John Boehner: Worst. Speaker. Ever.

If the Republicans are going to keep wooing crazies to their party, then they need to learn how to control the crazies once they're in office.  Washington Post:

The undoing of what many on both sides of the aisle thought was a deal on Saturday is a reflection of the continued difficulty Boehner has had in managing his cantankerous caucus.

Repeatedly, over the past year, he has allowed some of the most conservative members, particularly an influential group of freshmen, to call the shots at crucial moments.

This time, Boehner and his leadership team may have allowed the House Republicans to place their party in real political peril with no obvious exit strategy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) left a meeting with House leaders on Friday believing that Boehner and his top deputy, House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), would find the votes to approve a two-month extension of the tax holiday. Both Boehner and Cantor have since disavowed giving McConnell the go-ahead to make the deal, and McConnell has issued a statement supporting Boehner’s position.

Regardless of what exactly was said, McConnell, a 27-year veteran of the Senate, has a reputation as a master negotiator, known for playing hardball and then cutting the best deal possible; he has no history of communication errors.

Read the rest of this post...

Seven Dem congressional candidates march on Boehner’s office in support of OccupyWallStreet

Good for them.  I'm sure the OccupyWallStreet folks are leery of politicians trying to usurp their movement, but I do think it's helpful overall, and to OccupyWallStreet, to have politicians embrace their cause.  And, honestly, anything that gives John Boehner heartburn is never a bad idea.

Here's a CNN segment about the candidates marching to Boehner's office, and here's more from Adam Green and company at the PCCC:

Wednesday, seven congressional candidates brought the energy of the Occupy movement straight to Capitol Hill.

They marched on Speaker John Boehner's office with 35,000 petitions saying "We stand with the 99%" -- and demanded that Congress pass jobs legislation now.

With news cameras from CNN, NBC, and CBS in tow, a fascinating clash with Boehner's staff occurred.

Click here to see the amazing video -- and help their "We stand with the 99%" petition continue to grow.

As you can see from the video, they were stopped at the door of Speaker Boehner's office. Marko Liias, a candidate in Washington's First District, joked that Boehner's "Welcome, please come in" sign should actually read, "Welcome 1%, please come in."

The other bold progressive candidates delivering the petition were Eric Griego (NM-1), Lori Saldana (CA-52), Ilya Sheyman (IL-10), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Franke Wilmer (MT-AL), and Wenona Benally Baldenegro (AZ-1).

These candidates were definitely heard -- and they will bring the fight to the halls of Congress if they are elected. We need more Democrats willing to take the fight straight to the Republicans.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama takes on Boehner, McConnell in rather feisty language

The President's remarks in Cincinnati earlier today were darn good. This extended excerpt in particular. Now, I know... we need more than just speeches - been there, done that. But I think we've proven our bona fides in terms of our willingness to challenge the President when we disagree with him.  And on this speech, we don't disagree with him.  This is the guy I voted for.

So my question to Congress is, what on Earth are you waiting for?

Now, the bridge behind us just so happens to connect the state that’s home to the Speaker of the House with the state that’s home to the Minority Leader of the Senate. Sheer coincidence, of course. But part of the reason I came here is because Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell are the two most powerful Republicans in government. They can either kill this jobs bill, or they can help us pass it.

I know these men care about their states. And I can’t imagine that the Speaker wants to represent a state where nearly one in four bridges is classified as substandard. I know that when Senator McConnell visited the closed bridge in Kentucky, he said that “roads and bridges are not partisan in Washington.” I know that Paul Ryan, the Republican in charge of the budget process, recently said you can’t deny that “infrastructure does create jobs.”

Well if that’s the case, then there’s no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. There’s no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge. Help us rebuild America. Help us put this country back to work. Pass this jobs bill right away.

[...]

It is time to build an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs in this country. It’s time to build an economy that honors the values of hard work and responsibility. It’s time to build an economy that lasts.

