Write A Caption: John Boehner

Sighing Boehner

A photo posted by Luke Russert (@lukerussert) on Jan 7, 2015 at 12:02pm PST

It is unbelievable how orange John Boehner is in this picture.

Write A Caption: John Boehner and His Monkey

The toy monkey was given to John Boehner as a gift. Boehner says he feels like a wind-up monkey with his busy schedule.

"Every 15 to 30 minutes, they come in and wind me up and I do my thing," Boehner says in the video.

John Boehner Successfully Signs Up For Obamacare

Congratulations to Speaker John Boehner for successfully signing up for Obamacare. As a cigarette smoker, Boehner would of had a hard time getting health coverage in Ohio. Thanks to the rules of Obamacare in Washington DC, Boehner has health insurance.

Quote of the Day

"We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill … I want us to deal with this issue, but I want to deal with it in a commonsense step by step way as we develop the principles, we’ll figure out how we’ll move ahead."

House Speaker John Boehner

Boehner knows full well that he has to go to conference to deal with any problems he may have with the Senate immigration bill. Boehner won't do that because the tea party members in his caucus would revolt if he touches immigration reform.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded to the Boehner press conference with this. tweet.

Actually it is easy, @SpeakerBoehner. With 190 cosponsors on H.R.15 and 28 Rs vowing support, we have the votes to pass #immigration reform.

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) November 13, 2013

The DNC should pound Republicans for their lack of action on immigration reform.

No Love For John Boehner

Pandering to the tea party and not standing up to Ted Cruz has not paid off for House Speaker John Boehner. A new CNN poll shows Boehner's unfavorable rating hitting 55 percent. Members of Congress usually don't poll well under the best circumstances. However, this is painful for Boehner.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi saw their unfavorable ratings go down. Reid had an unfavorable rating of 45 percent in September. This month Reid unfavorable rating went down to 40 percent. Pelosi's unfavorable rating went from 51 percent in September to 47 percent in October.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell weathered the government shutdown better than Boehner. McConnell's unfavorable rating went from 39 percent to 42 percent. McConnell is up for re-election in 2014. He is probably grateful he didn't have as high a public profile in the shutdown as Boehner.

The CNN poll shows the Republican Party with an unfavorable rating of 64 percent. The tea party has an unfavorable rating of 56 percent. Ted Cruz and the tea party is sinking the Republican brand. What is problematic for the Republican establishment is Sen. Ted Cruz promising another government shutdown.

“I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can, to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” Cruz said when asked by ABC News’ Jon Karl whether he would rule out another shutdown. “The test that matters Jon, is are we doing anything for all the people that are getting hurt from Obamacare?”

Democrats Should Ignore Lindsay Graham

Sen. John McCain made a hysterical plea for Democrats not too embarrass Republicans when the shutdown and debt ceiling fight ends. McCain's pal Sen. Lindsey Graham sang the same tune to Talking Points Memo. Graham even admits that following Ted Cruz's lead on shutting down the government was a disaster.

"We won't be the last political party to overplay our hand," he said. "It might happen one day on the Democratic side. And if it did, would Republicans, for the good of the country, kinda give a little? We really did go too far. We screwed up. But their response is making things worse, not better."

President Barack Obama has been a horrible negotiator with Republicans. The White House has received numerous complaints from the Democratic caucuses and the progressive base. In a telling moment, House Speaker John Boehner admitted this during the last manufactured crisis by the Republicans.

I do. When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy.

Obama finally realized if he keeps giving Boehner what he wants the Speaker will continue to shut down the government and threaten the faith and credit of the United States. The hostage taking has to stop. The only way that happens is if Democrats ignore Lindsay Graham's cries for mercy and make this as politically painful for Republicans as possible. Beltway Republicans may be ignorant about economics but they can understand their horrible poll numbers.

John Boehner Calls Off Vote On His Own Bill to Reopen Government

House Speaker John Boehner is a joke. Once again he does not have the votes in his own caucus to a conservative spending bill to reopen the federal government. What is likely to happen is Boehner will have to go to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She will demand a clean continuing resolution (that does not involve defunding Obamacare) to reopen government. This is further proof that Boehner can't control his caucus or even count votes.

John Boehner Wants To Fail At Defunding Obamacare Again

It appears House Speaker John Boehner has caved to the stupidity of Sen. Ted Cruz. The magical plan put forward by Cruz is that President Barack Obama will sign a bill that either repeals or defunds his landmark health care legislation. All Cruz has to do is get Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow a floor vote and promise not to filibuster a bill that would defund Obamacare. Obama would then sign this bill and willingly destroy the crowning achievement of his administration. The reason being because a freshman Senator told him to. All this is pure fantasy.

