John Boehner will probably go down as one of the weakest Speaker of the House in history. He has absolutely no control of his caucus. Altho… the most you can be sure of when trying to organize crazy people is that if you put sticks in their hands they’ll trash the place.
So Boehner, who can’t save himself, expects to be saved by President Obama. Republican Leadership is an oxymoron. Here’s Boehner’s plan:
We (Republicans) do not want to raise taxes on the wealthy, but we would be willing (maybe, kinda, sorta) to close loopholes and deductions, only… we don’t want to say which ones since that would be unpopular. So, Mr. President, could you do this for us?
We (Republicans) really want to cut Social Security and Medicare, only cutting these programs is really, really unpopular. You might have noticed how we attacked your Medicare cuts during the election. Good times. But now… well, we really always wanted to cut these programs, but it’s still extremely unpopular, so could you propose the cuts? That way we would get what we want and be able to blame you and the Dems. That would be awesome.
Absolutely no leadership or spine. Republicans elected by the people do not serve the people or the country. Their leaders are Grover Norquist, the Koch brothers Rush Limbaugh, etc..
Eugene Robinson speaks the truth:
This fight isn’t about whether the rich will pay more in taxes; it is clear that they will. It’s about whether this new revenue is collected in a way that allows House Republicans to say they have kept their pledge never to raise marginal tax rates for anyone, for any purpose.
And there it is. All these hysterics are over the words “tax rates.” I swear if we called tax rates “freedom revenue” Republicans would vote for them and their ignorant base of supporters would cheer.