Cincinnati, that starts now. That starts with your help. Maybe some of the people in Congress would rather settle our differences at the ballot box than work together right now. Awhile back, Senator McConnell said that his top priority for the next two years is to defeat the President. Not jobs. Not the economy. Just politics – from now until the election.

Well I’ve got news for him, and every other Member of Congress who feels that way: the next election is 14 months away. And the American people don’t have the luxury of waiting that long. A lot of folks are living week to week; paycheck to paycheck; even day to day. They need action, and they need it now.

Read the rest of this post...

John Boehner is just another pretty face

The man is dumb as rocks.  Which is rather scary, since he wields a lot of power in the current jobs debate.  From Jed Lewison at DailyKos:

As anyone with a pulse could have predicted, Boehner blamed weak job growth on President Obama, saying:

“Job creators in America are essentially on strike,” Mr. Boehner said, according to excerpts released by the Speaker’s office. “The problem is not confusion about the policies. The problem is the policies.”
That's got to be the stupidest thing John Boehner has ever said. He's basically saying that business owners would rather protest the nation's fiscal and regulatory policy than make sense. But businesses don't go "on strike" when there's demand for their services and profit to be made. And even if they did, other businesses step in and meet the demand.

No, the problem is not that "job creators" have gone "on strike." The problem is that there isn't enough demand for their products and services. Boehner's fundamental misunderstanding of this basic fact is reflected in his belief that the deficit reduction super committee is actually a jobs committee:

“The joint committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.”
If there were any truth to what Boehner said, if "job creators" really were "on strike" and if they really did believe that "the joint committee is a jobs committee," then job growth would have soared after the conclusion of the debt deal in early August.

Jed has lots of pretty graphs to show that it didn't.

What's particularly disturbing is that most economists disagree with what Boehner is saying. The same people who brought you the earth being only 6000 years old, and dinosaurs living alongside the ancient Greeks, are the ones who came up with John Boehner's incredible plan to cut the deficit and create jobs at the same impossible time!

How many times do the Republicans have to screw up the economy before they actually get held responsible for it? Of course, it takes Democrats actually blaming the Republicans for the economy, repeatedly, for years, for it to sink in. And they don't. Read the rest of this post...

Boehner: "The proposals the President outlined tonight merit consideration."

That's the sound of fear, or at the very least trepidation.

House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama’s jobs proposals laid out in the Capitol Thursday night “merit consideration"...

Mind you, some Republicans weren't even showing up to Obama's speech. The GOP was calling it a political ploy full of failed proposals. Now the Republican leader in the House suddenly says the President's proposals merit consideration. That's a shift. I don't think it's a sincere one, but what is sincere in politics anyway. What matters is actions. And at least for now, John Boehner is acting like someone who got a very scary private briefing about some troubling poll numbers.

Of course, Boehner is SOL once the crazy caucus hears what he said. The teabaggers did a lot of damage to Boehner and themselves during the debt ceiling debate. They got a lot of what they wanted, to be sure, but at what cost? The public is now onto them. And regardless of how far down they bring Obama in the polls, their numbers always end up being worse. At some point - oh, say, November of 2012 - that kind of self-inflicted damage is no longer sustainable. Read the rest of this post...

Obama undercuts EPA, refuses to raise ozone standards

Just a couple of sentences from this long, winding he said–she said article tells the whole tale.

First, what he did, our Democratic president (from USA Today):

President Obama decided Friday morning not to raise ozone standards for air pollution favored by environmentalists but decried by business groups and Republicans.

In his decision, relayed to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Obama cited the need to remove uncertainty for businesses that would be affected. ... "Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered." ... [This EPA-proposed regulation] topped the list of proposed regulations that could cost more than $1 billion demanded recently by House Speaker John Boehner.

Big Oil says, Thanks (and, er, Jobs):

"The president's decision is good news for the economy and Americans looking for work," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.

