Friday, December 21, 2012

Boehner's Epic Fail in the House

Photobucket

Previous Post:
Snark Amendment: Boehner Shambles: Plan B Fails in House - Tea Party Gloats - Stock Market Falls

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 1 tax rate increases and replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts that will begin to address our nation's crippling debt. The Senate must now act.
~ Statement of House Speaker John Boehner, via Huffington Post

Inside the Meltdown
At a quarter to 8 p.m. on Thursday night, House Republicans gathered in the Capitol basement for an urgent, closed-door conference meeting. The scene was hushed and confused. Instead of huddling in a windowless room, members thought they’d spend the evening on the House floor, voting on “Plan B,” Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal-cliff proposal. But as they took their seats and looked at Boehner’s face, the reason for the gathering became clear: The speaker didn’t have the votes. The whipping was over. “Plan B” was dead.
. . . It was Boehner’s tone and body language that caught most Republicans off guard. The speaker looked defeated, unhappy, and exhausted after hours of wrangling. He didn’t want to fight. There was no name-calling. As a devout Roman Catholic, Boehner wanted to pray. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” he told the crowd, according to attendees.
. . . Boehner had spent weeks negotiating with his members and the president. But in this final hour, when he needed Republicans most, he had only a prayer.
~ Robert Costa on National Review

Boehner was trying to play chess and the caucus was playing checkers. Boehner is willing to lose a pawn for a queen. I’m not sure about the rest.
~ Senior Member of Congress quoted on National Review

Once again Obama's superior negotiating skills, which baffle those who mistake chess for checkers, has revealed to the world the true nature of the GOP: short-sighted, evil, predatory, beholden to the 0.01%.
In the end this was a battle b/t Obama and Boehner, and Boehner lost. Lost BIG! Lost because his own team stabbed him in the back. And all Obama had to do was consider Boehner's proposal for the GOP to reject it. Because the GOP will commit suicide rather than deal honestly with that Black guy in their White House.
~ OnlyWords on Daily Kos

I have to say that I didn't think the GOP would screw Boehner like this. That they would be so extreme. I thought they'd opt to preserve the Kabuki drama in which they play the part of an organized, determined, powerful force.
And I'm so relieved that they opened the door for President Obama to walk through, turn around, and say "thank you. Now chained CPI and SS cuts are off the table. Don't mind if I do."
~ comment by concernedamerican on Daily Kos

Huffington Post Headline 12-21-12

Photobucket













The cliff is upon us. The end of fiscal days, or so House Republicans tell us. The House Republicans want you, the American people to know that they are serious about the fiscal cliff. They are so serious that they have decided to go home for Christmas.
. . . If House Republicans were serious about the fiscal cliff, they could earn some of those millions that we pay them every year and actually do what is expected of most Americans. They could work on a holiday.
~ Jason Easley on PoliticusUSA















If we go over the fiscal cliff, the president just comes back and says, 'Ok, we're going to give tax cuts to everybody under 250,000.' Who's going to vote against that? Everybody'll vote for that. Everybody. It will be just a fait accompli. You won't be voting on whether you're going to do away with a tax cut, you're going to be reimposing tax cuts for everybody under 250,000. So the Republicans are in an untenable situation.
~ Congressman Dan Burton, R-Indiana

It is now clear that to protect the middle class from the fiscal cliff, Speaker Boehner must allow a bill to pass with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes. Speaker Boehner’s partisan approach wasted an entire week and pushed middle-class families closer to the edge. The only way to avoid the cliff altogether is for Speaker Boehner to return to negotiations, and work with President Obama and the Senate to forge a bipartisan deal.
~ Adam Jentleson, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

The reason we're here is because our Republican colleagues refuse to compromise. We are wasting the people's time.
~ Congressman Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland

These conservatives — well-intentioned, perhaps, but tactically foolhardy — are steering the Republican party and the movement into an iceberg that’s been in plain sight for weeks. I’d say I’m in disbelief, but this clown show has been going on too long now to say that.
~ Scott Galupo on American Conservative

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)