Political Ruminations

Morning Quote: John Boehner

Referring to the President Obama’s inaugural address, Speaker of the House John Boehner, as quoted by The Hill:

“Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans. So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party.

And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”

No, Mr. Boehner, it would be very difficult to miss the fact that you and your House full of Republican idiots reprobates are doing an awesome job of annihilating your party all on your very own.

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television, President Obama said that Republican math doesn’t add up:

“It's not me being stubborn; it's not me being partisan. It's just a matter of math.”

If you decide to watch the interview, let me just note that it seems to me that the interviewer, Julianna Goldman, is sympathetic to John Boehner’s recalcitrant, do-nothing Republican House.

Bob Woodward’s New Book

Woodward twisted himself into a knot to lay some of the blame at President Obama’s feet. But seriously, if you were paying attention at the time of the debt ceiling crisis, you know exactly why the whole debt ceiling mess happened in the first place, and you know that it was all a part of the takeover of Congress by the infusion of the Tea Party Crazy People, all of whom were eager to follow the directive of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to defeat Obama at all costs.

That said, I believe that Obama handled it as well as anyone could without simply giving in to the Tea Party terrorists (and the ENTIRE membership of the Republican House in 2010-2011 was on their knees to the Tea Party fearing for their jobs).

Bob Cesca on why Woodward is wrong:

Elsewhere, Bob Woodward is getting ready to release a new book which details last summer’s remarkably insane debt ceiling negotiation between the White House and the congressional Republicans (freshly infused with midterm tea party radicals). Woodward appears to be pushing a point of view that President Obama bungled his way through the proceedings.

He points to an event that occurred at the 11th hour when John Boehner refused to accept the president’s proposal for tax increases as an additional savings in the debt reduction package, even though the president had agreed to politically-damaging entitlement cuts. The talks collapsed and Woodward, echoing a Harry Reid staffer, blasts the White House for not having a “Plan B.” I’m not exactly sure what a “Plan B” might look like considering a Republican House that vowed to not only vote against everything the president has wanted, no matter how many concessions he makes, but to also bring down his presidency by sabotaging the economy.

The only two options beyond fair, reasonable, adult negotiation were 1) letting the default occur, or 2) letting the childish and destructive tea party have their way. The former is inconceivable to any responsible leader. In fact…….

Check it out for reminders of the debt ceiling crisis.

Morning Quote: Obama Campaign to Romney-Ryan

The Obama Campaign strikes back at Romney-Ryan for their outrage and silly posturing over Joe Biden’s “chains” remarks, and refuses to capitulate to the Republicans who are calling for Obama to apologize for Biden’s remarks, emphasis mine:

“For months, Speaker Boehner, Congressman Ryan, and other Republicans have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy. Since then, the Vice President has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. Today’s comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families. We find the Romney campaign’s outrage over the Vice President’s comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate’s stump speech questioning the President’s patriotism. Now, let’s return to that ‘substantive’ debate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promised 72 hours ago, but quickly abandoned.”

Jason Easley, emphasis mine:

The Romney campaign has been doing their best to gin up outrage over Biden’s, “in chains” remark today. In fact they are trying to get any controversy going that doesn’t involve discussing how Mitt Romney feels about Paul Ryan’s record, Ryan’s budget, Ryan’s stance on Medicare, or Paul Ryan in general.

Nailed it.

Morning Quote: John Boehner

Oh dear. House Republican aka Majority Leader John Boehner has evidently taken to blaming President Obama for the weather:

“The president continues to blame anyone and everyone for the drought but himself.”

Maybe Boehner thinks the president should have done a rain dance….or something...

The president has ordered federal aid for drought stricken farmers, and reminds everyone that Paul Ryan is one of the House Republicans who have blocked disaster aid to farmers.

Via Erik Loomis

Morning Quote: John Boehner

At a June 3o fundraiser, Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Oh) had scant praise for the unlovable Mitt Romney:

“"The American people probably aren't going to fall in love with Mitt Romney.”

