Driving Over the Cliff with John Boehner

Poor John Boehner. Seriously. As Speaker of the House he has an almost untenable job trying to hold his pragmatic Senators with his far right nut jobs.

Last night, just in case we needed any illustration of how little ground he has under his feet, Boehner was forced to pull a bill last night that would have only raised taxes on those with incomes of over a million dollars. The bill which would never pass the Senate was meant by the leader to put the Republicans on the record of supporting a bill that would keep the tax cuts for the middle class. Even with taxes only being raised on millionaires the Republicans in the house would not vote for his bill.

So the Republicans are going home. They are taking their ball and going home. Of course it is all posturing and they will be back at it after Christmas.

On the Democratic side The President seems to have forgotten that he won the election. The Democrats hold all the cards. One only needs to consider that the Democratic wish list is to remove the Bush tax cuts and cut defense spending and if the President does nothing, nothing at all this will happen. On January 2nd the Democrats can put a bill in play that cuts taxes on only the middle class and dare the Republicans to vote against it.

With all this in place what does the President do. He puts forth a bill to raise the tax cut threshold to 400K and cut entitlements. I do not mind the latter, I realize things have to be done but there should be no raising of the tax package cut off.

Watching Morning Joe this morning we saw a fine illustration of what is wrong with the right, what Speaker Boehner has to deal with. Some Kansas knucklehead Congressman advised Joe that he would not support any tax increases whatsoever no matter how many budget cuts accompanied it. Next he told Joe and Mika that he would favor no limitations to gun rights none whatsoever. It is not so much his opinions but his refusal to even entertain negotiation. After saying he would consider nothing save his own lunatic positions he said we still had ten days to solve this. According to his own statements however the only thing he could work out was to have everyone do things his way.


Finally Steve Rattner and Joe Scarborough discussed Boehner's last ditch chance to get a positive vote on his bill. He offered Conservatives an opportunity to protect the defense spending that will be cut in sequestration. What did he offer. Listen to this. To protect the bloated Defense budget he offered cuts or the discontinuation entirely of Food Stamps, Mortgage Relief Programs, the Child Tax Credit and Obesity Prevention. This is what Boehner has to offer these red meat reactionaries to try to get them on board.

The next time you want to feel bad for someone in politics you might want to acknowledge that agree with him or not John Boehner is a pragmatic man. Having that little piss-ant Eric Cantor as his second in command and stabbing him each time he turns around, having men like Steve King of Iowa to placate, John Boehner becomes almost a tragic figure. He probably deserves better and at least needs our prayers.