Boehner Refuses to Play Along the Government Shut Down Game. Whisper of "Socialist Agent" Abound.
That Orange American is Starting to Look Red. As Angry Piss Off Red, Not Socialist Red. Ok, Maybe Socialist Red Too.
House Republicans Regrouping on CR, Pondering Two Options
House Republicans will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss their options to move forward on a short-term bill to fund the federal government that their party failed to pass a day earlier.
House GOP leadership aides said the Republican Conference will be presented with two options: Either they revote on the continuing resolution that includes offsets to disaster-relief spending and force their membership to get in line for the 218 votes required for it to pass, or they move instead on a clean CR with no spending offsets that will bring Democrats on board but adhere less to the GOP’s fiscal principles.
“They can vote no, but what they are in essence doing is voting to spend more money, because that is exactly what will happen,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.
The 48 Republicans who voted against the CR on Wednesday are chafing GOP leaders by thwarting attempts to get their votes because the CR adheres to a spending agreement worked out with the White House in August during the debt-ceiling negotiations that is higher than House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan approved by the House.
Boehner was described as "spitting nails" during a closed-door member meeting on Wednesday, and his harsh talk demonstrated that the usually unflappable speaker is reaching something close to a breaking point with his internally divided conference.
Those close to Boehner said there is a growing anger in the leadership that some in the freshman class and other intractable conservatives pay no mind to the legislative dangers of abandoning leadership-especially at a time when Democrats feel as if they and President Obama are fighting for their political lives.
Top GOP leadership aides said Boehner knew the stopgap bill would fail and wanted to prove to the Republicans who defected how their actions would force party leaders to negotiate with Democrats to win passage of the must-pass bill. A government shutdown is not an acceptable alternative to GOP leaders, a message Boehner reiterated on Thursday. “There’s no threat of government shutdown-let’s just get this out there,” he said.
In private, Boehner has grown tired of what he dismissively calls the "know-it-alls who have all the right answers." Boehner knew what a defeat would mean-a more costly spending bill, one that provides more emergency disaster relief and contains fewer budget offsets.
As one top leadership aide said: "Boehner is more than willing to accept a short-term defeat to achieve a longer-term goal." So what's the longer-term goal? It appears to be showing Republicans who oppose leadership that divisions not only create low-level political chaos and bad media coverage, they undermine GOP policy goals by increasing the leverage of the Democratic minority.
To that end, House leadership aides said leaders were leaning toward moving a clean CR with Democratic votes in order to get it through the Senate and allow Congress to recess in time for its scheduled break next week.
BREAKING: House GOP Votes Down Resolution Containing Disaster Relief Funds It Promised Not To Hold Hostage
With just more than a week until the government’s spending authority ends, the House’s continuing resolution failed 195-230 today, as 48 Republicans broke with party leadership to vote down the measure that would have kept the government functioning through mid-November had the Senate passed the same version. The resolution had been expected to pass easily.
Republican opposition was based on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) attachment of $1 billion in disaster relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Irene and other climate disasters, which Republicans, including Cantor, had demanded be offset by spending cuts in other areas. Last week, Cantor promised that no one in the House Republican caucus would hold disaster relief hostage over spending cuts - an assertion that today’s vote has apparently proven false. Democrats opposed the offsets Republicans did find, which targeted funding for energy efficienct vehicles. A bipartisan Senate majority approved $7 billion in disaster relief funds last week.
The House GOP brought the government to the brink of shutdown in April, when a last-minute deal with Democrats ended in a six-month spending bill that expires next week. It appears they’re doing it again.
John Boehner Told Not To 'Fold' As Government Shutdown Looms
With a government shutdown looming, leaders in the Tea Party community urged House Speaker John Boehner not to cave and agree to a budget compromise with Democrats that contains anything less than $61 billion in spending cuts.
Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Debbie Dooley said if Boehner agrees to a deal that fails to meet that threshold, then the Republican party "will have broken their campaign promise," according to the Wall Street Journal. The suggestion was presumably made in reference to a "Pledge to America" released by congressional Republicans last year outlining plans to reduce government spending.
"If they fold on this, then they will fold on the debt ceiling and they will fold on budget 2012," she said before asking, "Why should we trust them further to keep their promises?"