John Boehner Vows to Repeal Obamacare

Yesterday, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Oh) vowed to repeal the healthcare law if it's upheld by the Supreme Court:

“We've made it pretty clear and I'll make it clear one more time: If the court does not strike down the entire law, the House will move to repeal what's left of it.”

Really Mr. Boehner? Boehner knows full well that this is purely bluster since the House can take no action on this that would become law until after the election, and then only if the 113th Congress is also a Republican congress.

So Boehner is bluffing, but that won’t be the case if Romney wins. If Romney wins, the first thing Republicans will do is repeal the ACA.

That said, we need to thoroughly educate the public on the benefits of the ACA so that it becomes unpopular to cry “repeal”. And more than that, we need to make sure that not only does President Obama win a second term, but that the House and Senate are both under Democratic control by a healthy majority!

Morning Quote: John Boehner is a Damn Liar

In a private meeting with House Republicans on Thursday morning, Speaker of the House John Boehner had this to say about the 2012 election:

“ "Let's call bulls--- bulls---. This election is about jobs, jobs, jobs. ”

Yes. And House and Senate Republicans have done everything they possibly could to prevent a greater upsurge in the economy by refusing to deal with anything except for far right social issues, and ending Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

In fact, according to Steve Benen , House Republicans went from that meeting to a vote on yet another anti-abortion bill:

Boehner and his caucus will demonstrate their laser-like focus on jobs today with a vote on another anti-abortion bill.

The Grover Norquist Congress

Referring to the fact that almost all (literally) Republicans have signed Grover Norquist’s pledge not to raise taxes, Harry Reid called the 112th Congress the ‘Grover Norquist Congress’ on the Senate floor today:

“John Boehner could never go against Grover. Grover Norquist. This is the 'Grover Norquist Congress,' because Republicans shake in their boots.”

And don’t be fooled when you land on the page Norquist calls ‘What is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?’. The only people Norquist is interested in protecting from taxes are the millionaires and billionaires.

The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday criticized Republicans in a 20-minute floor speech for blocking any bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction for the last several years, which he said was due in large part to their allegiance to Grover Norquist.

Reid and other Democrats have routinely complained about the pledge — taken by most Republicans — through Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, not to support proposals that raise taxes. That GOP position prevented a bipartisan agreement to cut the deficit that includes the Democratic proposal to raise new tax revenues.

List of Pledge Signers in the 112th Congress
List of State Signers of the Pledge
List of the 2012 Election Pledge Signers

Morning Quote: John Boehner

In an interview with Fox News that will air today, House Majority Leader, John Boehner (R-Oh), said that he believes Republicans have a 1 in 3 chance of losing the House in the November elections:

“I would say that there is a two in three chance that we win control of the House again but there's a one in three chance that we could lose and I'm being myself, frank. We've got a big challenge and we've got work to do.”

I haven’t looked at a poll in a couple of weeks, but my guess is that the chance of Republicans losing the House is greater than that. At least one would hope Americans have been paying attention to the lunacy running amuck in that branch of our government.

Adding....in January, Boehner said Republicans "would rule the House for years".

House GOP Votes to End Medicare

The House passed Ryan’s 2013 budget resolution yesterday by a 228-191 vote along party lines, with all Democrats voting against, and 10 GOP defections. The Hill:

This year's vote was by a narrower margin than the 2011 vote that passed Ryan's budget 235-193. This year and last, all Democrats voted "no."

An increase in Republican "no" votes was expected this year, as many have grown frustrated with their inability to achieve more aggressive budget savings, due in large part to opposition in the Democratic-led Senate and the White House.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seemed to address that frustration indirectly on Thursday as he praised Ryan for putting forward a budget that represents a "real vision of what we were to do if we get more control here in this town."

The budget would privatize the Medicare program, ending the popular entitlement program as we know it. TPM on the vote to end Medicare:

For the second year in a row, Republicans voted Thursday to effectively dismantle Medicare — this time, just over seven months before a presidential election. And Democrats are salivating at the political opportunity, eager to hang the vote around the neck of the party’s presidential nominee and its candidates in tough congressional races.

