John Boehner is really starting to take “not very good at my job” to a whole other level. First he has a conference call with his members to praise the deal the Senate reached on the payroll tax holiday extension, and then he declares that he his opposed to the deal. I guess he is basically “Speaker-in-name-only.”
Mr. Boehner’s remarks on “Meet the Press” came less than 24 hours after a conference call in which he tried to sell the package to his rank and file, pointing to a provision that would speed Republican-supported construction of an oil pipeline, known as Keystone XL, from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
But many Republican lawmakers were not buying what their leader was urging them to do, chiefly because they objected to the tax cut extension’s cost.
Among them was the House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who said in a statement Sunday that on Monday, the House would either amend the Senate bill so that it met the “needs of hard-working taxpayers and middle-class families,” or pass a motion to move the bill to a conference committee to accomplish the same.
Mr. Cantor said the House opposed the Senate bill “because — to put it simply — we owe the middle class, employers and doctors better than a two-month extension.”
Mr. Boehner’s decision to back away from a deal on the payroll tax cut is similar to his actions during debt-reduction talks with President Obama in July.
I feel pretty confident that the Dems will take back the House from the Republicans next November but, either way, I find it hard to believe that Cantor won’t supplant Boehner as the GOP leader.
Why is it hard to believe? No one wanted the job of Speaker right now on the GOP side…except Boehner. Nobody else in their right mind wants to jump on the Tea Party grenade.
Mr. Boehner’s decision to back away from a deal on the payroll tax cut is similar to his actions during debt-reduction talks with President Obama in July.
Cause he’s an orange punk ass bitch.
The question is why would Republicans take the Senate deal in the first place?
Malevolent firebaggers smear the President on a daily basis, but it’s the Republicans who have a spineless equivocator screwing them over time and time again.
The GOP should be able to use the expiration of the payroll tax cut as an excuse for highway robbery. Last year they got a 100% victory on taxation in exchange for the repeal of DADT (which they weren’t obligated to vote for themselves, because pointless bigotry must be defended to the last, I guess).
You can’t be the party of “burning the forest down” if you have a corporatist drunk running things who’s afraid to burn the forest down. The House should logically demand a higher ransom. Because the closer we get to 12/31, the more likely it is that Democrats will pay it.
The Senate left town and Reid isn’t asking them back.
As a House member, that’s a gamble I’m willing to take.
It’s only the 18th.
BazookaJoe: Am I misinterpreting your comment, or are you a Representative? Pretty cool if a reader/commenter of the Frog Pond is an elected (and not a wing nut)
No, that was just rhetorical.
I probably should have written “If I were a member of the House (and a Republican, for added clarification), that’s a gamble I’d be willing to take.” Based on the events of this last year. The House has gotten consistently screwed by its own leadership.
You can’t take hostages and then always let them go. This is their last chance to force anything through. To let that go for some bullshit temporary extension that only sabotages your own leverage further is asinine.
But I hope, for the country’s sake, they continue to screw up and sell out. 2011 has been a surprisingly enjoyable year.
What Obama got for extending the Bush tax cuts is extending the Bush tax cuts. He really didn’t want to go back on his (ill-advised) campaign progress to never raise taxes on anyone making less than $200K/year, so it was a trade of the tax cuts on the wealthy for the tax cuts on everybody else.
Not that raising federal income taxes on the not-so-wealthy makes a lot more sense in this economy than raising payroll taxes does.
Wasn’t the UI extension part of that deal too?
YES, it was
And Boehner thought he was gonna stick the Senate with the bill. What an idiot!
So now I see that McConnell is backing Boehner.
WTF? So now he’s against his own damn bill that he and his caucus helped pass in Senate?
WTH is going on with this yahoos?
A link re: McConnell????
Boehner: House Republicans Oppose Senate Payroll Tax Cut Bill
No one could figure out a “pay-for” for a full year. That’s why the 2 months. What will change in the 18 days that are left with one house already home? Is there going to be more extortion? In what form?
Boehner: House Republicans Oppose Senate Payroll Tax Cut Bill
BREAKING: AP reporting that Kim Jon Il is dead.
I know next to nothing about North Koreaan “politics” so I would be interested in hearing what this might mean for North Korea and surrounding areas, oh and America’s “Asian alliances.
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South Korea and Japan on high alert. Some background: Kim Jong Il’s Nukes, Threats Stoked World Fears
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."And no one asks why Orange Julius or Sen. Mitch voted for the agreement?
Never Trust a Republican…
So the Republicans got their way on the pipeline, gave up nothing for it, and get a reset to play the whole game over for whatever else they want. This is supposed to mean that Boehner is incompetent? His side just won.