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler made similar comments on the budget issue during an appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews" on Thursday night. Here's an excerpt of the exchange that went down:
MATTHEWS: And you are a leader, and it may be that you're in charge of the United States government in this sense--you guys are calling the shots. What is your demand? Is it still absolute victory, you want all the cuts the Republicans talked about in that first House bill this year, HR-1, $100 billion currently pro-rated to $61 billion. You want that or nothing, right?
MECKLER: That's what we're looking for. That's correct, Chris.
MATTHEWS: That's what you're looking for?
MECKLER: Absolutely.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips also recently expressed dissatisfaction with the House Speaker's efforts to reduce government spending.
"Charlie Sheen still makes more sense than John Boehner because at least Charlie Sheen is winning," he said during an appearance on Fox News. "This is the one message the Tea Party needs to be out there pushing. ... If you don't live up to your promise, we're going to throw you out."
TIME's Jay Newton-Small reported on Friday:
With a temporary solution effectively blocked, Boehner now has a choice before him: allow the government to shut down and become a hero to his freshmen and Tea Party conservatives ("Shut it down," chanted Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, on the House floor yesterday), or compromise with the White House and become enemy No. 1 to much of his own conference.
Earlier this week, Boehner told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that "there's no daylight between" himself and the Tea Party.
"They want us to cut spending," he said. "They want us to deal with this crushing debt that's going to crush the future for our kids and grandkids. There's no daylight there."
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Opposes Auto Loan Cuts, Just Like Environmental, Labor Groups
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds itself on the same side as environmental groups and labor unions on a budget cut that House Republicans pushed in Wednesday's failed temporary spending bill.
In a letter obtained by The Huffington Post, the Chamber, one of the most influential organizations among conservatives, told members of the Senate that Congress should pass disaster aid funding, but stopped just short of insisting there be no cuts to the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program. The program, which provides loans to auto manufacturers, encourages them to build more efficient vehicles in the United States.
"[T]he program was authorized in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was supported by both Republicans and Democrats as an important step in reducing America’s dependence on oil from unstable regimes," wrote R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs for the Chamber.
Josten pointed out the ATVM loans will be repaid with interest and described the program as providing new opportunities for "American workers in a sector of the economy that is critical to the nation's recovery."
Josten wrote that all programs should be evaluated for purposes of reducing the federal debt, but still tried to sway lawmakers away from targeting the ATVM program.
Earlier this week, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, joined with the United Steel Workers and United Auto Workers in sending a letter to members of Congress opposing cuts to the same program.
Kim Hill, associate director of research at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., told HuffPost that the program's funding has been directly responsible for car makers moving production from other countries to the United States.
"Where we sit here in Michigan, that actually was disaster relief. This region of the country was going to fall apart if some of these companies
failed," Hill said.
Prior to Wednesday's House vote on the temporary spending bill, 108 Democrats had signed a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urging him not to cut the program. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decried the House GOP for seeking to slash what he called a "jobs program."
Reps. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) were the first in the House to sound the alarm on the proposed cuts to the ATVM loan
program. "They targeted a program that created jobs ... and one that did what we're all united on. It brought jobs back to the United States," Peters told HuffPost.
During debate on the floor Wednesday, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) defended cuts to the program, repeatedly saying that much of the money has been sitting idle and therefore all of the funding wasn't needed.
But the Chamber pushed back on Rogers' claim.
"[T]he fact that the Department of Energy has yet to use the funds Congress appropriated for the program is not the fault of industry. Numerous loan applicants have been in the queue for years, waiting for the Administration to complete its due diligence," Josten wrote.
House Republicans had sought $1.5 billion in cuts to the loan program. In part, the money saved would have been redirected to disaster
recovery, but about one-third simply would have been returned to the treasury. Republicans first proposed making cuts to the program back in
May to pay for the cleanup after tornadoes devastated Missouri.
On Wednesday, nearly all Democrats in the House voted against the continuing resolution, which did not pass.
The National Association of Manufacturers on Thursday also put out a letter to the Senate, opposing cuts to the ATVM program.
Me: "Well, guyz. Looks like we will be having ourselves a guvernment shut down! Americans love government shut downs so much that the Tea Party felt like we needed one! Who said they weren't listening to the demands of the American people? Jubs? Who needs them, America wants a Shut Down!"