“A year ago, nobody was talking about Democrats having a shot at the House. Now we’re talking about it,” a Democratic leadership aide told TPM after the vote, a party-line 228-191 that didn’t win a single Dem.

The blueprint by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan is similar to his controversial Medicare plan last year, in that it ends the health insurance guarantee for seniors and replaces the program with a subsidized insurance-

Although the bill is unlikely to get past the Senate, it could mean more threats by the GOP of a government shutdown later in the year.

 

Morning Quote: John Boehner

“We got 435 members. It's just a slice of America, it really is. We got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here, and some of the dumbest. We got some of the best people you'd ever meet, and some of the raunchiest. We've got 'em all.”

- Speaker of the House, John Boehner, describes the membership of the House during an interview with Peggy Noonan.

Among other things, Boehner needs a lesson in grammar.

Via Taegan Goddard

Maddow: Boehner and Cantor Really Bad at Running the House

Steve Benen gives us some of  the gory details on the Boehner-Cantor disasters in the making:

About a month ago, we learned that "behind-the-scenes fighting" between the offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner had grown so intense, senior aides had to organize a "truce."

The fact that such a step was even necessary seems rather bizarre -- the Speaker's office and Majority Leader's office, as a rule, should not be at war with one another -- and reinforces the perception that House Republicans aren't exactly ready for prime time when it comes to governing in the midst of trying times.

As it turns out, however, Cantor aides haven't just been engaged in an ongoing conflict with Boehner aides; they've also been clashing with one another.

The sudden departure of trusted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor aide Brad Dayspring late last week followed a heated, nearly physical confrontation with another senior Cantor staffer over the unveiling of a major GOP initiative.

The dramatic exit of Dayspring -- one of the House Republican Conference's savviest and most controversial operatives -- came after a clash with another top Cantor aide, Mike Ference, over the rollout of a jobs bill that's set to hit the floor this week.

Watch:

Maybe the two opposing Republican teams, Boehner v. Cantor, will annihilate one and other....we can dream.

Morning Quote: George Will

“Mr. Boehner comes out and says, Rush's language was inappropriate. Using a salad fork for your entree, that's inappropriate. Not this stuff... And it was depressing, because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they're afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

- Conservative Washington Post columnist, George Will, on ‘This Week’, deriding Republican leaders for their miserably inadequate response to Rush Limbaugh, who called Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown who testified before a House committee regarding contraception, a “slut” and a “prostitute”.

While President Obama has denounced Limbaugh’s comments as “reprehensible,”  Republican leaders and GOP presidential candidates have used far milder language.

Morning Quote: Lobbying Firm on OWS

“Leading Democratic party strategists have begun to openly discuss the benefits of embracing the growing and increasingly organized Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement to prevent Republican gains in Congress and the White House next year. We have seen this process of adopting extreme positions and movements to increase base voter turnout, including in the 2005-2006 immigration debate. This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street firms. If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.

It shouldn't be surprising that the Democratic party or even President Obama's re-election team would campaign against Wall Street in this cycle. However, the bigger concern should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies - and might start running against them too.

Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protesters and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. Both the radical left and the radical right are channeling broader frustration about the state of the economy and share a mutual anger over TARP and other perceived bailouts. This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

- A quote from the Washington lobbying firm’s (Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford - CLGC) proposal to conduct a smear campaign against OWS and politicians supporting OWS, and addressed to one of their major clients, the American Bankers Association.

* It’s worth noting that two of the partners in this lobbying firm, were aides to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and one of the partners, Sam Geduldig, is a fundraiser for Mitt Romney.

Adding........there is already, no doubt, a strong and concerted effort by the 1% in concert with Republican politicians, to discredit the OWS movement.

