Boehner taking a you-first approach to working with Democrats
WASHINGTON (AP) - John Boehner is pulling back. After two stressful years as Washington's most powerful Republican and a pair of failed, high-profile rounds of budget talks with President Barack Obama - and disappointment over Obama's re-election - the battle-scarred House speaker has adopted a you-first approach to the Democrat in the White House, his allies who control the Senate and anyone else who wants to work with them.
Upcoming across-the-board spending cuts set to slam the economy in two weeks? Boehner says a solution is up to Obama and Senate Democrats.
New ideas to prevent gun violence? Let's see what the Senate can pass, Boehner says, then we'll take a look.
Immigration reform? Boehner says it's best left to bipartisan working groups in both the House and Senate.
And the litany of new initiatives unveiled by Obama in Tuesday's State of the Union address?
"If he's got such good ideas, his party in the Senate could pass it," Boehner told The Associated Press in an interview in his Capitol office. "Then we'd be happy to take a look at it."
Boehner's almost Zen-like approach is a break from the experience of two years ago. Fortified by dozens of tea party freshmen, he and the GOP House stormed the Washington battlefield with abandon, winning some concessions on spending but seeing many initiatives killed by the Senate and overshadowed by the presidential campaign.
Boehner has taken political heat from Republicans for two failed rounds of budget talks with Obama in which he got ahead of the GOP rank and file in offering Obama new tax revenues. He left both sets of talks, accusing the White House of shifting demands and being unwilling to address major spending programs.
"Frankly, every time I've gotten into one of these high-profile negotiations, you know, it's my rear end that got burnt," Boehner says.
Boehner also suffered in some GOP quarters after a subsequent tactical retreat last month when he scheduled a vote on higher tax rates for top earners rather than allow the full menu of Bush-era tax cuts to expire. A surprising number of tea partyers cast protest votes when he was re-elected as House speaker last month. A Superstorm Sandy relief bill for the Northeast drew strikingly little GOP support from lawmakers outside the region.
Now, as the government lurches toward automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as a "sequester" that are set to drain $85 billion from the Pentagon and domestic programs, Boehner is acting as though it's not his problem.
"Remember, this is the president's idea. He insisted on this," the speaker says. "And until he puts forward a plan to replace the sequester and his Senate Democratic colleagues pass it, we're going to be stuck with it."
Some of Boehner's reticence to tackle the sequester may be rooted in weakness. He notes that the House has acted twice to block the cuts, which the Pentagon warns will gut the military. But those votes came last year and that legislation died when the new Congress convened in January just days after a sequester replacement effort squeaked through on a 215-209 vote.
More of Boehner's most ardently conservative Republicans are embracing the cuts as the deadline nears, and it's not clear he could muster the votes to try to replace them with an all-GOP approach.
Boehner suffers from the perception that he needs to watch his step to avoid provoking his tea party-laced rank and file into rebellion, and that can mean the House sometimes acts only when a crisis is near. But he's not afraid to maneuver the GOP House to places where it has to go in spite of tea party opposition, like the recent tax vote and bipartisan spending bills that passed with Democratic support.
"I've got to tread carefully," Boehner acknowledges. "But there's nobody that has more guts to take on his own party than I do."
Facing four more years of Obama, he isn't rushing in to grab the limelight on signature initiatives like immigration reform and proposals to reduce gun violence. It's time, he says, to let the rank and file roll up their sleeves and learn how to legislate. The test case is immigration reform.
"I want to encourage this bipartisan cooperation that's under way. I think it's really important, not only for this issue but important for other issues that could come up," Boehner says. "It's good to let these members continue to work. If I weigh in on one side or the other, all it does is make it more difficult."
Upcoming across-the-board spending cuts set to slam the economy in two weeks? Boehner says a solution is up to Obama and Senate Democrats.
New ideas to prevent gun violence? Let's see what the Senate can pass, Boehner says, then we'll take a look.
Immigration reform? Boehner says it's best left to bipartisan working groups in both the House and Senate.
And the litany of new initiatives unveiled by Obama in Tuesday's State of the Union address?
"If he's got such good ideas, his party in the Senate could pass it," Boehner told The Associated Press in an interview in his Capitol office. "Then we'd be happy to take a look at it."
Boehner's almost Zen-like approach is a break from the experience of two years ago. Fortified by dozens of tea party freshmen, he and the GOP House stormed the Washington battlefield with abandon, winning some concessions on spending but seeing many initiatives killed by the Senate and overshadowed by the presidential campaign.
Boehner has taken political heat from Republicans for two failed rounds of budget talks with Obama in which he got ahead of the GOP rank and file in offering Obama new tax revenues. He left both sets of talks, accusing the White House of shifting demands and being unwilling to address major spending programs.
"Frankly, every time I've gotten into one of these high-profile negotiations, you know, it's my rear end that got burnt," Boehner says.
Boehner also suffered in some GOP quarters after a subsequent tactical retreat last month when he scheduled a vote on higher tax rates for top earners rather than allow the full menu of Bush-era tax cuts to expire. A surprising number of tea partyers cast protest votes when he was re-elected as House speaker last month. A Superstorm Sandy relief bill for the Northeast drew strikingly little GOP support from lawmakers outside the region.
Now, as the government lurches toward automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as a "sequester" that are set to drain $85 billion from the Pentagon and domestic programs, Boehner is acting as though it's not his problem.
"Remember, this is the president's idea. He insisted on this," the speaker says. "And until he puts forward a plan to replace the sequester and his Senate Democratic colleagues pass it, we're going to be stuck with it."