House Republicans Regrouping on CR, Pondering Two Options
House Republicans will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss their options to move forward on a short-term bill to fund the federal government that their party failed to pass a day earlier.
House GOP leadership aides said the Republican Conference will be presented with two options: Either they revote on the continuing resolution that includes offsets to disaster-relief spending and force their membership to get in line for the 218 votes required for it to pass, or they move instead on a clean CR with no spending offsets that will bring Democrats on board but adhere less to the GOP’s fiscal principles.
“They can vote no, but what they are in essence doing is voting to spend more money, because that is exactly what will happen,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.
The 48 Republicans who voted against the CR on Wednesday are chafing GOP leaders by thwarting attempts to get their votes because the CR adheres to a spending agreement worked out with the White House in August during the debt-ceiling negotiations that is higher than House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan approved by the House.
Boehner was described as "spitting nails" during a closed-door member meeting on Wednesday, and his harsh talk demonstrated that the usually unflappable speaker is reaching something close to a breaking point with his internally divided conference.
Those close to Boehner said there is a growing anger in the leadership that some in the freshman class and other intractable conservatives pay no mind to the legislative dangers of abandoning leadership-especially at a time when Democrats feel as if they and President Obama are fighting for their political lives.
Top GOP leadership aides said Boehner knew the stopgap bill would fail and wanted to prove to the Republicans who defected how their actions would force party leaders to negotiate with Democrats to win passage of the must-pass bill. A government shutdown is not an acceptable alternative to GOP leaders, a message Boehner reiterated on Thursday. “There’s no threat of government shutdown-let’s just get this out there,” he said.
In private, Boehner has grown tired of what he dismissively calls the "know-it-alls who have all the right answers." Boehner knew what a defeat would mean-a more costly spending bill, one that provides more emergency disaster relief and contains fewer budget offsets.
As one top leadership aide said: "Boehner is more than willing to accept a short-term defeat to achieve a longer-term goal." So what's the longer-term goal? It appears to be showing Republicans who oppose leadership that divisions not only create low-level political chaos and bad media coverage, they undermine GOP policy goals by increasing the leverage of the Democratic minority.
To that end, House leadership aides said leaders were leaning toward moving a clean CR with Democratic votes in order to get it through the Senate and allow Congress to recess in time for its scheduled break next week.
BREAKING: House GOP Votes Down Resolution Containing Disaster Relief Funds It Promised Not To Hold Hostage
With just more than a week until the government’s spending authority ends, the House’s continuing resolution failed 195-230 today, as 48 Republicans broke with party leadership to vote down the measure that would have kept the government functioning through mid-November had the Senate passed the same version. The resolution had been expected to pass easily.
Republican opposition was based on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) attachment of $1 billion in disaster relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Irene and other climate disasters, which Republicans, including Cantor, had demanded be offset by spending cuts in other areas. Last week, Cantor promised that no one in the House Republican caucus would hold disaster relief hostage over spending cuts - an assertion that today’s vote has apparently proven false. Democrats opposed the offsets Republicans did find, which targeted funding for energy efficienct vehicles. A bipartisan Senate majority approved $7 billion in disaster relief funds last week.
The House GOP brought the government to the brink of shutdown in April, when a last-minute deal with Democrats ended in a six-month spending bill that expires next week. It appears they’re doing it again.
John Boehner Told Not To 'Fold' As Government Shutdown Looms
With a government shutdown looming, leaders in the Tea Party community urged House Speaker John Boehner not to cave and agree to a budget compromise with Democrats that contains anything less than $61 billion in spending cuts.
Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Debbie Dooley said if Boehner agrees to a deal that fails to meet that threshold, then the Republican party "will have broken their campaign promise," according to the Wall Street Journal. The suggestion was presumably made in reference to a "Pledge to America" released by congressional Republicans last year outlining plans to reduce government spending.
"If they fold on this, then they will fold on the debt ceiling and they will fold on budget 2012," she said before asking, "Why should we trust them further to keep their promises?"