Boehner's office says, Thanks (and also, We're just getting started):

"We're glad that the White House responded to the speaker's letter and recognized the job-killing impact of this particular regulation," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "But it is only the tip of the iceberg[.]

Conservationists say, You're selling out:

"The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. "This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health."

There's even something in the article about how the EPA scientists all say the current standard (75 ppb) is too high, and how they recommend a lower one (60–70 ppb), and how the courts even said the current standard had to be reduced. So many opinions for one article.

And separately, the Center for American Progress disputes the economic analysis of Big Oil.

It's just all so confusing — who you gonna believe? Mr. You Better Hope I Change, or that nagging hacking cough you just can't lose?

Hey, here's a nice bipartisan idea: Boehner-Obama in 2012. Looks like money in the bank to me (or something).

GP


Read the rest of this post...

What Speechgate says about Boehner

Josh Marshall's people over at TPM have been making hay over the latest Hill flap over Obama's request for a joint session of Congress to talk about jobs and Boehner's alleged snub. I think they have buried the lede.

For folks on the Hill and in the establishment media the flap over the speech is far more important than the programs Obama proposes to create jobs. That's just boring policy stuff to them.

It is a tempest in a teapot, but one of the principles I have learned in working on computer security is that the way a system breaks can tell you a lot about its inner workings. Sometime we deliberately break stuff to try and find out how it works.

According to all the parties concerned Boehner's office received a request from the White House for the joint session and made no reply. That is a staggering admission for any Speaker's office to make. A direct request from the President and they didn't clear the decks to deal with it?

When a journalist calls me for comment on some Internet security flap the first question I ask them is 'what is your deadline'. Every staffer on the Hill knows that protocol, they didn't think to ask the President's staff.

If the Speaker's story is taken at face value he has a serious problem with the competence of his staff and that in turn raises questions of his own competence. It is clear that the staff had more than 15 minutes notice that the request was going to be made.

As far as the Hill gamesmanship goes, Obama's message is that the most important issue facing the country right now is jobs and Boehner's message is that the most important thing is an internal GOP function. Presidential primary debates are a dime a dozen. A joint session of Congress would not be diminished in any way be the absence of two of the nuttiest House members. A presidential primary debate would not be diminished by being moved forward or back by an hour or so.

What this event tells me about Boehner is that he is not very competent and that what he thinks important is himself and his party functions. Read the rest of this post...

Do John Boehner and Paul Clement agree that gays should be put to death?

It's hard to know who this exposes a bigger fool. GOP Speaker John Boehner, who has really botched the handling of DOMA from the beginning, or his new lawyer, Paul Clement, who seems about as competent as a law school drop out from a c-rate school.  (Then again, the list of fools grows longer to include Attorney General Holder, White House spokesman Carney, and Supreme Court Justice Kagan, all of whom stood by Clement - oops.)

I mean, seriously, Speaker Boehner - you actually cited a study in your DOMA brief that relies on the "Nazi" science of a guy who suggested that everyone with AIDS be branded with an "A", and if that fails, we can just put everyone gay in  a camp and then exterminate them.

You're paying half a million bucks of the taxpayers' money for this? Read the rest of this post...

Boehner says no to letting supercommittee also focus on job creation

Get this: Cutting the deficit will create more than enough jobs, so Congress doesn't need to focus on jobs otherwise.  Wow.  Talk about the flat earth society.  Cutting the deficit is going to cut economic growth and kill jobs.  That's not to say the long term deficit doesn't need to be gotten under control eventually.  But let's not lie to the American people and pretend that deficit reduction is somehow going to help the economy by creating jobs over the next few years. It's not. Read the rest of this post...

Time Magazine: "The Speaker has gone lame"

Another day closer to default and another day to watch the national embarrassment that is the House GOP caucus. While no one looks good in this mess, the debt debacle could claim its first political victim: John Boehner.