Via Chris Hayes

Morning Quote: John Boehner

“The top 1 percent pay 38 percent of the income taxes in America. You know, how much more do you want them to pay? ”

- Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to Christiane Amanpour on “This Week’ yesterday, employing the ubiquitous right wing meme, the "Poor Rich People Mantra" in defense of Republican policies.

Boehner also implied that the Occupy Wall Street protests were about class warfare, and yet, in 2010, the wealthiest 1% of U.S. citizens held 70% of all U.S. financial assets. 70%.  And still, the 1%  don’t pay a fair share of taxes, skating by through the use of a tax code which favors the rich.

Day 2 - House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, Refuses to Hold a Vote on American Jobs - the White House Responds

This is your daily reminder. On October 3, 2011, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) made it clear that he would not allow a vote in the House on the American Jobs Act.

WHERE are the JOBS, Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Cantor?? The Washington Post:

After Cantor said Monday that House Republicans would not bring Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act to the floor for a vote, the White House struck back by releasing excerpts of the prepared remarks Obama was planning to deliver at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite, Texas, on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’d like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what in this jobs bill he doesn’t believe in,” the president is planning to say. “Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help veterans?”

He will also ask Cantor to “at least put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where every Member of Congress stands.

Video: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

Video: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

                               To read the transcript, click here.

Full Text Transcript: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

                               To watch the video, click here.

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT: Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act -- Cincinnati, OH

2:55 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Hello, Cincinnati!  (Applause.)  Well, it is good to see all of you.  It is good to be back in Cincinnati.  (Applause.)  I have to say I drove by the Bengals’ practice -- (laughter.)  And I was scouting out some plays in case they play the Bears -- (laughter.)  Did I hear somebody boo the Bears?

AUDIENCE:  Booo!  (Laughter.) 

Quote of the Day II

Rachel Maddow on Speaker of the House John Boehner’s (R-OH) reaction to President Obama’s announcement that he has a jobs plan, soon to be released:

“This is what John Boehner is like as speaker of the House. The president announces job creation ideas that the speaker rejects. The president announces he`ll release a whole new big job creation plan, the speaker says plan? Where is this plan? Dude, that`s the point. That`s the announcement. When somebody says here comes this plan, expect it on this date -- you don’t respond with where is the plan? Who even does that?”

Watch (the segment that contains the quote is at approx. 7:11):

Quote of the Day

Last night, the Senate waited for the Boehner bill to pass the House so Reid could then send it in to oblivion, but, Boehner (the Speaker of the House who can’t control his own caucus) didn’t have the votes to pass it in the House, and so cancelled the vote at the last minute. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) relayed the status of the bill that wasn’t, rather appropriately:

“I apologize to everyone for the late hour, but we've been waiting for the House to conduct their business and they're having trouble conducting it.”

Quote of the Day II

Boehner to House Republicans earlier this morning:

“Get your ass in line.”

Meaning, of course, ‘support my plan’, says Speaker Boehner. You know, the Speaker of the House who can't control his own caucus.

AP Photo

Morning Quote: Speaker of the House John Boehner

After Republicans once again walked out on debt ceiling negotiations yesterday, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) ignores the polls and the press, and lies like the scourge that he is during his subsequent press conference:

“The American people will not tolerate a clean increase in the debt limit.”

Watch the video:

Adding........ Bob Cesca rightly points out  "Oh yes they will. We’ve tolerated it dozens of times — even all those times John Boehner voted for clean increases in the debt limit.".

Quote of the Day

The America John Boehner grew up in:

“I think John Boehner’s complaint that Barack Obama is “snuffing out the America I grew up in” was very telling as to what politics is really about. Back when Boehner was a kid, tax rates were much higher, gays were in the closet, women were in the kitchen, nobody listened to hip-hop, and a black man in the White House was a science fiction scenario. He feels nostalgic about it, and would probably be mad as heck if hippie locavores started planting vegetable gardens all over his neighborhood.”

Is the GOP Engaging in Intentional Economic Sabotage - Terrorism?

The reason they would do this is more than clear. They want to defeat President Obama, and what better way than to screw with the economy. I think we could easily define them as sociopaths.