Some of Boehner's reticence to tackle the sequester may be rooted in weakness. He notes that the House has acted twice to block the cuts, which the Pentagon warns will gut the military. But those votes came last year and that legislation died when the new Congress convened in January just days after a sequester replacement effort squeaked through on a 215-209 vote.
More of Boehner's most ardently conservative Republicans are embracing the cuts as the deadline nears, and it's not clear he could muster the votes to try to replace them with an all-GOP approach.
Boehner suffers from the perception that he needs to watch his step to avoid provoking his tea party-laced rank and file into rebellion, and that can mean the House sometimes acts only when a crisis is near. But he's not afraid to maneuver the GOP House to places where it has to go in spite of tea party opposition, like the recent tax vote and bipartisan spending bills that passed with Democratic support.
"I've got to tread carefully," Boehner acknowledges. "But there's nobody that has more guts to take on his own party than I do."
Facing four more years of Obama, he isn't rushing in to grab the limelight on signature initiatives like immigration reform and proposals to reduce gun violence. It's time, he says, to let the rank and file roll up their sleeves and learn how to legislate. The test case is immigration reform.
"I want to encourage this bipartisan cooperation that's under way. I think it's really important, not only for this issue but important for other issues that could come up," Boehner says. "It's good to let these members continue to work. If I weigh in on one side or the other, all it does is make it more difficult."
I loved the State of the Union this time around. There was very little talk about the state of our union, and a heck of a rabble rousing "deserves a vote" pep rally. No word on how an American Ambassador was killed, or about who killed him. No word about the near certain bankrupcy of the Social Security System. It's all such a sordid littany.
@agateriver : ...no word on live video in white house situation room ala bin Laden while nearby help ordered to stand down?
The President said that nothing he was going to propose would cost the American taxpayer a dime. Does that mean that some of the rest of us, those of us not living in the inner city, are going to get some free stuff? And to think that I didn't vote for him. How nearsighted of me.
BHO described the deal containing âthe sequesterâ (a White House proposal) as it was being sold to us âIt will allow us to start reducing our deficit in a responsible way.â
Even adding that it had âA proven enforcement mechanism: An enforcement mechanism that will compel painful enough cuts to both sides that it will force congress to act.â
He then blames Congress for acting as he urged;âthese cuts, known . . as âthe sequester,â are a really bad ideaâ.
BHO got the debt limit increase and added revenue, and now wants to undo the payment portion of the deal he brokered, supported and rallied votes.
How can you work with someone that points the other way as to the problem(s)?This isnât limited to those guy over there or the ones yonder, is it US â all of US.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/31/president-obama-speaks-support-bipartisan-deal-reduce-deficit-and-raise-debt-limit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/remarks-president-state-union-address
Obama owns the "Sequester". His white House. His Administration. It originated in the White House.
@last boyscout You do know how budgets become law ? Do I have to take you to the woodshed again like the solyndra crap ??
I remember something called the "Budget Control Act"....hey boner, memmory problems ??
Did boner vote for this ?? Ah, ya !
"0ther see the two parties as co-owners of sequestration, especially since Republicans in Congress voted for the law that set up its possibility. In the House, 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted for the law, while 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats opposed it. (Final tally: Passed 269-161.) In the Senate, 28 Republicans and 45 Democrats voted for it, while 19 Republicans and 6 Democrats opposed it. (Final tally: Passed 74-26)"
It's not often that I find myself in alignment with Rep Boehner, but I have to applaud his position. Thus far, the spin and PR arm of the DNC has been running the show. Any measure or proposal that doesn't get a vote in the house is immediately framed as being a failure on the part of the GOP. In reality, it's been about 50/50 to this point in President Obamas tenure.Â
What remains to be seen, however, in Rep Boehners new found cooperative attitude is if he will actually consider proposals and allow them to come to the floor for a vote, or just return to his tried and true obstinance as a substitute for compromise.Â
Any one with the integrity to stand in the way of Obama wasting another two billion of our tax dollars on yet another BS solar energy scam is my kind of guy.
@last boyscout Ya, cause obama sent those millions to solyndra and they ble....what ....er...the village idiot actually started the program that gave money to solyndra....nevernmind
@sargerator @last boyscout Obama favors picking and choosing dates from which to extrapolate information. Who began the program is irrelevant. Obama choose to spend the money. It's Obama's fault.
@FreedomRocks @last boyscout @sargerator Go back to watching the flinstones...please !
@last boyscout @sargerator
Really....REALLY...sorry , you're wrong !
"It's often claimed that the Solyndra loan guarantee was "rushed through" by the Obama Administration for political reasons. In fact, the Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched in 2007. "
The link is scientific american, hardly a "liberal" media outlet, thought I'd just cut you off at the knees on that tired 'ol excuse you use !
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=solyndra-advanced-by-bush-for-2-yea-2011-09
@last boyscout @sargerator Yep like his numbers in the global warming part of his speech where cherry picked make it look really significant when statistically if you look at the full picture it was not concrete proof of anything.
Republican, democrat, independent, I don't really care. He's been around too long. We need to add term limits to the federal constitution. Obviously some people are getting burnt out and tired.
@Morticae I hope your talking about Obama!!!
This great country suffers while being held hostage by the House of NON-Representatives.
@w-t-f I plan on being assigned boss of the work crew you and I are assigned to when your Obama administration rounds us up into FEMA camps.
@w-t-f I prefer to call it the House of Corporate Representatives since that's who they truly represent.