While critical of Speaker Boehner I have been reluctant to call for his ouster on these pages giving greater consideration to whether the GOP has someone replace him and/or do we really need additional party disunity right now?
However after the final weekend of the 112th Congress, it has become clear that a change in leadership is necessary. It's not because he compromised on the deal----it's how he compromised.
Speaker Boehner not only voted in favor of the bill which added $4 trillion to the debt, extend a wide range of tax breaks to industries such as Hollywood and NASCAR, etc---but he also pushed for it to come up for a floor vote without any deal-breaking spending-cut amendments. In the end, only 84 Republicans joined Boehner and 172 Democrats to pass the bill.
Why, because he didn't want House Republicans to look bad? When it was all done, he refused to bring the Sandy Relief bill to the floor causing a vocal rebellion from GOP Congressman Peter King, making the House Republican Caucus look heartless and bad.
The day after the the election, Boehner was making concessions saying he was open to raising more tax revenue to reduce deficits -- a key Democratic requirement -- but only if it's done through tax reform that lowers income tax rates and in conjunction with entitlement reform.
That's like walking into an auto dealership and saying I am willing to pay sticker price if you give me an extra set of floor mats. Heck the starting position should be you want the discount AND the floor mats!
After getting nothing but silence from the White House Boehner followed that up with formal plan offering $800 Billion in revenue increases via closing "loopholes. Still no proposal from the President Boehner offered his "Plan B." Finally after losing control of his caucus he left it all up to Mich McConnell who was bound to come up with a less than positive solution.
Let's face it they guy does not know how to negotiate...and he got played like a fiddle. It seems like Boehner negotiated against himself more than he negotiated with the President. It's one thing to lose fighting, but he never attacked the president's positions, never mentioned that there were already $1 trillion in new taxes starting January first. He never even got in front of the podium yesterday to say, "I can't vote for this because it adds $4 trillion to the deficit."
Instead of trying to take a stand, from the very onset Boehner was trying to "prevent the GOP from looking bad." Guess what Mr. Speaker...now that its all done...the GOP looks very bad
And then to add more stupidity to his leadership he refused to bring Hurricane Sandy relief to the floor. Yes it has tons of pork, but he just voted for a fiscal cliff compromise that added $4 trillion to the deficit by not allowing a vote on the relief plan he brought back images of Republicans pushing granny off the cliff....except this time it wasn't granny it was all of coastal NY, NJ and Conn.
The fiscal cliff "debate" was the first of many like conflicts that will take place over the next few months. In order to help this country and cut the crushing debt our country faces we need to have a new strategy--which can only come with a new leadership.
Its time for a change....for the good of the country.
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