There is strong evidence to support intentional economic sabotage, some of which is being touted by old school Conservatives themselves. Andrew Sullivan in a piece entitled “Boehner's Economic Terrorism”:

We have a potential catastrophe of national default, an event whose consequences are unknowable but which could quite easily wreck the US and global economies, profoundly damage people's savings, raise interest rates and destroy jobs for a very long time.[…]

Sullivan on the options available to the president:

[…..]It seems to me there are two options the president can take. The first is what you are told to do when a criminal or terrorist holds a gun to your head. You surrender.

The point of economic blackmail is that it works. If you have a scintilla of public responsibility and you hold public office, you cannot allow default. And so you give them everything they want. You announce this while declaring you abhor the package but have to back it for the sake of the national interest in preventing catastrophe. You detail and expose the Republican priorities far more aggressively than in the past. You blame the performance of the economy entirely on them from now on out. And you run on a platform of shared sacrifice - of revenue-enhancing tax reform and tax hikes for millionaires. Then you run against the Republicans as hard as you can.

The second option is to bypass them, invoke the 14th Amendment, and order the Treasury to keep paying its debts because an extraordinarily reckless faction wants to destroy the American economy in order to save it (and pin the subsequent double-dip recession on Obama). Bruce Bartlett outlines the mechanism here. He has some other ideas for coping here.

What does this say about not only the modern GOP, but our system itself?

What you probably cannot do is negotiate with [the] economic equivalent of terrorists. What Cantor and Boehner are doing is essentially letting the world know they have an economic WMD in their possession. And it will go off if you do not give them everything they want, with no negotiation possible. That's the nature of today's GOP. It needs to be destroyed before it can recover.

These people need to be defeated, and in my opinion, charged with something akin to treason.

Debunking Right-Wing Memes

According to Rep. Paul Ryan and other Republicans such as Speaker Boehner, and House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, non-defense discretionary spending has increased by 80% under the Obama administration.

Except it hasn’t.

Politifact, emphasis mine:

An assortment of Republicans -- including speaker Speaker Boehner of Ohio and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia -- have used Ryan’s numbers to exaggerate spending increases since Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009.[……]

The White House budget office shows non-defense discretionary spending rose 26 percent from 2008 to 2010. The CBO, which Hurt and other Republicans cite as their source, puts the increase at 23.7 percent.
We rate his [Ryan, Hurt, et al] statement False.

Paul Krugman, emphasis mine:

It’s completely false. As anyone who knows how to read federal statistics should have known, the real number — including the stimulus — is 26 percent. And it’s now in the process of falling off.

The discretionary spending falsehood is a key part of the claim that Obama has presided over a vast expansion of government; as I’ve tried to explain, the only real area of rapid growth has been in safety net programs that spend more when there is high unemployment.

As a point of reference, Krugman’s initial post on this meme in May.

The Republican Party is absolutely unswerving in its slavish devotion to dissemination of lies and bigger lies in order to propagate a fascist agenda.

And they hate the black guy.

Morning Quote: Defaulting on the National Debt

The GOP House, led by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), has been making a lot of noise recently, spinning their efforts to blackmail Democrats in to deep Medicare cuts by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, as something less than the economic disaster it would certainly be.

Today, during a panel discussion of former CBO heads, well known Republican economist, Douglas Holtz-Eakin was pointed in his opinion of this scenario:

“Little defaults, big defaults; default's a bad idea period and there should be no one who believes otherwise.

The idea that somehow it's a pro-growth strategy to raise interest rates on a permanent basis in the United States is just crazy. We need to grow at this point more than anything else.”

According to TPM, “Holtz-Eakin has supported the GOP's efforts to secure cuts in exchange for raising he debt ceiling, but made clear that at the end of the day it had to be raised. He cited numerous dangers from a default scenario, such as its effect on the bond market.  He added that the market would not be easily reassured even after a brief default, likening it to wrecking one's house and then asking for a second mortgage on the property.”

