Obama and Congress - NYTimes.com Re "Republicans Make Counteroffer in Fiscal Talks" (news article, Dec. 4): Speaker John A. Boehner makes the rather presumptuous assertion that to prevent the pending fiscal crisis, President Obama just needs to send Congress a balanced bill that both houses of Congress can pass. While claiming to be a strict constitutionalist, Mr. Boehner seems to forget that the Constitution specifically gives the House of Representatives (which he reigns over) the sole responsibility for initiating all fiscal bills. It occurs to me that the speaker has it wrong. The president shouldn't be tasked with giving Congress a bill that both houses can pass; Congress has the responsibility to send the president a budget bill he can sign. The writer is the author of "Inside Politics in America: A View From the Outside."