Yes, we’ve heard it all before. This is story-line is quite frankly beginning to sound like a broken record – another republican rejects the president’s outreach.
While doing his outreach to Republicans AGAIN on Wednesday, President Obama invited the Head of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to travel with Vice President and a delegation from the United States, to witness installation of the new Pope.
The Ohio Republican says in a statement that he’d like to go, but it’s impossible with his duties including the budget debate and hosting the Irish prime minister at the Capitol.
Vice President Joe Biden, the first Roman Catholic to be elected vice president, is leading the delegation. Boehner’s office said that after Obama spoke to House Republicans Wednesday, the president invited Boehner, who is Catholic, to accompany Biden.
Boehner says he is grateful for the invitation. He wished the vice president well and said he hopes Biden will send prayers and warm regards from all Americans, especially Catholics, to the first pope from the Americas.
“This week we’ve gone 180,” Boehner said. “After being in office now for four years, he’s actually going to sit down and talk to members. I think it’s a hopeful sign and I’m hopeful that something will come out of it. But if the president continues to insist on tax hikes, I dont think we’re going to get very far. If the president doesn’t believe that we have a spending problem, I dont know if we’re going to get very far. But I’m optimistic.”
I don’t know, and I could be wrong. But it sounds to me like Boehner is now breathing a breath of fresh air. With the President going straight to congressional Republicans trying to convince them to do what’s best for the American people, Boehner no longer has the burden of being looked upon as the Speaker who has no control over his House, or unable to bring his party together. That burden now rest on the President’s shoulders and Boehner is more than willing to just stand-off to the side and watch from the sidelines.
If the President’s outreach program succeeds, Boehner will celebrate with the rest of Congress. They will all be seen as being productive, working for the people who brought sent them to Washington. If the President fails, Boehner could then come into the spotlight and blame Mr. Obama for doing too little too late in trying to reach out.
Dude thinks he’s slick, but as Rev. Al Sharpton says on his show, you think you’re pulling one over on us, but “we got’cha!”
Like everything else about House Speaker John Boehner and the Congressional Republicans, his “get off your ass” statement this morning was just another phrase manufactured for the moment. It was done for a specific reason – to make Americans think he is upset. To make Americans think the Democrats are the ones doing nothing, sitting on their hands while the Sequester quickly approaches.
Speaking to a group of reporters this morning Boehner stepped to the podium and said, the president “is going all over the country holding rallies instead of sitting down with Senate leaders,” while, Boehner argued, “We have moved a bill in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.”
CBS News reports that the House bills that Boehner referred to would replace the across-the-board automatic cuts with more targeted cuts. Meantime, Senate Democrats are pushing a plan that would replace the cuts with a mix of different cuts and tax increases, something the president supports but congressional Republicans do not.
Well where is the American people on this. Who do they side with?
According to a recent poll, Americans stand with President Obama and the Democrats on these issues. So I’m sure if the American people got a chance to say something to John Boehner, they would say something like, stop standing in front of podiums talking to the press instead of sitting down with other congressional leaders. Get off your ass and do something!
Word is out that VP Joe Biden is looking to throw his hat into the ring for president in 2016. Not for nothing, but if I were to go with the present mood of the country, I’d have to say that Hillary Rodham Clinton (Stop! We all know she’s running lol!) stands a better chance of becoming the Democratic nominee than the beloved Joe. And it won’t be because Mrs. Clinton is the better politician, or the more experienced legislator or even better liked than Biden. It’s what she isn’t that’s more likely than not going to give her a clearer shot as successor of the Obama Administration.
I don’t think the country has experienced this much diversity since John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the first Irish Catholic American to hold court in the Oval Office. That major feat seems like small potatoes compared to the election of a Barack Hussein Obama to the White house.
Thirteen years into the 21st century and America is slowly showing signs of embracing its diversity, the main reason why its so attractive to others born outside its perceived borders. Whichever way you may wish to see it, for better or for worse, President Obama and his Administration have successfully ushered in The New Vanguard in American politics.
THE ERA OF THE ‘NEW VANGUARD’ IN AMERICAN POLITICS
In the 2009 appointment of his Cabinet members, Obama’s choice of seven women (including Hillary as his Secretary of State), nine racial and ethnic minorities and only eight white men among its 21 members–whose overall age averaged 54 years–made his the most diverse Cabinet in history according to political analysts. It’s predicted that his new Cabinet selections, once completed, will also reflect more accurately what America looks like today.
As it should.
It doesn’t help the resistance to this change, that Americans–particularly the young voters who came of voting age within the last ten years or so–have witnessed the slow, embarrassing decay and deterioration of an antiquated Republican Party. It offers such a clear juxtaposition of how we no longer want our politics to look and act as opposed to what we do want.