The failure of the House Republicans to agree to Boehner's plan doesn't bode well for his future according to Jay Newton Small at Time Magazine:

House Speaker John Boehner failed to muster enough GOP votes to pass his plan to raise the debt limit on Thursday night, throwing into question the fate of Boehner's proposal as well as that of his speakership. Republican leaders must now rewrite the legislation in order to attract more conservatives as they try to pass a revised version on Friday. But considerable damage has been done. Boehner's negotiating stance in the ongoing effort to trim deficits and raise the debt ceiling by next Tuesday's deadline is hobbled; any credibility he had in claiming that his restive members could get behind a consensus debt deal has vanished. The Speaker has gone lame. (emphasis added)

Lame. Ouch, but true.

And, Boehner's got limited options:

But it's clear now that Speaker Boehner will need Democratic votes to get any compromise through the House. And that leaves the Republican leader with two options: abandon Tea Party freshmen and form a coalition between his most moderate members and 150+ Dems, or potentially allow the last best hope for a debt ceiling deal to fail in his chamber, with nothing but market panic left to make his members reconsider. Either would be a bruising choice for the embattled Speaker.

If becoming Speaker made Boehner cry, what's he doing to do if he gets dumped? I don't think many of us will be shedding any tears for him.

Also, just learned that Obama will be making remarks about the debt debacle at 10:20 AM ET. We'll post a livestream. Read the rest of this post...

No House vote tonight

The House won't vote on the GOP debt bill tonight.

Boehner doesn't have the votes in his caucus.

Oh well. Read the rest of this post...

UPDATE -- Vote Postponed: It’s crunch time for Boehner. Still unclear if he has votes to pass his debt plan.

UPDATE @ 5:33 PM: The vote has been postponed. Boehner clearly doesn't have 216. Via Ryan Grim:

Boehner is pulling his bill from the floor. Oh lord. This sucker could go down.

The vote could still be later tonight. Depends how many arms get twisted -- and broken.
________________________
Via National Journal, Boehner needs 216 to pass his debt plan -- and the vote is expected around 6 PM ET:

Rep. Maurice Hinchey's, D-N.Y., office has told National Journal that he will not be voting today, as he has not all week. That, combined with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., still being away, means that with two vacancies there will be, at most, 431 Members voting tonight. Therefore, House Speaker John Boehner needs 216 votes to pass his bill. Without any Democratic help, he can still now lose 24 Republican votes if all the rest of the total 240 Republicans show up and vote his way.

It looks like all the Democrats will oppose Boehner's plan, so this is an intra-GOP battle.

National Journal counts 23 GOPers voting no with three leaning no and six undecided.

Think Progress has been diligently tracking the GOP no votes in this post and on Twitter. They're count is at 26.

The Hill's Whip Count is 24 No votes from Republicans.

And, this from Bob Cusack at The Hill:

House Republican leaders are still looking for the votes to pass Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) debt-limit bill.

Boehner and his lieutenants are publicly expressing confidence, but their actions clearly show that they are still rounding up support. Boehner on Thursday afternoon was seen lobbying members, seeking “yes” votes in what is the biggest vote of his Speakership.

Note from John: Another thing probably causing problems for Boehner is the fact that this bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. Members of Congress often don't like voting on controversial legislation that isn't going anywhere. The vote puts them on the record, permitting their opponents to use it against them in the next campaign. In this case, the Teabaggers could use the vote against House Rs (to claim they're not conservative enough), and Democrats could use the vote as well, to show how House Republicans want to gut Medicare and Social Security, etc.

It's hard to explain to your own caucus why they have to fall on their sword for a vote to nowhere. Read the rest of this post...

Boehner’s big day: Can he get GOP votes to pass debt deal?

John Boehner needs 217 votes to pass his debt plan. There are 240 House Republicans. It's unclear if any Democrats will vote with Boehner, so he can only lose 23 members of his caucus.

