Tag Archives: John Boehner
GOTP House leaders agree to extend payroll tax cut?
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) House leaders are “surrendering to political reality”, and doing “an about-face and said they were willing to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million working Americans without insisting that it be paid for with spending cuts”.
Of course this shift isn’t because they’ve suddenly become compassionate and care about working America, it’s because the evidence is in, and they’re being pummeled in poll after poll over their decision to protect the uber-rich at the expense of everyone else, especially by blocking a tax break for the middle class.
It also means a huge legislative victory for the President, winning his top legislative priority for the year moving towards November’s election.
As the Times reports, Republicans have been arguing since November the cost of maintaining the tax cut had to be offset by spending cuts – especially cuts to everything they hate and despise, basically anything helping the poor and down trodden; a stance never gaining traction with a majority of voters, and an attitude allowing Democrats to hoist the GOTP on its own political petard, accusing Boehner and crew of rank hypocrisy, especially since the Bush tax cuts for the uber-rich have never – and I do mean never – been offset with spending cuts.
“This is not our first choice,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner sobbed in a statement.
“In the face of the Democrats’ stonewalling and obstructionism, we are prepared to act to protect small businesses and our economy from the consequences of Washington Democrats’ political games”.
Wow, really? Democratic “stonewalling”? This from the man who hasn’t passed a single piece of legislation aimed at creating jobs in America, and from a party with a record number of filibusters in Senate? This is so blatantly false it’s absolutely laughable, and will no doubt come back to bite the Speaker.
There’s of course just one small problem with what the “leaders” of the GOTP Congress want to do – the Tea Party Caucus. Time and time again “deals” have been reached on various subjects only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the freshman class of tea baggers (a term created by the Tea Party movement to describe themselves until they were educated into what the term could mean) who block everything and anything that has even the appearance of the slightest approval of the White House.
So, while it great that the House GOTP “leadership” has seen the light, it remains to be seen if it can get its members to go along, and if it jumps that hurdle will Mitch McConnell and the GOTP Senate play ball?
Wall Street Journal Editorial Rips Boehner and McConnell?
The Huffington Post’s reporting that the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has attacked congressional Republican Tea Party (GOTP) members for possibly losing the payroll tax cut standoff to President Barack Obama.
The Editorial began recounting how GOTP Senate leader Mitch McConnell “famously said a year ago his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.”
Earlier this week GOTP House members killed the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and a provision avoiding Medicare payment cuts to doctors by a 229-193 vote. The Senate had voted by an 89-10 margin to extend all three for two months. All three provisions expire on 1 Jan 12. GOTP House members want the Senate to return and negotiate over a compromise plan but Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he won’t negotiate until the House approves the Senate’s package.
Finally Senator Reid has shown some back bone against the Tea Party conservatives across the aisle; what’s even better about this situation is McConnell had clearly struck a deal with Reid, and Boehner has to have been part of it as well but then his Tea Party compatriots cut his knees out from under him led by Eric Cantor.
The conservative editorial board wrote that the GOTP has “thoroughly botched the politics.” The board also added that Obama’s in a “stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago.”
After 1 Jan 12, the payroll tax paid by workers will rise from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent and benefits for the long-term unemployed will expire if Congress doesn’t pull its head out of its collective fourth point of contact. Doctors will also face a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements scheduled to take effect on 18 Jan 12.
The icing on the cake for the President is that 2008 Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona showed his approval of the editorial tweeting, “WSJ is right on the mark here.”
When the smoke clears from this latest GOTP catastrophe, the President will once again come out on top, John Boehner may find himself stepping down as Speaker, and the Tea Party will come out as having attempted one bridge too far; come 2012 the bill will come due and local Congressional Districts will likely toss the riff raff out turning the House back to a Democratic majority. The Tea Party’s angry white guy shtick only plays so far and they’ve been on stage well past their collective curtain call.
Boehner says his relationship with the President is frosty?
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting soon-to-be one term House Speaker John Boehner says his relationship with President Barack Obama has grown “a little frosty.”
Wow, really? His “relationship” with the President has grown “a little frosty”? First of all Mr. Speaker, you have to have had a relationship with someone before it can grow “frosty”; second, refer back to the first point.
The Republican Tea Party (GOTP) puppet spent a lot of time whining on ABC’s “This Week” that the President is engaging in “class warfare” by pushing for higher taxes for wealthy Americans.
Boehner says the rich pay enough taxes and it’s wrong for the president to “pit one set of Americans against another.”
To quote former president Ronald Reagan, “there you go again”.
First, how’s it class warfare if someone suggests the uber-wealthiest 2% of the country’s population should have its taxes increased before chopping, slashing and burning programs to the poorest and most vulnerable, but it’s not class warfare when you staunchly defend the tax rates of the uber-wealthy while pushing to end programs for the poorest and most vulnerable?
The GOTP is playing bait and switch hoping the majority of the American electorate is too obtuse to notice; problem for Boehner and company is they’re not. Voters are beginning to notice, and as Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics is local”. Putting the entire GOTP House on record voting in support of the infamous Ryan plan was one of the dumbest things any Speaker has ever done, and handed any Democratic opponent a huge stick to beat their GOTP rival with. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the House wasted the entire legislative year with political stunts while American’s are out of work; this is going to come back to roost in November 2012.
How’d the GOTP spend its time? By saying no to each and every piece of legislation proposed by the President; by playing political dodge ball with the nation’s debt ceiling; by placating the uber-conservative Tea Party minority when it introduced more than 100 bills aimed on ending a woman’s right to choose, grand standing by staging an elaborate reading the Constitution (while leaving out an entire article) and by reaffirming the national motto of “In God We Trust”.
Bill Clinton beat the Republican incumbent in 1992 by proclaiming “It’s the economy stupid!” And guess what? It’s still the economy stupid! The GOTP’s playing its collective fiddle while the nation’s economy’s burning; hope Boehner’s enjoyed his time as Speaker.
