Washington, DC -- Ever since giving his American Jobs Act speech, President Obama has hewed consistently to a new path -- one that recognizes the futility of appeasing the Tea Party when it is determined to block economic recovery in order to carry the next election. He followed through in his deficit remarks, making it clear that he would veto any deficit-reduction bill that cut medical care for the elderly without also increasing taxes on oil companies and the wealthy. He then told Congress, two days ago, that if House Republicans tried to block the EPA from the protecting of public health from pollutants like mercury, sulfur, soot, and smog, he would veto the legislation.
The president's firmness has exposed a deep fault line that runs through the Republican caucus in Congress -- and between that caucus and its broad-based constituency. Now that Obama is no longer signaling conciliation, it becomes Speaker Boehner's turn to experience the folly of trying to legislate with a faction that seeks to reignite the Civil War and take down the nation itself. Boehner's initial response to Obama's jobs and deficit plans was to reaffirm where his party's loyalties lie. He proposed that if Americans wanted to continue repairing bridges, roads, and other infrastructure, the price they must pay was turning over America's wilderness to the oil industry.
Boehner next put all of his chips on the line to pass through the House a Continuing Resolution, the short-term funding mechanism that keeps the national government functioning if Congress cannot pass routine appropriations. Boehner's appropriation bill demonstrated his fealty to the core, quasi-terrorist Tea Party strategy: At every opportunity to cut social services or vital national investments, take (and ideally shoot) some hostages. In this case, the hostage was funding for disaster relief to help Americans like those in Rick Perry's Texas (where the federal government helped out with fire and drought damage earlier this year) or House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's Virginia (hurricane victims).
The victim to be sacrificed to end this particular episode of hostage taking was America's commitment to investments in advanced vehicle manufacturing technology, the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program. This ploy was set up a few days earlier, when Senate Republicans refused to let the Senate even debate a disaster-relief bill that was not tied to further slashing of the nation's economic future. Without a clean Senate Continuing Resolution, Boehner had his window to demonstrate that hostage taking was the unified response of the Republicans in Congress to the fires in Texas and the hurricanes in the East.
Boehner and his colleagues were opposed by the UAW, the environmental community, the National Association of Manufacturing and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which wrote: "While the Chamber understands the importance of reducing America's unacceptable debt and believes that all programs must be on the table, the Chamber urges you to bear in mind the facts about the ATVM loan program, which promotes manufacturing in the U.S. and is an important component of America's energy security."
Boehner was not moved. House Democrats expressed understandable shock at the idea that the victims of the next disaster -- whatever it might be -- were being held hostage to the Tea Party's wish-list of program cuts. Unsurprisingly, the minority came down on the side of the broad-based coalition that extended from the Sierra Club to the Chamber of Commerce. They voted -- all but eight of them -- against Boehner's version of the Continuing Resolution. That apparently didn't bother the Speaker. But what he had apparently not realized was that any Continuing Resolution that could pass -- even one that slashed the future of America's manufacturing economy -- was unacceptable to his Tea Party caucus. Forty-eight Republican members voted against the Boehner Continuing Resolution, ensuring that, with unified Democratic opposition, the bill was defeated. Media reported that Boehner was "'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."
The Speaker appeared to have two options: Lasso his recalcitrant extremists into flip-flopping and voting for the Resolution complete with ransom demands, or pass a simple extension of government spending authority with Democratic votes and give up the hostage game, at least for this round.
Since Boehner knows that his hostage demands have no chance of passing the Senate in any event, wisdom would suggest that he begin, however tentatively, to wade across the Rubicon, just as Obama did a few weeks ago. Boehner needs to recognize that trying to govern while dependent on a faction that wants the government to fail is simply a bridge too far.
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He's done enough caving and without it helping much.
If the other kids don't want to play nice, stop playing with them.
BOEHNER: Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people, because they’ve been asking the question now for 18 months, “where are the jobs?â€
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IOW, the Senate is the real "hostage" taker. Good lord, the hypocrisy you liberals practice is mind-boggling.
"his ploy was set up a few days earlier, when Senate Republicans refused to let the Senate even debate a disaster-relief bill that was not tied to further slashing of the nation's economic future"
see republican senators stopped debate on a clean bill. what naughty boys they are.
Although the trend of defection may continue, the damage to the country has been done and will not be forgotten. Those in the affected areas of recent disasters will certainly think twice if they always vote party lines before voting for an incumbent. The President is but one man, but the GOP/Tea Party with their mandate of NO have severely damaged over 300 million people in this country and affected many more in the World.
As President Clinton recently said the behavior of Congress is SAD, VP Cheney agreed. While no one likes or wants to see our debt grow, the country must be put back to work to heal and create the revenue to pay for critical programs. Taxation must be fair, and spending cuts must come from the areas that put us in this situation three wars, and wasteful pork spending with Foreign Aid to countries that are our enemies and can self sustain.
These constitutionalist TP'ers are what was formerly referred to as the "silent majority" and are the mainstream of the American electorate. These are the people (Gov. Gary Johnson, Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mike Lee, et al) that will be the future leaders of our country.
I think the cable announcer got the story wrong. The polls indicated that the average Tea Party member's head has shrunk by 19% during 2011.
The TP only concern is to stop this insane spending. That's it.
The only class warfare has been the GOP/Wealthy/Corporation divide.