Boehner gets standing ovation from Senate Rs
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ABC News' Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) reports:
Speaker of the House John Boehner just quietly ventured over to the Senate side and dropped in on a closed lunch of Senate Republicans.
The lunch – pizza, again – was in the Strom Thurmond room.
I am told Boehner got a standing ovation from his Senate Republican colleagues.
That feel-good moment comes before a bigger test: Will Senate Republicans remain united in opposition to Harry Reid’s debt ceiling bill. If they do, we are left at a standstill – the House passing a bill that has no chance in the Senate; and Senate Democrats pushing a bill that can’t pass in the Senate either (and, maybe, the House, too).
The obvious end game here is for the two sides to actually compromise on a bi-partisan plan. Maybe once they are done with pizza that can happen …
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Virginia Ultrasound Bill Hits Nerve
Thank God for the US Constitution. These radical wind-bags cannot force their twisted view of America on the rest of us. They created this crisis and are trying to cram legislation down the throat of America to resolve it. As far as I’m concerned, President Obama has my full permission to veto any legislation John Boehner produces. It’s all junk anyways….
Posted by: Eric | July 29, 2011, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
A standing ovation for coming to work and doing your job? Fantastic! I wonder want sort of warm response he would receive for being competent?
Posted by: Kid | July 29, 2011, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
@Eric: you are 100% correct. Thank you!
Posted by: Kid | July 29, 2011, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
Enough games guys…$1.8 trillion per year defecit is crushing us..no compromise makes sense if it doesn’t involve trillion per year…not ten years…We will default either way..today, tomorrow, next week. Onl cuts can save it. If you make $50,000 a year and you spend $100,000, would raising your credit limit save you from bankruptcy? And stop with the scare tactics about social security, veterann benefits and medicare..there’s a ton of wasteful things that can be cut like foreign aid for instance that will bring us where we need to be before you get to SS and medicaid…The country pitches in $2.1 trillion dollars in revenue. It flows in everyday…now stop spending 3.8-4.2 trillion and we’ll be better…
Posted by: B | July 29, 2011, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
@Eric: you are 100% wrong. No thank you!
Posted by: Adult | July 29, 2011, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
He gets a sitting set of Boos from me.
How dare OUR, duly elected Congress, threaten my Hard-Earned, needed for Rent, Income from Social Security on Aug. 3rd.
Back off, especially the Tea Party hard-heads, and compromise, leaving an operating, funded Government — Thank you!!
Posted by: Bill | July 29, 2011, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
I wonder how long Democrats will continue to blame Bush for their inefficacy. The only plan to pass either house of Congress is the Republicans’. Two plans they have put on paper and passed. Where is the Democrats so-called compromise that can pass both houses? Nowhere. They are just sniping and threatening veto to everything Republicans propose, while exposing none of their intentions because, of course, those are big government tax-and-spend century-old liberal ideas which Americans rejected in the last elections.
Posted by: Carlos | July 29, 2011, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
@Eric: – you’re right. Let’s just pass the president’s plan. Oh wait – where is it? Hmmmm…
In times of crisis, leaders lead.
Obama, meanwhile is absent.
Posted by: Clancy | July 29, 2011, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
Why won’t the Democrats compromise? Where is Obama’s plan?
Posted by: John | July 29, 2011, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
Assuming the Senate doesn’t remember that these “hard heads” were swept into power in 2010 in the largest change of power in US history – exactly because of this problem?
The House has a bill and will vote on it shortly. The Senate – and our current president – need to do their jobs and pass it. If they stall or veto, what happens next is on their heads.
Posted by: Cruz | July 29, 2011, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
Balancing the budget radical? I suppose to liberals that may be radical but it is common sense to 70% of America. Boehner gets credit for passing 2 bills. Reid at least is working on something which is more than I can say for the presiden
Posted by: Jim Heath | July 29, 2011, 2:52 pm 2:52 pm
The Federal government is like a drug user coming down from its last fix, and it wants more money!
No. It’s time for a fiscal intervention; we’re going to “raise the bottom”. It’s over.
Cut, Cap and Balance. No more money.
Posted by: Ken Mitchell | July 29, 2011, 2:53 pm 2:53 pm
Really, Eric? Obama should veto everything Boehner sends over?
Why, that sounds pretty “inflexible” to me, which is the term your side is using to describe the GOP.
Posted by: swami | July 29, 2011, 2:53 pm 2:53 pm
Sorry Eric, The Democrats have been failing in the budget process for years now. WE can not spend at the rate we have been, we have to cut spending and raising taxes is not an option because that route never has an end. We have to wean the people from the entitlement mentality and go back to what the government was supposed to be. Right now our government is our master in the guise of our nanny.
Posted by: Rich | July 29, 2011, 2:55 pm 2:55 pm
Eric, the R’s ‘twisted’ view of America leaves us spending 25% more per year than we did under Bill Clinton.
You want a transformed America, in your own image. You are the radical.