Against that backdrop, this week, according to numerous reports, John Boehner tried to become a hard ass. NY Times:

Speaker John A. Boehner is a laid-back leader who likes to say that his role is to let the House work its will. But with the nation’s economic standing and his own political future at risk, Mr. Boehner jettisoned his usual laissez-faire approach on Wednesday.

“I didn’t put my neck on the line and go toe to toe with Obama to not have an army behind me,” Mr. Boehner declared at a private party meeting, according to some House members. He demanded the fealty of conservatives who were threatening to sink his budget proposal and deny him the chance to confront the Senate with a take-it-or-leave offer on a debt ceiling increase.

Washington Post:

With his power — and his party — in danger of a humiliating collapse, John A. Boehner had to become the politician he had promised he was not.

Boehner, a genial Ohioan famous for crying in public, had pledged that he would not be an arm-twister like some House speakers of the past. When he took the gavel in January, Boehner (R) promised to allow the House to “work its will.”

By Wednesday, that strategy had led him to a bad place. His party was in revolt. Many Republican lawmakers were publicly critical of his new plan to raise the national debt ceiling, and the bill’s prospects were seriously in doubt.

Still unclear if Boehner has the votes. His future is in the hands of the hard-core teabagger types. From The Hill:

House Republicans who signed a "cut, cap and balance" pledge are expected to decide the fate of Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) new debt and deficit reduction bill.

Thirty-nine House Republicans embraced the pledge, which vows to oppose any bill that raises the debt ceiling unless it calls for major cuts, spending caps and a balanced budget amendment.

Nineteen of those 39 have said they will oppose, or will likely oppose, Boehner's bill. Only six of them have publicly committed to backing the bill, or are leaning toward supporting it.

Then there are 14 others who have not said how they will vote. Republican leaders must convince most of these members to vote yes, or the bill will die on the House floor Thursday, according to an analysis by The Hill.

The Hill has posted its whip count. The vote will be later today. There's plenty of time for Boehner to twist arms.

UPDATE: Looks like the House vote will occur in the early evening, after the markets close:

Indeed, House Republicans are planning an evening vote on Boehner’s package to lift the debt ceiling — after the financial markets close in New York.

Read the rest of this post...

John Boehner informs House GOPers that there’ll be no butter in hell

#inspiringGOPMovieScenes

This is apropos of this. Read the rest of this post...

House Dems say invoke 14th Amendment. Boehner says "Obama hates it" to get GOP votes

John Boehner has been rallying his caucus to support his debt plan by saying that Obama hates it:

Boehner said he couldn't understand why any Republicans would position themselves with Democrats opposing his plan.

"Barack Obama hates it, [Sen.] Harry Reid hates it, [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi hates it," he said, naming off the Democratic leadership.

That kinda sums it up.

Some House Democratic leaders are saying enough already with the legislative games. It's time to invoke the 14th amendment:

A trio of House Democratic leaders is calling on President Obama to move unilaterally to raise the country’s debt ceiling next week if Congress passes anything less than a long-term extension of the federal borrowing limit.

House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (S.C.), Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) and Caucus Vice-Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) said after a closed-door caucus meeting Wednesday that they are calling on Obama both to veto a short-term deal and sign an executive order invoking the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to avert default on Aug. 2.

The White House has repeatedly ruled out that option. But, for two years, the White House also repeatedly said the President absolutely had to defend DOMA -- until he didn't have to defend DOMA.

Here's how Section 4 of the 14th amendment reads:

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Read the rest of this post...

Club for Growth opposes the Boehner debt ceiling plan

So, it will be dueling Republicans after all. A three-handed game.

Just a day or so ago, Eric Cantor "reportedly" told the Teabag House members to quit whining and vote for the deal on the table — in essence announcing that they've bled Obama dry, time to feast on the spoils.

Now we have prominent Teabag instigators pushing the other buttons, the ones that say hold out for everything.

