Summers Hits Boehner, Defends 'Little Punk Staffers'

[Joanne98]

On Thursday, White House senior adviser Larry Summers came to the defense of "punk staffers" trying to write new financial regulatory reform legislation, pushing back against House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) who told the banking industry a day earlier that Wall Street shouldn't let such aides push it around.

"Don't let those little punk staffers take advantage of you, and stand up for yourselves," Boehner told that vase-full of wilting lilies known as the American Bankers Association on Wednesday.

"I do not think that those who want to address these issues are 'little punk staffers' who need to be stood up to," Summers said in a speech at the National Press Club.

Summers noted that the bank lobby is the last interest group in need of a bucking up, given that it has "spent one million dollars on lobbyists per member of Congress."

"At a moment when there are four lobbyists per member of the House and Senate working on this issue, we in the Administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves," reasoned Summers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/summers-hits-boehner-defe_n_504086.html