Boehner: GOP needs better messaging

By Molly K. Hooper - 03/17/13 01:15 PM ET

The highest-ranking elected Republican thinks his party needs to articulate their message more effectively, not clean house of GOP leaders.

Asked if the party had grown “stale and moss covered” – in reference to a remark made by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) defended the GOP’s principles. 

“The issue with our party is pretty simple.  There's nothing wrong with the principles of our party,” said Boehner on ABC’s “This Week.”  “But Republicans have not done as an effective job as we should in terms of talking about our principles in terms that average people can appreciate.” 

Last week’s CPAC summit of prominent GOP and conservative activists highlighted many of the divisions in the party, as Republicans look to rebound after the devastating presidential and Senate losses in the 2012 election.

Boehner seized on the issue of “balancing the budget.”

“Balancing the budget, as an example would be good for American families. We've got to do a better job of helping people understand what our principles are in terms that they deal with every day,” Boehner said.

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