Bottom line — game not over, and the Teabags are a player, thank you very much. CNN (my emphasis):

House GOP leaders are working the conservative members of their caucus to try and get enough support to reach the 217 votes needed to pass the Speaker's plan in a vote scheduled for Thursday. That proposal would couple $1.2 trillion in savings over a decade with a hike of just under $1 trillion in the debt limit that would extend it through the end of the year. It also calls for the formation of a congressional committee to find $1.8 trillion in deficit savings, and if that is enacted the debt limit would increase by $1.6 trillion. ...

Club for Growth, a national network of activists who promote economic growth and low taxes, announced Tuesday it was opposing the Speaker's plan. The group strongly backed the bill passed last week by the House that would have cut and then capped federal spending and pushed a balanced budget amendment.

"The Club for Growth strongly opposes the Boehner Debt Limit plan," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement. "It cuts almost nothing immediately, it caps only discretionary spending, and it does not require passage of a balanced budget amendment. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it simply doesn't fix the country's fiscal problems. We strongly oppose it, and we urge a no vote."

So that's where we are as of last night. Not sure how long Boehner will hold onto that gavel, but Cantor can't seem to go counter to Club for Growth and play Dauphin. Interesting sub-drama going on.

About Club for Growth: The article states they are a "national network of activists." They are also heavily involved in funding conservative candidates, so they're daddy-with-a-wallet, not just daddy-with-advice. (They've already dumped $1.5 million into the Wisconsin recall elections, for example.) Teabag types love their daddies, especially rich and funding ones. I think this Club for Growth statement will have an effect.

About "reportedly" above: The report of Cantor's comment was Politico talking, not some Moe on the street, so there's sourcing. But we're in heavy "reportedly" territory these days, anonymous sourcing, with everyone hungry for "news." Did Cantor actually say that? Dunno. Did someone friendly to Cantor tell Politico that Cantor said that? That's one option. Did someone unfriendly to Cantor tell Politico that Cantor said that? That's the other option.

All of these breathless stories come from reporters either (1) chasing the next scoop, or (2) acting as pass-through voices for one or another of the actors in the drama. So take all of these reports with a grain of salt unless the person quoted says publicly what they reportedly said.

As an instance of the latter, CFG President Chris Chocola (god, it's tempting to munge that name) made that statement in a release; thus, he really did say it.

So August 2nd is the new drop-dead date? Miles to go.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Boehner to offer debt deal that Dems. have already rejected, includes short-term deal

The pressure is on Boehner and he's trying to make sure financial markets don't tank in the wake of his recent shenanigans. It feels like this has all been a political game for Boehner, but there are really serious consequences:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his GOP rank-and-file that congressional leaders are working round the clock on a deal set for release before the Asian markets open on Sunday at 4 p.m., a source tells The Hill.

Boehner gave few details as to the yet-to-be-seen proposal, according to an official who participated in the conference call held following a tense meeting at the White House on Saturday afternoon.

"He didn't mention any details; he said the big deal is the Asian markets tomorrow and therefore, we've got to get something out there," the source said, with a cynical attitude as to the urgency of the Asian markets.

So, Boehner has finally figured out the financial markets will tank if there's no deal. His friends on Wall Street have been warning him about that for months.

The NYT reports that Boehner is cooking up a package of cuts worth $3-4 trillion:

Hoping to reassure markets in the wake of an angry breakdown in the federal budget negotiations, Congressional leaders raced Saturday to reach a new deficit-reduction agreement that Speaker John A. Boehner told colleagues could cut $3 trillion to $4 trillion in spending over 10 years.

“We are working, and I’m confident there will be resolution,” Mr. Boehner told fellow House Republicans on an afternoon conference call, according to participants. “There has to be.”

There has to be. Exactly.

And, Sam Stein reports that Boehner is going to include a short-term debt ceiling fix, which Obama has specifically rejected:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is set to call the Democratic Party's bluff on the debt ceiling. The Ohio Republican, in a briefing with his conference on Saturday, announced that he would press for a short-term deal, with major spending cuts paired with longer-term deficit-reduction strategies, as a way around the current impasse.