Speaker Boehner hops on the Cruz crazy train.

“On the CR, we know what the position of this conference is,” Boehner said, speaking before his colleagues. “Every member in this room is for defunding Obamacare while letting the rest of the government continue to operate. We’re going to put Obamacare defunding directly into the CR. And then we’re going to send it over to the Senate, so our conservative allies over there can continue the fight. That’s where the fight is.”

“On every major issue we’ve faced for the past two and a half years, the math has been the same: House Republicans either find a way together to get to 218, or the Democrats who run the rest of Washington essentially get everything they want,” he added, pressing for House GOP unity.

It is debatable if Boehner can get 218 votes. Remember when Boehner pulled his own Plan B legislation?

House Speaker John Boehner's proposal to avert the looming fiscal cliff's automatic tax increases failed to curry enough Republican support Thursday night, after which Congress left for the holiday with no clear end in sight in the high-stakes debate.

Boehner said earlier Thursday that he was confident that his so-called Plan B -- which would extend tax cuts that are set to expire at year's end for most people while allowing rates to increase to 1990s levels on income over $1 million -- would pass the House, and in the process put pressure on President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate. But his gambit seemed in doubt later as Republican leaders struggled to get most all their members to sign on -- even enlisting senators like Sen. Rob Portman, to work the House floor -- knowing the chamber's Democrats oppose it.

Boehner and other establishment Republicans are going through with this legislative charade because they fear a tea party movement that doesn't even hold rallies anymore. The defunding of Obamacare will fail just as every other attempt to defund Obamacare has failed. Going through with this charade is more important to Republicans than another stimulus package that could create more jobs. The only jobs Boehner and the Republican House leadership are concerned with is their own.

Update: Rep. Sean (former reality television star) Duffy (R) is talking trash about senators Cruz and Mike Lee. Apparently, Cruz and Lee aren't passionate enough about ending Obamacare. What planet is Duffy living on? (The answer is The Real World: Boston.) All Cruz and Lee talk about is defunding Obamacare.

House agrees to send #CR to Senate that defunds Obamacare. @SenTedCruz & @SenMikeLee refuse to fight. Wave white flag and surrender.

— Sean Duffy (@RepSeanDuffy) September 18, 2013

Here is a NSFW video of Sean Duffy dancing in his underwear. Someone explain to me why this man is in Congress.

Write A Caption: John Boehner

House Speaker John Boehner found a wife who is the same color as him. How is that possible. the same

More Do Nothing Congress

Sen. Harry Reid calls out House Republicans for being a do nothing Congress. Reid notes that House Republicans failed at their goals of passing repeals to laws they hate.

“House Republicans are failing even by their own metric. They’ve replaced virtually nothing. So by the speaker’s own admission, they’re not getting anything passed and by his own analysis, they’re getting nothing repealed,” Reid said. “So they’re doing nothing.”

Speaker Boehner has scheduled the hard-working House of Representatives to work nine days in September. What a joke.

Photo of the Day

It's not everyday you see House Speaker John Boehner hugging Rep. Kathy Castor.

No Big Tent With the GOP

House Speaker John Boehner tells Martha Raddatz, of ABC News, that he will not compromise his position on gay marriage. There are no exceptions in Boehner's world.

MARTHA RADDATZ (HOST): Can you imagine yourself in a situation where you reversed your decision as Portman has on gay marriage if a child of yours or someone you love told you they were gay.

BOEHNER: Listen, I believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman. It’s what I grew up with, it’s what i belive, it’s what my church teaches me and I can’t imagine that position would ever change.

The conservative LGBT group, GOProud, has not been allowed into CPAC. The simple reason GOProud is not allowed is because GOProud supports gay rights. MSNBC conservative pundit SE Cupp boycotted CPAC because GOPRoud was not allowed to attend.

"It just became increasingly uncomfortable to align with an event, a great event in many ways, that had nonetheless attempted to marginalize a really important group of conservatives working on our behalf," Cupp said. "For us to sort of slap them on the face and say, we no longer want your services or we're embarrassed by you and ashamed of you and we'd like to put you in the back of the tent just felt really dismissive and disrespectful."

Sen. Marco Rubio said at CPAC that the Republican Party doesn't need new ideas. If the Republican Party wants to stick to the old ideas of marginizing gays, women and brown people than they can expect to keep losing elections. The Democratic Party will take the voters that the Republican establishment casts aside.

