Tag Archives: john boehner

Reid Has One Other Target For His Obstruction

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Life’s not too bad if you’re Harry Reid.

He can fold Boehner any time he wants, after all.  He did it on the debt ceiling debate and for the 2011 continuing resolution.  Now, we have more fun on that point with this latest CR, another bill that wouldn’t have to exist if Reid had done his job and produced a budget.  Yet this isn’t a factor, because he’ll just whisper some hint about a government shutdown, and Boehner will run roughshod over his own caucus to capitulate once again.  He doesn’t even have to do anything substantive.

Is he taking advantage of a spineless Boehner?  Certainly, but the man’s not stupid.  He’s not simply trying to run spending through the House.  Reid has one other target in mind when he does this, and it’s the one whose enthusiasm caused the 2010 shellacking of his party:  The Tea Party activists.  Or to be more specific, the enthusiasm of the Tea Party activists.

Whether he knows it or not, Boehner is in the process of helping Reid and the Democrats close the enthusiasm gap.  He is bending over backwards to render any assertion made by any Republican that they’ll fight for their base into a cause for bitter laughter.  Every time Boehner runs scared because he thinks the Republicans will be blamed for a shutdown, he justifies the assertion that no, they didn’t get it, they learned nothing from 2006, and there’s no point in supporting the status quo Republican Party.

If Boehner and the Republican ‘leadership’ don’t figure this out come 2012 and on top of it, nominate someone like Romney, a man who spent years demonstrating that he won’t take a stand in the face of Democrat adversity, there won’t be an enthusiasm gap.  The Republicans will have proven themselves to be clueless and terrified, and no one will be in any hurry to support them.  They will have spent two years demonstrating cowardice against a party whose policies they’re supposed to be reversing.  That can be used to get rid of more RINO dead weight, but that won’t remove Reid or Obama from their jobs.

So, Reid has no reason to act in any way other than the one he is now.  Not only does he get what he wants short term, but he demoralizes the Republican base in the process.  And he can keep doing it, because it’s not as though Boehner is in any hurry to find his spine.

News link credit:  Hot Air.

Two Kudos For Boehner On The Debt Ceiling and Recess Appointments

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I don’t find cause to give the Republicans much credit yet, but today is a time that it’s genuinely due.  Boehner steps up twice and is due for some real recognition.

1.)  He has Obama’s debt ceiling vote right here:  The house defeated a debt ceiling increase by 318-97.  While the bill was brought up under rules that required a two-thirds vote to pass, a number of Democrats voted for it anyway.  Not among them were their leadership.

It was likely brought up under the two-thirds rule to keep it clean of amendments.  No amendments, just the up or down vote on the debt ceiling.  It was one big brutal planned crash-and-burn to show Obama that he wasn’t going to get his clean bill.  Plus, Boehner left Obama dangling on the wrong side of the issue.  Well done, Mr. Speaker.

2.)  Recess, schmecess:  The House didn’t pass a resolution giving the Senate permission to adjourn.  While this sounds fairly mundane, it means Reid gets to hold his infamous pro-forma sessions again.  These sessions will block recess appointments…by his own President.

After some of the truly out of control loons Obama has recess appointed, not the least of which is that vile piece of work he put on the NLRB, this is a welcome bit of initiative by Boehner.  While this will have to end come campaign season at the latest, Obama will be putting utter loons in office during an election cycle should he choose to take advantage of that.  This will hurt him and the Democrats both at the time they can least afford it.

Once again, kudos to the Speaker.

It’s a few good steps in the right direction.  Boehner is getting with the game.  Let’s hope it’s not a fluke.

Big Talk From Boehner On the Debt Ceiling

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This seems a shade too familiar.

Boehner is talking big on the debt ceiling.  In exchange for raising it, he wants at least as many trillions in cuts as he adds to the credit limit.  He also said he would cut $100 billion from last year’s budget during the election season, and didn’t deliver so well.

Schumer’s babbling about Boehner needing to act like an adult on this, which is codespeak for ‘continue the unsustainable status quo’ in Washington here lately.  Schumer has nothing to say and a lot of it, as usual.  By analogy, if anyone called their credit card company and told them they should do the adult thing and raise the spending limit so they wouldn’t worry about the balance being paid, would the response be dumbfounded silence or mocking laughter?  That, and the Democrats’ record on spending is hardly stellar.

There’s no telling if or how far Boehner may fall short on this after all is said and done, but at least he’s on the right track.  Spending caps and balanced budget amendments are the wrong way to go.  We need real cuts right now to get our fiscal house in order, and the sooner the better.

On the other hand, if this is just part of some new pattern of overpromise and underdeliver on Boehner’s part, he’s going to have an unhappy 2012.

Why Would Hoyer Help Boehner On The Budget?

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Boehner passed the budget deal with confortable margins in the House today.  He’s still doing his victory spin and throwing out excuses of how this was the best they could do.  The bottom line is that this is the result of typical establishment milquetoast.

The big question is why Hoyer would help him with 81 votes today.  The trick to understanding that is to think like a Democrat:

  1. Votes like this are a good way to rebuild the myth of the moderate Democrat after Obama and Pelosi decimated it.  This budget deal does next to nothing to cut spending.  But it’s great optics after Nancy Pelosi insisted she had nothing to do with it.  It might even have been planned.
  2. If Boehner continues to combine the line “this is the best we can do” with short-circuiting his Tea Party freshmen using Hoyer’s Democrat block, then come 2012 there will be no Tea Party support for most Republicans.  If Boehner is willing to go around the Tea Party over and over again to accomplish token votes and pass disguised Dem-lite legislation, the Republicans will look like even bigger backstabbing losers than they did in 2006.  However, the consequences will be much the same.  A fact which wouldn’t be lost on Steny Hoyer.
  3. If Hoyer does manage to utterly demoralize support and restores the Democrats to power in the House, guess who has a good shot of getting the gavel instead of Pelosi?  I’ll give you a hint:  his name starts with “Hoyer”.

Hoyer’s help is no mystery here.  What is a mystery is Boehner thinking that he’s going to continue getting away with milquetoast without electoral repercussions.