The CBO director under President Reagan, Rudy Penner, was also pointed in his opinion regarding the idea of allowing a default to happen:

Why does Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner Hate Poor People?

Now this, this is rich.

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), under scrutiny by Catholic scholars, called out for his lack of concern for the poor. Think Progress:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ahead of the visit, dozens of faculty members from the school and other other Catholic universities are writing to Boehner — who is himself an observant Catholic — challenging his willingness to “gut” social programs while protecting “new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” of caring for the poor, they write:

Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.

The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

Wrapped Up

~ Employment report spurs battle over private versus public jobs

~ If you’re interested in the 2012 GOP primary race, Peter Hamby on Jon Huntsman:

Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman told a room of South Carolina Republicans on Saturday that he could finalize his thinking about the GOP presidential race before the month is out, multiple sources present for the closed-door meeting told CNN.

~ Also. Huntsman wooing GOP governors?

~ Newt Gingrich, the proverbial sidekick to P.T. Barnum aka Donald Trump, will announce his run for the GOP presidential nomination on Wednesday via Facebook and Twitter. Classy guy. This should be fun.

~ Adam Serwer takes on Ross Douhat “No, killing of Bin Laden does not represent `continuity’ with Bush”

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca on the “accomplishments” of the 112th Congress thus far:

Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and John Boehner have introduced ideologically far-right, inconsequential and symbolic bills that kill Planned Parenthood and NPR. They've passed legislation that cuts spending for pregnant women. They've passed legislation that magically circumvents the constitutional lawmaking process. They refuse to raise taxes on the rich while trying to gut Medicaid and kill Medicare, even though supermajorities of Americans support both of these crucial healthcare programs -- including majority support from tea party Republicans.

Blogging the Impending Government Shutdown-Shutdown Averted!

Fri., Apr. 8 10:47 PM  It looks like there will be  IS a deal. Both a short-term resolution and a longer term funding bill. Waiting for Sen. Reid to make a statement.

House Speaker John Boehner outlined the parameters of a long-term funding deal, telling his members in a closed-door meeting, "This is the best deal we could get out of them," according to a lawmaker in the room who asked not to be identified. The deal is still not official, Boehner cautioned, but in a sign things are coming to a close, the House is preparing for a 5-6 day short-term continuing resolution with $3 billion in cuts, he told members according to the lawmaker. The meeting is still underway. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was scheduled to address the Senate at 10:30 p.m. EDT.

And from The Hill:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has informed Republican lawmakers that negotiators have a struck deal to avert a government shutdown, according to GOP Rep. Mike Rogers (Ala.).

Boehner told his conference Friday night that the House would likely vote on a short-term funding bill before midnight that would fund the government for four or five days.

The long-term bill would include $39 billion in spending cuts from current levels.

Adding…according to ABC's Jake Tapper, the "deal is done & signed off on.$38.5b in cuts, no elimination of Planned Parenthood funding".

Boehner Lies - Says Spending Cuts Will Lead to Jobs

In a tweet today, Boehner tried again to tie the House GOP’s draconian spending cuts to job creation.

Nothing could be further from the truth, because we know that the horrific cuts will lead to many jobs lost, and higher unemployment.

Adding……Boehner, the lying corporate tool, just tweeted another lie designed to prop up the one above. Bastard.

To help create a better environment for job growth, far more spending must be cut, & harmful DC regs stopped.

Also….shouldn’t he be doing some actual work?? Not to mention the fact that he would be far smarter just to shut the hell up. Sheesh……

Morning Quote: Boehner Lies

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last weekend, Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), characterized public employees as a public enemy that has  a “machine gun at the heads of local officials”:

Governors are trying to find ways to balance their budgets, which they’re required to do. In some of these states you’ve got collective bargaining laws that are so weighted in favor of the public employees that there’s almost no bargaining. We’ve given them a machine gun and put it right at the heads of the local officials and they really have their hands tied. And I think what you’re seeing in these states is they’re trying to bring some balance to these negotiations that when you look at the pay of public employees today and you look at their retirement benefits they are way out of line with many other working Americans. So all of these Governors are going to have big challenges and it’s not just going to be the Governors. You’re going to see every political jurisdiction in America grapple with what do we need to do as opposed to what do we want to do. All of them are going to go through a very difficult period.