Update: when Republicans have to defend their position on gay marriage by saying they are not bigots, you know they are losing the argument. Case in point is Marco Rubio.

"Just because I believe that states should have the rights to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot," Rubio said during his Thursday speech. While the line drew applause, it was tepid compared to the reaction to his statements on abortion that followed.

Gallup Poll Shows Support For Raising the Minimum Wage

Via GottaLaff: the Gallup poll finds 71 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage.

Raising the federal minimum wage is typically a crowd pleaser when it comes to policy prescriptions, and Obama's proposal to push the rate from the current $7.25 to $9 is no exception. The 71% vs. 27% balance of U.S. public opinion in favor of passing it is convincing, particularly when considering that even half of Republicans are in favor.

In fairness, the Gallup poll has been off the last two presidential elections. However, a USA Today/Pew Research Center showed support for raising the minimum wage at an identical 71 percent. A You Gov poll had a lower number of 62 percent.

President Barack Obama is advocating raising the national from $7.25 to $9.00. House Speaker John Boehner is unsurprising against raising the minimum wage.

The Benchwarmers

People wonder why Majority Leader Harry Reid did not push for real filibuster reform. The same reason why House Speaker John Boehner's 112th Congress passed the lowest amount of bills since the 1940s. It goes beyond ideology and partisnship. Congress doesn't want to have to have tough votes on the roll call. Political cowardness trumps politics.

Remember the vote for the Iraq Resolution. The legislation was based on fiction.

Whereas the United States is determined to prosecute the war on terrorism and Iraq’s ongoing support for international terrorist groups combined with its development of weapons of mass destruction in direct violation of its obligations under the 1991 cease-fire and other United Nations Security Council resolutions make clear that it is in the national security interests of the United States and in furtherance of the war on terrorism that all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions be enforced, including through the use of force if necessary;

Whereas Congress has taken steps to pursue vigorously the war on terrorism through the provision of authorities and funding requested by the President to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized,

committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such persons or organizations; Whereas the President and Congress are determined to continue to take all appropriate actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such persons or organizations;

Whereas the President has authority under the Constitution to take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States, as Congress recognized in the joint resolution on Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40); a

Whereas it is in the national security interests of the United States to restore international peace and security to the Persian Gulf region: Now, therefore, be it

The kicker is Congress never declared war. The Constitution clearly states only Congress has the power "to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water." Congress gave Bush the power to decide if he wanted to invade Iraq.

(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to— (1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and (2) enforce all relevant

Senators like John Kerry tried to escape responsibility for their votes.

"We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today," Kerry said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "Knowing there was no imminent threat to America, knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, knowing there was no connection of Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda, I would not have gone to war. That's plain and simple."

That is what Senate hearings are for. Don't give President Bush a blank check and expect him not to use it.

Harry Reid is doing everything in his power to avoid gun control legislation. Reid will likely use the excuse that his caucus doesn't support the legistation. This will save Democrats and Republicans from having to vote. Their is bipartisan support in ducking gun control.

“Something will happen. The question is what,” says one senior Hill aide. “What matters to Reid is trying to protect his caucus. I don’t think he is going to want to put Democrats in conservative-leaning states taking votes on something that won’t have a clear pathway to success.”

Sen. Marco Rubio said Congress is too busy to take on gun control. This is coming from the same man that never introduced his immigration bill because he went on a book tour.

Congress can't get anything done because they have no desire to. We don't have elected leaders. WE have benchwarmers collecting a government paycheck.

Speaker Boehner's Survey

House Speaker John Boehner's office has sent out this hysterical survey. We are to believe that House Republicans do not want to cut Medicare and Social Security.

Do you support House Republicans’ efforts to save critical programs like Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy – and protect seniors from drastic benefit cuts?

Let's go back to the recent fiscal cliff negotiations.

As part of a broader budget deal, Boehner is still seeking more spending cuts than Obama has proposed, particularly in mandatory health care spending. Boehner has asked for a long-term increase in eligibility age for Medicare and for lower costs-of-living adjustments for Social Security.

Boehner and other Republicans are brazen in their lies. Social Security is not even in immediate trouble. Yet Boehner would rather make cuts to entitlements than actually address job creation.

Boehner continues to further the talking point that the Affordable Care Act will kill jobs.

10. As Republicans continue to press for ObamaCare’s repeal, do you support vigorous Congressional oversight to expose the impact of the law’s burdensome mandates and jobs-crushing tax hikes?

More people having access to health care will create a demand for more jobs in the health care industry. Amy Howell Hirt has a good article on health industry jobs that will see an increase in hiring because of the AFA. Republicans haven't been able to produce a nonpartisan study on how AFA will decrease jobs because none exists.