Posted by: apetra | July 29, 2011, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
When my sister tried to get a Discover card so that she could make payments on her Visa and MasterCards, we were kind of relieved that they turned her down. It forced her to come to grips with her irresponsible spending and debt, as opposed to just enabling her to dig herself in deeper. This is the same problem, writ billions of times larger.
Why is it that so many people seem to think that helping the government to dig itself in deeper is a good idea? Congress and the President have known about their credit limit since it was last extended; why haven’t they made any efforts to stay under the limit they set last time?
Honestly, I wouldn’t trust any of these yahoos to balance my checkbook. I don’t know how anyone can support handing over more of our money to them.
Posted by: Squid | July 29, 2011, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm
Government is so inefficient and wasteful, why would anybody want to give them more money? Government has created a fantastic mess by spending way more than they take in. The answer is not to spend more, the answer is to take it away and let the people who spend it the most efficiently (consumers) do the spending. Any ordinary person could look at the budget and easily cut a third of it. Problem solved, unless you are a government worker (liberal) in a useless program making a living off the tax payer. Time to join the rest of us pulling all the weight.
Posted by: Steve | July 29, 2011, 3:04 pm 3:04 pm
If it werent for the “Hardheaded Tea Party” The dems would have a blank check and spend into oblivion> At least now we are reminded of how embarrassing our finances are and we have to stop!
Posted by: shawn | July 29, 2011, 3:09 pm 3:09 pm
The conflict is simple. The Republicans (reluctantly) see the budgetary gap as “We’re spending too much”. The Democrats see it as “We aren’t taxing enough.”
This debt ceiling bill is the last chance the Democrats will get to crank up the taxes for a long while, and they will do *anything* to get those taxes up, and they know the MSM will cover for them. Republicans have proposed bills, and passed them in the House. The Democrat-run Senate has been such a disaster under Reid they haven’t even produced a budget in over two years.
Stay strong Mr. Speaker.
Posted by: Georg Felis | July 29, 2011, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
“You losers crack me up.”
Barack? Is that you?
Posted by: Agor | July 29, 2011, 3:32 pm 3:32 pm
Wow Eric, when I read your comment thanking God for the U.S. Constitution I thought you were ripping on Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of the Democrats. Turns out you were ripping on the GOP! Who knew?
FWIW I also give thanks to God for the U.S. Constitution, for reasons similar to yours, but because of different villains.
Posted by: Philster | July 29, 2011, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
Now Harry Reid can set on it for days and at the last minute send his plan over to the House with Obama’s new taxes in it. Where was the President plan, he’s the only President in the history of our country that didn’t present a plan that was serious and thought of the country instead of his ideology first. His so-called plan was rejected by the Senate by 96 to 0, he’s an inept pontificator and prevaricator.
Posted by: Ron | July 29, 2011, 3:35 pm 3:35 pm
Harry Reid the Senate mortician, who declares everything dead on arrival.
Posted by: Mandy | July 29, 2011, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Nancy Pelosi’s Culture of Corruption has not yet been removed from public office. Keep voting them out until only the good representatives are left. Those three people can probaby run the government just fine.
Posted by: tyree | July 29, 2011, 3:49 pm 3:49 pm
More power to the citizen activists who will not yield to the perverse ruling class in D.C. Their incompetence has gotten into this huge mess. I hope there is as much “compromise” in this as there was on obamacare which was ruthlessly shoved down the throats of the people and gave birth to the tea party.
I hope the loony dems keep calling the prospect of a balanced budget “extreme”.
The 70% of the American people who agree we should have a balanced budget will realize who the radicals are.
Posted by: Reilly | July 29, 2011, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
Where is OBAMA’s plan? By our constitution, the PRESIDENT does not creat the PLAN…so why are some of you looking for it to come from there??? It’s only something the White House has suggested and assisted with in the abbrogration of these responsibilities by Congress. Hope the fact don’t confuse some of you. AND BTW: Right On, Eric!
Posted by: FACT-BASED | July 29, 2011, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
Squid said, “Congress and the President have known about their credit limit since it was last extended; why haven’t they made any efforts to stay under the limit they set last time?”
Answer: Namcy Pelosi’s Culture of Corruption. And their crooked enablers in Congress, the Sentate, the White House and in the lobby, where the money flows to the crooked politicians.
Posted by: tyree | July 29, 2011, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
I will guarantee you that the Tea Partiers will be in Congress in 2013. So America had best get ready to deal with the REAL issues facing it and stop this political palaver. “Save the world as we know it from the Republican budget” Pelosi is typical of the kind of manipulation and exploitation the Dems visit on their constituencies. If they’re not lying, they don’t win. The Tea Party is the last vestige of hope this country has. The next project, once we’ve solved the budget issues, will be the Fair Tax.
Posted by: JWnTX | July 29, 2011, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
There comes a time when you finally recognize that the only difference between the Senate Republicans and Democrats and the members of the House is that the ones who have been in DC for any length of time all think the same way! They are married to their power not their oath! You can see how worried these people are about retaining their grip on their seats. They are attacking us! They are neither smarter nor more capable than any of us at doing their jobs. In fact, we could do it better because we’re not there to make deals, we’re there to win!
