Yes, John Boehner did say he agrees with President Obama: There is no immediate debt crisis.

After spending years pounding into the American psyche that "we have a huge debt crisis, John Boehner backtracked.   In an interview with Martha Raddich, he answered her clarifying question, "So you agree with President Obama?"

Boehner looked momentarily stricken, as though it pained him to say it;  then he said:  "Yes.  I agree with the President.  There is no immediate debt crisis."  He did go on to clarify that there is a severe long-range debt crisis, but it is not going to affect us in the immediate future.

How can they just change their answer like that?   Spin around on a dime and say the opposite to what they've been hammering for years -- through at least two presidential campaigns.

Well, according to some experts:  because it wasn't working for them politically.   They finally realized that the American people are not with them on all this austerity cuts in spending.

So Laurence O'Donnell went further on his tv show and said he wished Raddich had instead asked him if he agreed with Paul Krugman, who has been a rather lone voice proclaiming that there is no immediate debt crisis -- and so we should increase, not decrease government spending.   The job recovery in the private sector has been good;   it's in government jobs that there is no improvement but rather a continuing loss of public sector jobs.

Just look at the facts:   The deficit has declined steadily over the past few budget cycles.   The feared inflation and stagnant economy are not happening.   Recovery would be faster if we increased stimulus spending, but it is happening.

Rush Limbaugh sounded off in the opposite direction.  But who cares?  In fact, who really cares what John Boehner says, except that it may signal a readiness to reach a budget compromise where they actually give in on austerity and reach a grand bargain.

Ralph