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I just read The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward, which is largely about the negotiations between Boehner and Pres. Obama that led to a) the sequester deal, and b) the 'fiscal cliff' deal. Others are in the book, but definitely the two leading actors in the book are Obama and Boehner.
Boehner takes a lot of flack from conservatives, some of which I think is fair, but much is not. In the book he says:
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodward
In the White House, you're [Boehner] seen as a Main Street Republican and Eric Cantor as a Wall Street Republican.
"They are judging style as opposed to substance," Boehner said. My voting record and Eric's, I wouldn't think there's a dime's worth of difference...I have the eighth most conservative voting record in Congress. But I don't wear it on my sleeve. I don't shove it in people's face."
Woodward wryly notes that in 2010 Boehner had a 94 percent conservative rating and Cantor only 82 percent, according to the National Journal.
At every point throughout the negotiations Obama is pushing for more 'revenue' (tax hikes) and fewer spending cuts. And at every point Boehner is doing the reverse. Who won? Woodward tackles that question towards the end of the book:
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodward
In 2011 the Republicans seized the leverage in the debt ceiling negotiations with a naked threat to wreck the U.S. economy by allowing the Treasury to default...unless spending cuts were enacted. In the end, $2.4 trillion in cuts [over 10 years] were approved and tax rates remained unchanged...
What did Republicans give up? They raised the debt ceiling for a year and a half--something that even Boehner conceded they would have eventually done anyway.
Spending spiked upwards in 2009 under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Since 2010 when the GOP took back the US House, spending growth has been at a dead halt. Boehner even snookered the WH on the sequester, which as Woodward details, was an idea that came from the WH. It was intended to be so painful that it would never happen, but it did.
All in all, I think that John Boehner has done a fine job as Speaker, and doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves from conservatives. There's only so much you can do when Democrats control both the Senate and WH. Boehner has gotten results way out of proportion to his power.
I like him but he needs to do a better job reigning in the tea party. He can't cater to them like he's been doing.
If you read the book he does not so much cater to them, but he has to take them into account with every move he makes. There are 48 members of the Tea Party caucus in the House, all Republicans. That's 20 percent of house republicans, so it is a big block. Watch the Leno interview where Boehner describes his job as getting 218 frogs to stay in a wheel barrel long enough to get a job done. Those 48 frogs have clout, and have to be taken into consideration.
We raised the debt ceiling and will likely again before long. Obama won.
In retrospect, the debt ceiling was going to be raised one way or another. The key was that Boehner created a climate where there was uncertainty about it. The fact that he had a bunch of tea party types in Congress helped him in that. Then he used that uncertainty to get Obama to agree to $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years.
The debt ceiling was going to be raised; DC was not going to allow a default which would have had massive repercussions. After the deal was reached, Jack Lew (now treas sec) said "After 30 years of this, high-wire acts get resolved by landing." But that was in retrospect. Leading up to the deal, Lew lost it and went on a tirade against Rohit Kumar, McConnell's chief of staff.
In retrospect, the debt ceiling was going to be raised one way or another.
Only because Boehner had no balls.
Quote:
The key was that Boehner created a climate where there was uncertainty about it. The fact that he had a bunch of tea party types in Congress helped him in that. Then he used that uncertainty to get Obama to agree to $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years.
They (which includes Boehner) are already trying to overturn many of those cuts. Nobody counts cuts that are supposed to come at some point in the future anyway.
Quote:
The debt ceiling was going to be raised; DC was not going to allow a default which would have had massive repercussions. After the deal was reached, Jack Lew (now treas sec) said "After 30 years of this, high-wire acts get resolved by landing." But that was in retrospect. Leading up to the deal, Lew lost it and went on a tirade against Rohit Kumar, McConnell's chief of staff.
Not raising the debt ceiling does not mean there would be defaults. You know that.
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