Posted by: WallyG | July 29, 2011, 4:02 pm 4:02 pm
Gee, Boehner, Ryan and Cantor get millions from companies just for being politicians! Way to go, guys! I’m sure that’s why you’re so concerned for the economy! I’m sure you haven’t shorted treasury bonds! I’m sure you’re not a bunch of crooks who ran up a deficit to support the rich!
Posted by: mjw149 | July 29, 2011, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
Raising the debt ceiling only allows the Treasury to pay bills that Congress has enacted to spend money in the past. To prevent increasing the national debt, CONGRESS will have to vote to cut spending for the future. It will take good will on all sides to change the tax codes and to streamline or elimate government programs as quickly, efficiently and least painfully as possible.
Posted by: Ann | July 29, 2011, 4:36 pm 4:36 pm
Bill:
The presidents rhetoric to the contrary, no one is threatening social security payments. Any social security securities that must be redeemed by the treasury to pay beneficiaries can immediately be funded without raising the debt ceiling, since it is a 1:1 replacement of outstanding securities. The president simply wanted to scare seniors. The facts don’t support his position. But then, they often don’t.
Posted by: Peter | July 29, 2011, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
Go to Powerline and hear a great song about this.
Posted by: teapartydoc | July 29, 2011, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
Way to go, Speaker Boehner! This man has busted his %ss to get a deal, both inside and outside his party. Whether agree or disagree, no one can deny how many stress-filled hours he has spent trying to save the country from default. I daresay he has done yoeman’s work to cobble a deal together. Is it perfect? No. But someone had to step up and assume a leadership role and I’m proud as I can be of the work he has done.
Posted by: Kathy | July 29, 2011, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
Now that was an excellant example of unbiased journalism. NOT! When is the “main stream media” going to wakeup and realize that this type of reporting is loosing them viewers. We are exasperated by your unwillingness to cover the news without interjecting your perspective.
Posted by: Diana | July 29, 2011, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
Now that was an excellant example of unbiased journalism. NOT! When is the “main stream media” going to wakeup and realize that this type of reporting is loosing them viewers. We are exasperated by your unwillingness to cover the news without interjecting your perspective.
Posted by: Diana | July 29, 2011, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
I’ll give Boenher a standing ovation too. He is the only adult in this mess. In the midse of dem inaction and demagaguery, and some extremist Tea Party posturing, he was the only one that finally produced a plan that is fair to both sides, and may actually stand a chance of passing. The Boehner compromise buys us 6 more months to work out a well thought out long term deal, while not doing anything that violates the fundamental values of either side. The senate should pass it, and Obama should sign it. If they don’t we will know who actually wants a solution, and who wants somebody to blame.
Mind you, I would rather have cut cap and balance, but with control of only 1 house we have to take what we can get.
And we can still push for cut cap and balance over the next 6 months, since the Boehner compromise still leaves all those options open over the coming months. Ultimately I think it will take a repub senate and prez, after 2012, to permanently settle this, but more deals like the Boehner compromise can buy us time till 2012.
This also buys us 6 months more time for a real long term solution, without being under Obamas artificial smoke filled room, secret plan, drop dead deadline pressure. Both houses can now do what they are supposed to do, carefully legislate, openly and publically, and produce deficit and debt limit bills carefully examined by committee, that everybody actually has time to read.
And Obama can do what he does best, make demagagic speeches, have more secret talks that he can leak about to make himself look good, while having NO PLAN.
Posted by: richard40 | July 29, 2011, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
I don’t understand why they can’t just raise the debt ceiling like they have done in the past. And then debate this other stuff later. Why make it so difficult?
Posted by: Jay | July 29, 2011, 7:31 pm 7:31 pm
Just so “radical” to want a balanced budget amendment, something Jeffereson wanted. So radical that many states have asked Congress for one. So radial to expect the government to spend the peoples meoney frugally and with responsibility.
Radical as in governemnt for the people by the people.
Posted by: win | July 29, 2011, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
It is appalling how this biased news outlet leaves more than half of the information out to make it palatable to their followers and keep the rest ignorant about the truth.
Outlets like this and so many others should be sued on account of malpractice in their job of reporting the NEWS not fabricating them and lying to the country.
The reason Republicans gave a standing ovation to Boehner was because he asked the democRats in the senate and the WH to show their plan to reduce the debt that falls in their laps and for which they are responsible.
Harry Reid doesn’t have a plan. When confronted last night and asked to put it up for a vote he refused to do it because he knows there are no votes and what he says he will do is a lie.
The WH has no plan either. Go to their website, do a search and see if you can find one. It doesn’t exist.
So for the democRats and this administration to ask for a blank check to raise the debt limit until after the next election with no controls on the deficit attached should be something the American public should be concerned about. We can’t continue to spend and borrow without taking control of the debt. Any American family knows that.
Shame on you ABC, I take the “news’ word out because it doesn’t belong to this organization. You are just one of several campaign managers for this administration set on destroying this country. Our worst enemy is found within us.
Shame on you!
Posted by: MM in NC | July 30, 2011, 12:33 pm 12:33 pm