Listen, the president promised the American people the sequester would never happen.  The reason we have the sequester, is that the president didn’t want to be inconvenienced by having a second debt limit vote before his reelection. And he and Senator Reid pushed to have this automatic sequester if the super committee couldn’t do its job.  They also committed to help get the super committee to produce $1.2 trillion worth of cuts and frankly didn’t help. ... the first half of the cuts, $487 billion, I think is acceptable, and the Pentagon has agreed that we can do that.  But I don’t think we can go much further without hollowing out our force as Leon Panetta described it and not meeting our number one responsibility which is providing for the security of the American people.”