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler made similar comments on the budget issue during an appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews" on Thursday night. Here's an excerpt of the exchange that went down:
MATTHEWS: And you are a leader, and it may be that you're in charge of the United States government in this sense--you guys are calling the shots. What is your demand? Is it still absolute victory, you want all the cuts the Republicans talked about in that first House bill this year, HR-1, $100 billion currently pro-rated to $61 billion. You want that or nothing, right?
MECKLER: That's what we're looking for. That's correct, Chris.
MATTHEWS: That's what you're looking for?
MECKLER: Absolutely.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips also recently expressed dissatisfaction with the House Speaker's efforts to reduce government spending.
"Charlie Sheen still makes more sense than John Boehner because at least Charlie Sheen is winning," he said during an appearance on Fox News. "This is the one message the Tea Party needs to be out there pushing. ... If you don't live up to your promise, we're going to throw you out."
TIME's Jay Newton-Small reported on Friday:
With a temporary solution effectively blocked, Boehner now has a choice before him: allow the government to shut down and become a hero to his freshmen and Tea Party conservatives ("Shut it down," chanted Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, on the House floor yesterday), or compromise with the White House and become enemy No. 1 to much of his own conference.
Earlier this week, Boehner told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that "there's no daylight between" himself and the Tea Party.
"They want us to cut spending," he said. "They want us to deal with this crushing debt that's going to crush the future for our kids and grandkids. There's no daylight there."
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Opposes Auto Loan Cuts, Just Like Environmental, Labor Groups
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds itself on the same side as environmental groups and labor unions on a budget cut that House Republicans pushed in Wednesday's failed temporary spending bill.
In a letter obtained by The Huffington Post, the Chamber, one of the most influential organizations among conservatives, told members of the Senate that Congress should pass disaster aid funding, but stopped just short of insisting there be no cuts to the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program. The program, which provides loans to auto manufacturers, encourages them to build more efficient vehicles in the United States.
"[T]he program was authorized in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was supported by both Republicans and Democrats as an important step in reducing America’s dependence on oil from unstable regimes," wrote R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs for the Chamber.
Josten pointed out the ATVM loans will be repaid with interest and described the program as providing new opportunities for "American workers in a sector of the economy that is critical to the nation's recovery."
Josten wrote that all programs should be evaluated for purposes of reducing the federal debt, but still tried to sway lawmakers away from targeting the ATVM program.
Earlier this week, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, joined with the United Steel Workers and United Auto Workers in sending a letter to members of Congress opposing cuts to the same program.
Kim Hill, associate director of research at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., told HuffPost that the program's funding has been directly responsible for car makers moving production from other countries to the United States.
"Where we sit here in Michigan, that actually was disaster relief. This region of the country was going to fall apart if some of these companies
failed," Hill said.
Prior to Wednesday's House vote on the temporary spending bill, 108 Democrats had signed a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urging him not to cut the program. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decried the House GOP for seeking to slash what he called a "jobs program."
Reps. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) were the first in the House to sound the alarm on the proposed cuts to the ATVM loan
program. "They targeted a program that created jobs ... and one that did what we're all united on. It brought jobs back to the United States," Peters told HuffPost.
During debate on the floor Wednesday, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) defended cuts to the program, repeatedly saying that much of the money has been sitting idle and therefore all of the funding wasn't needed.
But the Chamber pushed back on Rogers' claim.
"[T]he fact that the Department of Energy has yet to use the funds Congress appropriated for the program is not the fault of industry. Numerous loan applicants have been in the queue for years, waiting for the Administration to complete its due diligence," Josten wrote.
House Republicans had sought $1.5 billion in cuts to the loan program. In part, the money saved would have been redirected to disaster
recovery, but about one-third simply would have been returned to the treasury. Republicans first proposed making cuts to the program back in
May to pay for the cleanup after tornadoes devastated Missouri.
On Wednesday, nearly all Democrats in the House voted against the continuing resolution, which did not pass.
The National Association of Manufacturers on Thursday also put out a letter to the Senate, opposing cuts to the ATVM program.
Me: "Well, guyz. Looks like we will be having ourselves a guvernment shut down! Americans love government shut downs so much that the Tea Party felt like we needed one! Who said they weren't listening to the demands of the American people? Jubs? Who needs them, America wants a Shut Down!"