Virtually unknown, seemingly untainted and un-corrupted by Big Money lobbyists, grass-rooted, youthful, innovative, broad-minded, humanist, energized and unafraid…these are the adjectives being applied to NewPolitician_5.0!
And just to be fair, Clinton and her people should not consider her a shoe-in for the candidacy in four years (remember how that worked out in ’08? Not so good.) There are quite a few politically aspirant stars out there who have cut their teeth on this new political vibe and are looking to go supernova in the American political galaxy. Gays and Lesbians, Latinos, Asians, young white and black men and women, the secular, the handicapped, Little People and even Mormons!…anyone can step up to the plate at any inning and upset her whole game, hoping for the opportunity to represent America, as seen through their eyes. Whether they’ll be the political trailblazers that these difficult times call for, well–only time will tell.
I was watching a program on MSNBC today and saw a clip from Republican House Speaker, John Boehner. Apparently, it is the Speaker’s belief that President Obama is out to get the Republican party. Mr. Boehner thinks that the President is out to “annihilate the Republican Party.”
“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,” Boehner said in a speech Tuesday to The Ripon Society. “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.”
Were Michelle Obama’s scathing eye rolls during the inaugural luncheon Monday the result of a joke by House Speaker John Boehner over her husband’s cigarette habit?
That’s what expert lip reader Larry Wenig believes after watching a video recording of the exchange between Mrs Obama and Boehner, according to CBS’ Inside Edition.
‘According to our lip reader, Boehner asked Obama if he had had a chance to have a cigarette before the luncheon,’ Inside Edition reports.
Wenig quoted Boehner, an avid smoker, as saying, ‘Somebody won’t let you do it,’ getting in a dig at the First Lady’s power over her husband.
It was at that point that Michelle rolls her eyes.
Wenig’s theory could not be confirmed. MailOnline reached out to three lip readers who said it was too difficult to read what was said during the exchange.
Regardless, it was clear that Michelle Obama was not impressed with whatever it was that Boehner said, as a camera caught her twice rolling her eyes at the congressman when he tried to engage her in conversation.
What’s the record of the 112th Congress? Well, it almost shut down the government and almost breached the debt ceiling. It almost went over the fiscal cliff (which it had designed in the first place). It cut a trillion dollars of discretionary spending in the Budget Control Act and scheduled another trillion in spending cuts through an automatic sequester, which everyone agrees is terrible policy. It achieved nothing of note on housing, energy, stimulus, immigration, guns, tax reform, infrastructure, climate change or, really, anything. It’s hard to identify a single significant problem that existed prior to the 112th Congress that was in any way improved by its two years of rule.
The 112th, which was gaveled into being on Jan. 3, 2011, by newly elected House SpeakerJohn Boehner, wasn’t just unproductive in comparison with the 111th. It was unproductive compared with any Congress since 1948, when scholars began keeping tabs on congressional productivity.
When it ends, the 112th Congress will have passed about 220 public laws — by far the least of any Congress on record. Prior to the 112th, the least productive Congress was the 104th, from January 1995 to January 1997. Not coincidentally, that Congress also featured a new Republican House majority determined to ruin a Democratic president in advance of the next campaign. The 104th, however, passed 333 public laws — almost 50 percent more than the 112th. The 112th stands alone in its achievement of epic failure.
Republican House Leader John Boehner played around with this all year. He knew we were quickly approaching a deadline, but instead of working with the President to come to a deal of the Fiscal Cliff, Boehner continued the games and now expects the Senate to solve his problems.
But Senate Leader Harry Reid has something to say about that:
Speaking on the Senate floor, Reid castigated Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for sending members of the House back to their districts last week after he was forced to scrap his “Plan B” tax plan for lack of support.
The Democratic leader said that even if Boehner agreed to hold a vote extending the Bush tax rates for incomes up to $250,000 — as Democrats have demanded to avoid one part of the fiscal cliff — it might not make it through Congress in time to prevent tax increases from beginning next year.
“I have to be honest — I don’t know, time-wise, how it can happen now,” Reid said.
Boehner said last week that he would give members of the House 48 hours notice if they needed to return for a vote on fiscal matters, but GOP leaders have yet to give the order for them to return.
“[Boehner] should call them back today — he shouldn’t have let them go, in fact,” Reid said.
Senators returned to work on Thursday with time running out to reach an agreement on a slew of tax increases and automatic spending cuts that are set to begin in January.