After the Bush years, Republicans are suddenly fiscal hawks.

5. Do you agree that spending cuts – not tax hikes – are key to solving our debt crisis?

The Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that deficit reduction has hurt the economic recovery.

“[E]conomic activity will expand slowly this year, with real GDP growing by just 1.4 percent,” according to CBO’s projections. “That slow growth reflects a combination of ongoing improvement in underlying economic factors and fiscal tightening that has already begun or is scheduled to occur-including the expiration of a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, an increase in tax rates on income above certain thresholds, and scheduled automatic reductions in federal spending. That subdued economic growth will limit businesses’ need to hire additional workers, thereby causing the unemployment rate to stay near 8 percent this year, CBO projects.”

Interest rates are near zero right now. The federal government can afford to borrow for stimulus funding. Without job growth the tax base and gdp will not grow. Without that the national debt will never be paid off. Boehner continues to preach trickle down Laffer curve nonsense.

Update: The Christian Science Monitor has a graph showing several health care jobs has the fastest growing industries. The Adam Smith rule about the free hand of the market doesn't really apply to health care. People get sick during good and bad economic times. People can't afford not to go without health care when they are seriously ill. Health care isn't the same has deciding whether or not you should shop at a cheaper grocery store. The demand for health care will always be there. The argument by Speaker Boehner and Gov. Rick Scott that the ACA will kill jobs is nonsense.

World's Fastest Press Conference (Maybe)

House Speaker John Boehner held a 56 second press conference on the fiscal cliff. Boehner took no questions from the media. Something tells me all is not well in Boehner's world right now.

Anyone have any idea what is the shortest press conference by a modern House Speaker.

Write A Caption: Obama & Boehner

Can't you just feel the bipartisan love.

Quote of the Day: Fiscal Cliff Edition

"He talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he’s going to do that by lowering rates. And when you look at the math, it doesn’t work....If we're going to raise revenues that are sufficient to balance with the very tough cuts that we've already made, and the further reforms in entitlements that I'm prepared to make, we’re going to have to see the rates on the top two percent go up. And we’re not going to be able to get a deal without it."

President Barack Obama, on House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal cliff proposal.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that Boehner that not say where he would cut $600 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. The CBPP notes that this level of cuts would be "draconian."

When the well-being of millions of Americans is at stake — as it is with major changes in Medicare and Medicaid — that shouldn’t be acceptable. If policymakers want to propose $600 billion in health care entitlement savings, as they have every right to do, they should show us the specific changes they would make to get there. Until they do, such proposals shouldn’t receive much credibility.

Mitt Romney ran on economic policy vagueness and drastic cuts to entitlements. The result was a general election loss. Democrats now know the recipe to beat Republicans on entitlements. Boehner and other Congressional Republicans are committing political suicide by going after Medicare. Establishment Republicans fail to understand that many in their base are elderly people on Medicare.

Side note: Boehner is so unserious that yesterday he offered a Bowles plan that does not exist has a counter-proposal.

Boehner Proposes Imaginary Bowles Plan

How unserious was House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal ceiling offer to President Obama today? Boehner proposed implementing the Erskine Bowles plan. Not to be confused with the Simpson-Bowles; the Bowles plan was allegedly proposed during Bowles his testimony to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The only problem is that Bowles himself said no such plan exists.

Erskine Bowles

While I'm flattered the Speaker would call something "the Bowles plan," the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the President does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan. In my testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I simply took the mid-point of the public offers put forward during the negotiations to demonstrate where I thought a deal could be reached at that time.

The Joint Select Committee failed to reach a deal, and circumstances have changed since then. It is up to negotiators to figure out where the middle ground is today. Every offer put forward brings us closer to a deal, but to reach an agreement, it will be necessary for both sides to move beyond their opening positions and reach agreement on a comprehensive plan which avoids the fiscal cliff and puts the debt on a clear downward path relative to the economy.

Boehner is literally proposing imaginary fiscal policy. This is the most powerful man in Congress.

Naked Protest on Speaker Boehner

This is the best news story of the day. A group of naked protesters stormed into House Speaker John Boehner's office.

BuzzFeed reporter Chris Geidner, who was tweeting from the scene, reports that the protesters were demonstrating against budget cuts to federal funding to fight AIDS, and entered the office chanting: “Boehner, Boehner, don’t be a dick. Budget cuts will make us sick."

No word on if Boehner wasat his office at the time of the protest. I imagine all the nudity would have made Boehner go from orange to beet red.