John Boehner Reveals Plans For First Vote As Speaker

Incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner recently announced that his first measure to cut spending as leader of the House of Representatives would be to reduce Congressional budgets.

"Well, how about we start with cutting Congress? I'm going to cut my budget, my leadership budget five percent. I'm going to cut all the leadership budgets by five percent. I'm going to cut every committee's budget by five percent," Boehner told Lesley Stahl of CBS News's "60 Minutes." "And every member is going to see a five percent reduction in their allowance. All together that's $25-$30 million and it likely would be one of the first votes we cast."

Stahl appeared skeptical of the initiative, telling Boehner, "that's not a lot of money," especially considering the trillion dollar deficits that the GOP has promised to address, but the Speaker-in-waiting maintained that they "gotta start somewhere."

It's all part of Boehner's new plan to implement a new "spending cut bill" every week over the course of his first three months as speaker.

As an extra teaser, CBS News reports:

Rep. Boehner, a famously emotional man, cried several times during interviews, on topics such as his family and his principles.

Watch the interview this Sunday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

WATCH:

Comments

[michael429]

01:01 PM on 12/13/2010

His tears are like the Walrus and the Carpenter from Through the Looking Glass....along with the Mad Hatters of the Tea Party...this is truly going to be an entertaining couple of years....

[Ed C Atlanta]

12:41 PM on 12/13/2010

hey john boy, how about a vote that concetrates on some damn jobs,, where is that conversation?

[ChiBloger]

09:32 AM on 12/13/2010

I looked at that interview with JB. He mentioned that he can’t go to schools and look at the little children without getting emotional. Call me jaded, call me skeptical but my thoughts were that he looked at those little kids and realized how much he and his Republican friends are destroying their futures.

[BlueSkyPilot]

08:52 AM on 12/13/2010

How about a "Means Test" for Senators and Representatives.
If your net worth is 10 times higher than the poorest person in your district you don't get pay, benefits or pensions. If you are already rich and sincerly want to work in public service volun FN teer.

[ChiBloger]

09:34 AM on 12/13/2010

Wow, thats goodd. But, it makes too much sense. It would really seperate the public servants from the self servants though.

[BlueSkyPilot]

10:58 AM on 12/13/2010

Think it might get them to try and raise the net worth of the poorest in their districts?

That's the American Dream not the Washington Dream.

[justsayno]

08:45 AM on 12/13/2010

HP wont even run the story because they know what a da it makes him look like google media

I’ve never seen anything like that,” said MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur after cutting back following a press conference on the tax plan. It had begun with a surprise appearance by President Obama who then brought in a further surprise, none other than Bill Clinton, to help him explain the deal. However, after introducing Clinton and letting him begin to talk, Obama suddenly announced that he was leaving for a Christmas party and vanished, letting Clinton talk for 25 more minutes as if it was 1996! I guess it could have been worse. Obama could have left to go play hoops.

Seriously, what was the thinking here? This has to be one of the worst PR moves in the entirety of the administration. Obviously, Clinton is probably a more popular Democratic figure right now, but they had to imagine this would hurt Obama. I mean, letting a former president explain your tax bill while you head to a Christmas party? A Christmas party?

[luvbeingright]

09:21 AM on 12/13/2010

They put Obama in, they will do their best to shield him from negative reporting.

[justsayno]

10:18 AM on 12/13/2010

That is why I help them :)

[Hellooo]

08:11 AM on 12/13/2010

Boehner is crying crocodile tears while he and the Republican Party are busy stealing any access to the American Dream from everybody else.

[Mark Rich]

07:40 AM on 12/13/2010

I question the mental health of someone who has so little control over his emotions that he cries several times over the course of a 20 minute interview.

[ocrmom59]

12:38 PM on 12/13/2010

He cries because he figure it will help him with the teabaggers when he work to cut off their ss, medicare and work to try to repeal the health care bill to make it easier for insurance companies to increase our premiums just to cover those who refuse to buy insurance, that they will not protest against them.

He is trying to figure out how he can keep people to believe that the president is not a american and race isn't an issue in this whole thing. He figured if he cry everytime he get in front of the news media that those who still live in the past will believe anything he say and do what he want them to do.

It work for the past two years so he is betting that it would work for two more years, He cut a million and then add on a billion and the president cut a billion dollars and he thinks that a million is more than a billion. Go figure, he knows all he have to do is pretend to do and then keep saying No, those followers of his will believe every word he say until it is too late.

[Trepasky]

07:10 AM on 12/13/2010

Why don't we ask Congress for a performance plan and then a quarterly review of their progress?
They are working for us, at least that is the myth we are asked to believe.
As it appears, Congress is evaluated on two major aspects/jobs.
1) Giving the rich gifts
2) Raising money for re-election
3) Pretending they represent 'the people'
Number three is just a talking point. Not really a job requirement.

[Ed C Atlanta]

06:54 AM on 12/13/2010

Hey john, instead of you being the one crying , that should be us the taxpayers crying,,you call a measley 25-30 million a dent in the deficit,, you have lost your mind,that is if you ever had one to begin with,,you are too funny,,

[luvbeingright]

09:15 AM on 12/13/2010

i'll take the measly 25-30 million and create over 600 jobs

[kelleytom]

06:02 AM on 12/13/2010

What about the 167 rounds of golf he played last year? Three days a week is all the republicans are going to work in D.C.. They argue that they need the other days to be back in their districts for their constituents. ROFLMAO!!

[FresnoSanity]

06:25 AM on 12/13/2010

And they then complained that Democrats were anti-Family because they instituted a 5 day work week for congress.

[kelleytom]

05:58 AM on 12/13/2010

*phony's

[kelleytom]

05:57 AM on 12/13/2010

Someone put a pacifier in this phonies mouth, would you please. Wah, Wah, Wah!!

[Victor John]

05:37 AM on 12/13/2010

i will listen to boehner when he cuts his budget and allowance and that of all members of house and senate by 50%.

[Maurice Mizrahi]

08:35 AM on 12/13/2010

I think we should insist they cut their Health benefits by 100 percent to match what a significant number of Americans have.

[1differentdrummer]

05:37 AM on 12/13/2010

You'll note, I'm sure, it's nothing for the people.

[IdeasNotMoney]

08:56 AM on 12/13/2010

It's less money that our children will have to pay in the future. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

[falsedichotomies]

04:27 AM on 12/13/2010

oooohh.. $25-$30 million a week for three months. Way to really save the country there John.

[Rogan]

07:37 AM on 12/13/2010

I know, right? It's like having a drinking contest, that consists of each contestant drinking a shot of beer every four hours...