Well that was quick. It was over before it even started. Just a few short moments ago, House Republicans defeated their leader, John Boehner, with a resounding NO to his alleged “Plan B.” The vote was supposed to happen tonight didn’t even make the floor for a vote. Boehner’s office released a statement saying;
“The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass. Now it is up to the President to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff. The House has already passed legislation to stop all of the January 1st tax increases, and replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts that will begin to address our nation’s crippling debt. The Senate must now act.”
In other words, Boehner could not convince members of his own party to support his own bill.
Moments after that statement was released, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s was seen leaving the chambers and surrounded by the media. And for once in his life, Cantor did his best to stay out of camera view.
Media: “Is there going to be a vote tonight?”
Cantor: “Nope.”
Media: “Is there going to be a vote tomorrow?”
Cantor: “Nope.”
Media: “Are you ditching Plan B?”
Cantor: no answer.
Cantor’s office then released this statement:
The House has concluded legislative business for the week. Members are advised that the House will return for legislative business after the Christmas holiday, when needed.
Boehner’s Plan B was his feeble attempt to show the nation that Republicans were trying to do something to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” come January 1st. Plan B asked those making more than $1 million to pay a little more in taxes. It differed from the President’s proposal which asked earners making more than $400,000 to pay more in taxes.
“Certainly a fiasco for the Speaker,” said Steve Benen, in an appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show. “We’re reminded right now that he is a leader without followers and a leader without followers is pretty much useless.” Steve went on to point out that Boehner has about two weeks left until his reelection as House Speaker, and he concluded that Boehner’s “future as Speaker is very much in doubt.”
So the middle class could continue getting a tax cut come January. This tax cut saves the average family over $2,000.00 a year. The only thing standing in the way of this continued middle class tax cut, is Republicans insisting that the rich must get more tax cuts.
John Boehner’s recent counter offer to the White House where he demands extending the Bush tax cuts to America’s richest 2%, explains this perfectly.
“One of the reasons Tuesday night’s conversation between President Barack Obama and John Boehner did not go well was because the GOP House speaker sent the White House a fiscal cliff proposal calling for a permanent extension of Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, including for incomes in the top 2%, a Democratic source said Wednesday.
“Democrats took the GOP counter offer to mean that tax reform cannot result in any marginal rates higher than current law, according to the source, who said Boehner’s proposal was a “sign” to Democrats that “Boehner and the GOP are unwilling or unable to do any sort of deal that can pass the Senate or be signed by the president.”
“Democrats favor raising tax rates on wealthy Americans as part of a deal to avoid the year-end fiscal cliff, while Republicans want to extend the Bush-era cuts for all income levels.”
In addition to all the tax loopholes that the rich now enjoy, Republicans are trying to guarantee that they also get a permanent tax cut from the government. And if they cannot continue putting more money into the pockets of the richest 2%, Republicans are more than willing to plunge this economy over the fiscal cliff.
Warning that “the clock is ticking,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday threatened to bring about a House vote on a bill that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for families making $250,000, but would allow the tax breaks to expire for those above the threshold.
The Democratic-controlled Senate already passed its version of the bill in July, with strong support from President Barack Obama.
“If Speaker Boehner refuses to schedule this widely supported bill for a vote, Democrats will introduce a discharge petition to automatically bring to the floor the Senate-passed middle class tax cuts,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Under a “discharge petition,” a bill can be brought to the floor without going through a committee or without approval of House leadership. The bill would need an absolute majority — 218 votes — to pass.
John Boehner had to get something off his chest, so he went to his friendly neighborhood propaganda machine called Fox News Radio and expressed his frustrations at President Obama for doing the unimaginable – talking about middle class issues.
When Boehner was asked about the president’s belief that economic stability comes from the middle class out and not from the top down, Boehner exploded!
“Sometimes I have to catch my breath and slow down because the rhetoric in this campaign is just so over the top. And that’s because the president’s policies have failed. Listen — 93% of Americans believe they’re a part of the middle class. That’s why you hear the president talk about the middle class every day, because he’s talking to 93% of the American people. But the president has never created a job. He’s never even had a real job for Christ’s sake.”
The Maddow Blog found Boehner’s response interesting; “For the record, Obama has been an attorney, a community organizer working with churches in communities hit by factory closings, a law professor, a state lawmaker, a federal lawmaker, and the president of the United States during a time of multiple crises. I’m curious, which of these jobs does Boehner consider fake?
I’m also struck by the notion that Boehner thinks Obama is too focused on the middle class — a complaint Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) also levied last week. Since when did Republicans decide “talking about the middle class every day” is a bad thing?
Boehner really should catch his breath, slow down, and consider the fact that the rhetoric in this campaign is just so over the top. Then, once he’s regained his composure, he should also realize it’s unbecoming of a Speaker of the House to lose his cool and make attacks like “he’s never even had a real job for Christ’s sake.”
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
