Boehner Takes Cheap Shot at Obama

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Feb. 13, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Kicking President Barack Obama where it hurts before tonight’s State-of-the-Union Speech, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) showed what’s wrong with Washington, bereft of diplomacy, but, more importantly, manners.  “He doesn’t have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party,” Boehner told TV correspondents and news anchors.  While pointing fingers at Barack, Boehner too has been reluctant to silence the more vociferous right wing of his Party.  “He just doesn’t have the courage to lead when it comes to our long-term spending problem,” beating an old horse after taking a drubbing in the last election.  Boehner knows that voters backed Obama’s approach to the economy, not the one pushed by GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that sought to slash thousands of government jobs.

             Boehner ripped Barack for not doing more to slash the federal budget.  “I don’t think he has the guts to do it,” said Boehner, referring Ryan’s proposals to put the U.S. government on the most draconic austerity program since the Great Depression.  For purely political reasons, no Republican acknowledges any improvement in the economy, including the more that 80% gain made by the Dow Jones Industrials since Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009.  When Sen. John McCain ran against Barack back then, he insisted Wall Street wouldn’t back a liberal Democratic president.  Wall Street’s stellar performance has helped fuel one of the longest sustained recoveries in post-war history, adding around 6 million jobs or two-thirds of the jobs lost in the Great Recession.  Boehner talksof Obama not having the “guts” to slash government spending but says nothing of the billions in tax dollar flowing into the Federal Treasury. 

            Boehner said that Obama’s too committed to his “liberal agenda” to do anything responsible for the government, including slash the federal budget.  Boehner reads the same numbers as anyone else.  When he’s not playing politics, he knows that federal budget deficits have been shrinking steadily under Obama’s economic program.  Given today’s projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the deficits will shrink next year to around $600 billion and the year after to $400 billion.  Beyond that, current government collections anticipate a balanced budget a few years after that.  With the 2014 roll out of Obamacare, the government expects to add thousands—possibly millions—of new health care-related jobs.  When that occurs, all the doomsayers—Iincluding the curmudgeon-like House Speaker—will have to swallow hard.  Boehner hopes things head South before the midterm elections.

               Revealing his true feelings, Boehner fears a Democratic takeover in the 2014 Congressional elections.  “I think he’d love to have Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Harry Reid as leader of the Senate for the last two years of his presidency,” said Boehner, committed to sabotaging any of Obama’s legislative agenda, including immigration reform.  “He knows that none [of the president’s agenda outlined in the Inaugural] is going to happen as long as we have the majority in the House,” revealing with no uncertainty the GOP plans to play obstructionist until the midterm elections.  Flashing his cards so transparently reminds voters that Washington could care less about economic recovery, only strengthening majorities in the House and regaining control of the Senate and White House.  Judging by voter preferences last year, Boehner’s got a tough sell heading into the midterms.

             When Boehner’s refers to Barack’s “liberal agenda,” he’s talking about rolling out Obamacare, designed to insure some 30 million uninsured Americans.  Passing Boehner’s “conservative” agenda would reverse Obamacare and slash thousands of jobs from the federal workforce.  “We have to come to agreement on immigration,” said Boehner.  “There is a lot that can be done,” not committing to the so-called “path to citizenship” for illegal aliens.  Support for immigration reform stops with both parties when there’s talk of extending illegal immigrants government entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  Today’s 11-million-plus population of illegal immigrants get very few government benefits.  Legalizing them, namely, granting citizenship, would prove too costly to the U.S. Treasury.  When Boehner talks about an “agreement” on immigration reform, he’s not talking about citizenship.

             With the government collecting more taxes on incomes above $400,000, U.S. budget deficits have finally begun to shrink.  Boehner wants tax reform but only to further reduce tax rates on all Americans.  Ending the so-called “fiscal cliff” Jan. 1, the GOP preserved 95% of Bush-era tax cuts. Only letting one percent of tax payers watch their taxes go up about 5%.  “There as debate going on about whether we can get to the kind of tax reform we want given the outcome of the election,” said Boehner, admitting he’d like more tax cuts but probably won’t get them.  Boehner operates from the obsolete GOP model that only tax cuts stimulate the economy.  With tax rates already at historic lows for most Americans, the country needs more tax revenues to fund the military and upcoming Obamacare.  It takes more “guts” to shift paradigms and admit that the economy’s on the mend.

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.