Watch:

Boehner lies. Think Progress:

Boehner is sorely mistaken about the role of public employee unions in state budget crises. In 80 percent of the states that do not have collective bargaining rights for public employees, the budget crises are worse than in Wisconsin. Also, public employees in Wisconsin have already agreed to reduce their salaries — which, contra Boehner, are not “way out of line” with other working Americans.

Aside from contradicting Boehner’s plea for more civility earlier this year, his characterization of machine-gun wielding public employee unions belies a popular conservative talking point that nobody is trying to defame public workers. “No one’s demonizing or vilifying public employees,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) yesterday. “People are not denigrating state workers,” said Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R).

Quote of the Day

Twitter user, @JackDeTate to John Boehner (R-OH), Speaker of the House:

It's Feb 23rd, 8:49 Pacific: @SpeakerBoehner where are the Jobs? Your a disappointment to the Nation and a disgrace to your office.

Adding......not that Boehner cares. He's much too busy trying to distance himself from the impending government shutdown, which will be the result of Americans electing a Republican Congress that purely sucks.

Government Shutdown Likely

Yesterday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) rejected a stopgap measure that would have prevented a government shutdown due to the inability of lawmakers to come to an agreement on the federal budget.

As the clock ticks down to March 4, when the current stopgap funding measure expires, Boehner shot down what many considered to be the surest way to keep government agencies running while the two chambers hammer out the differences between their respective spending bills.

"We are hopeful that the Senate will take up the House‑passed bill that comes out of here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, whenever it is, and we hope that they will move it," he said at a press conference. "But I am not going to move any kind of short‑term CR at current levels. When we say we're going to cut spending, read my lips: We are going to cut spending."

Boehner’s remarks provoked a swift reaction from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who said that Boehner is threatening a shutdown with out being willing to negotiate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retorted that Boehner was resorting "to threats of a shutdown without any negotiation." Officials added that Democrats would seek a short-term bill without any cut in spending levels, a position sharply at odds with Boehner's.

The sparring occurred as the House labored to complete work on veto-threatened legislation to cut more than $61 billion from the budget year that's more than a third over. That bill also would provide funding to keep the government operating until Sept. 30.

Today, Jerry Hartz, a senior aide to Nancy Pelosi, said that a government shutdown "is more likely than not".

Hartz reportedly weighed in on the contentious issue at a routine meeting with Democratic chiefs of staff. According to Politico, his remarks were unsolicited. One unidentified chief of staff told the outlet the remarks appeared to reflect a "genuine" concern.

Nancy Pelosi on what this action would say about Republicans:

So much is at stake. It's a failure to say we've taken the leadership of the United States and the first thing we're going to do is shut down the government to the detriment of our people [and] to our security.

Related: Results of 1995 Government Shutdown Should Act as a Warning to Republicans

No Comparison: Boehner Vs Pelosi

The record of Speaker of the House John Boehner [R-OH] after thirty days of herding cats in no way compares to the 30-day record of former speaker, Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] - emphasis mine:

Some Republicans have suggested that the difficulties that Boehner and the rest of the new House leadership have encountered, such as a backlash over spending cuts, are part of a natural learning curve. But when Democrats took control of the House under President George W. Bush in 2007, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn't have that experience.

Gaveled in on Jan. 5, 2011, Boehner presided over the passage of four bills during his first month as speaker, with a total of just 25 votes. The most notable of those was a repeal the president's signature health care law -- a move that was viewed as a strictly symbolic gesture, as it is not expected to pass or even get a vote in the Senate.

By contrast, Pelosi, gaveled in on Jan. 4, 2007, led the Democratic Congress in passing 19 bills during her first month as speaker, including all six of the bills targeted in her "First 100 Hours" agenda.