As Boehner knows, Hill Democrats have consistently rejected any plan that relies solely on cuts -- Obama does not want a short-term extension. But, he's pushing both anyway. Now, he's just trying to jam it through, assuming Democrats will just go along instead of letting the country default. Because, there has to be. Read the rest of this post...

Obama’s Chief of Staff Bill Daley "behind the White House’s capitulation"

Politico's David Rogers and Carrie Budoff Brown report on the $3 trillion deal under discussion between Obama and Boehner. And, despite denials, it appears that Obama and Boehner are negotiating and the number is $3 trillion, mostly in spending cuts. Towards the end of the article is this nugget:

At the same time, the White House’s tactics in this situation most infuriate Senate Democrats, who complain that the president’s chief of staff, Bill Daley, is too quick to make concessions to Boehner, even at the party’s expense.

Yes, they are quick to make concessions at the White House. Like everyone, I've been trying to figure out what's really going on. One trusted source told me that one problem is definitely Daley:

Bill Daley is behind the White House's capitulation. He's the Democrat's Neville Chamberlain. It's dominoes of caving -- one cave leads to another. They are so desperate for a deal that they'll take anything at any price. They won't fight for anything.

Now, of course, Daley works for Obama. He hired Daley, who used to be on the Board of Third Way, the group always willing to sell out on Democratic principle. And, that's what Daley is doing on Obama's behalf.

It sounds like Obama's Budget Director, Jacob Lew, got the crap kicked out of him at a meeting with Democratic Senators yesterday. They're furious about the deal-making between Obama and Boehner:

Democrats were outraged about reports that Obama was willing to accept major spending cuts in exchange for reforming the tax code at some point in the future as part of a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

Reid and other Democrats warned the administration officials in the meeting that they might not support a deal between Obama and Boehner if kept out of the loop.

“It was a heated session,” said a senior Democratic senator who attended the lunch. “There’s a basic lack of trust with the president.”

There is growing lack of trust between the President and his base. I realize people aren't surprised anymore that Obama is caving. It's not actually caving if this is what Obama really believes. Medicare and Social Security are on the table, thanks to Obama. Those items are there because the President wants them there. It's who he is. And, Daley is a problem, but he's doing what Obama wants him to do. Read the rest of this post...

CREW files ethics complaint against Boehner over spending on DOMA legal defense

The defense of DOMA has already caused major headaches for the GOPers. Remember King + Spalding? Now, there's another problem -- an ethics problem.

Signing that $500,000+ contract to defend DOMA may have violated the law, specifically The Antideficiency Act. So, CREW has filed an ethics complaint against Boehner. More at AMERICAblog Gay. And, more from CREW here. Read the rest of this post...

GOP-imposed March budget deal actually increased spending this year - oops

Some hostage takers. It turns out that instead of killing the hostages, the hostages actually had babies on their watch (okay, bad analogy, but basically, they screwed up).

It turns out the six-month spending bill Congress passed in March increased discretionary outlays through the remainder of the fiscal year by a bit over $3 billion. In other words, total direct spending will be higher by the end of September than if Congress had just set spending on autopilot for the remainder of the fiscal year back in April.

"Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates--an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending," reads a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office -- Congress' non-partisan scorekeeper. Analysts there conclude that increase is due in large part to the fact that the six month spending bill shifted defense spending to more immediate activities, which means the bills will come due sooner than later.

The good news for Republicans? Their super duper budget cutting deal should cut spending in ten years by as much as they claimed it would by September.

Heckuva job, Boehner.

But in all seriousness, this is going to make Boehner's job all that more difficult as it's going to make the rabid wing that controls the GOP that much more rabid about enacting massive instant cuts to spending that will jeopardize our recovery. And with the Democrats' track record, it's not like they'r likely to stand up to the GOP. Then again, if the Dems cut more deals like this, maybe there's hope yet. Read the rest of this post...