Why the discrepancy? Well, part of it is that Democratic Congress of 2007 spent more of its first month in session: As of Feb. 1, 2007, Congress had been in session for 16 days, 134 hours, and 50 minutes, according to the Congressional Record.

By contrast, this year Republican leadership determined the House would be in session for only 11 days, 62 hours, and 5 minutes of its first month, according to the Congressional Record. Some of that time was spent reading the U.S. Constitution on the House floor; original parts of the Constitution that were later amended, including sections referencing slavery, were omitted.

You know, this was entirely predictable since Boehner is better known for his nightly visits to his favorite DC bars, and his penchant for working bank hours, then he is for hard work.

John Boehner Refuses C-Span Cameras Access to House

The man who shrieked “more transparency” endlessly during the debate about health care reform, is the same man who said “I agree that enhancing opportunities for media coverage can make the House more open and transparent to the American people,". So what happened to all that transparency talk?

The fact is that Republicans, including the Speaker of the House, John Boehner [R-OH], are all for transparency when they are not in power.

From Talking Points Memo:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who yesterday told the Radio-Television Correspondents Association saying he's willing to increase media access in the House, has denied C-SPAN's request to allow its cameras to cover House floor debates.

"I believe the American people -- and the dignity and decorum of the United States House of Representatives -- are best served by the current system of televised proceedings provided by the House Recording Studio," Boehner wrote to C-SPAN Chairman Brian Lamb.

C-SPAN wrote Boehner back in November, urging he allow their cameras to televise House floor debates. Currently, the cameras used to cover House floor debates are owned and operated by Congress, and reactionary shots are prohibited.

While Boehner made no promises then, his spokesman said, "Rep. Boehner is committed to making the House more transparent and accountable."

BREAKING…John Boehner Cheats on His Wife

Oh the irony is too delicious.The National Enquirer gave Speaker Boehner an early Valentine’s Day present contained in a front page expose of the orange speaker.

Now, I don’t read the National Enquirer, and I normally would not have posted about anything found on its pages, but….

The blogger who originally broke this story in September, Mike Stark of StarkReports.com, is a highly credible kinda guy, so I felt comfortable posting this NE bit.

Stark has updated his story. He recorded  the refusal to comment by the woman involved, Lisbeth Lyons, a lobbyist for the paper industry, for the update. Also, be sure to watch the vid of the conversation Stark had with Sam Seder on Sam’s show. Mike Stark:

Wonder how well Boehner’s zero-tolerance pledge regarding corruption will hold up when it comes out that several hundred paper-making jobs were lost in his district and he refused to do anything about it at the same time he was sleeping with a lobbyist for the printing industry that was very happy to get their cheap paper from China.

Watch:

How long until Boehner is brought down, forced to resign? Or will that even happen? And WHO was the source who originally told Mike Stark about this “situation”, and which political party did they belong to?

Taking odds……personally, I think it could have been the eminently obnoxious and driven, Eric Cantor.

Morning Quote: Matt Taibbi

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi describes the Speaker of the House, John Boehner [R-OH]:

The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done.

“K Street toady” is a term that could be used to describe many in Washington’s political class, but none more than John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell.

Morning Quote: Matt Taibbi

Another great quote from Matt Taibbi’s evisceration of Speaker of the House, John Boehner [R-OH] in Rolling Stone:

Boehner, in short, has for most of his career been a Bush Republican, i.e., a corporate schmoozer and a remorseless spender of taxpayer money for whom the notion of small government is just something to say when the cameras are on, or when the public money in question might go to poor people or immigrants or other such unlikely golfers. This was a fine way to be during the 2000s, back when America was still unfucked enough to enjoy a phony real estate boom and launch recreational wars of conquest in the Middle East — but in this new decade, post-Bush and post-crash, there is serious doubt on the Hill that a reflexive favor-churner like Boehner will be able to keep delivering Republican votes to lavish taxpayer money on his industry pals.