MORE PROOF THAT JOHN BOEHNER IS IN THE WRONG JOB

John Boehner's "Kissy Face" to the DC Press

 

The GOP and the speaker again show their lack of governing skills.

 

A couple of years ago, I wrote that I thought Nancy Pelosi would eventually go down as one of the most successful and powerful House Speakers, and John Boehner would probably be one of the most inept.

Today, I am doubling-down on that statement.

Oh, I know that with the Tea Party members that Boehner has in today’s House, he has the continual problem of trying to “herd cats” in dealing with his House Republicans.  But seriously, Boehner continues to stub his toe in trying to accomplish what his own party would normally agree to, and what is seriously needed for the American public.

In a time when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is probably one of our most critical national organizations, Boehner has now shown he wants to play politics with the nation’s security. 

For weeks, it has been apparent that if he were to allow a clean bill to be brought to the floor for funding DHS, it would pass immediately on a bi-partisan basis.  But no, he pushed the funding bill that only the Republicans in the House passed that also protests President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.  It’s a bill that would not pass in the Senate, and even if it had, it would never be signed by the president.

And all of this is going on while the security arm of the world’s leading military and economic power is only being funded on a weekly basis.  Theses continuing resolutions (CR’s) are also for the previous annual spending levels, which does not take into consideration how the nation’s security issues have changed.  That being with the rise of ISIL and other internal security needs.  This is no way for the world’s superpower to be dealt with by its only funding source: the US Congress.

DHS is the massive department that must support airport security, border protection and many other vital tasks that have to be funded for the nation’s security. Boehner should know that failing to pass an appropriations bill will impact most of these many Homeland Security functions.  But perhaps Boehner doesn’t know that the inner agency charged with implementing Obama’s executive immigration orders, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, they obtain almost 100% of their funding from their application fees.  Therefore, not funding DHS would have little to no effect on the immigration area that the Republican’s bill would have targeted.

In a recent Washington Post article, it was noted that back in 2002, the then House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and many Democrats in the House were against supporting the war in Iraq.  She and the Democrats had managed to push a funding bill through both chambers that specified a timetable for troop withdrawals. But as expected, President George W. Bush vetoed it.  Pelosi then knew it was unthinkable to leave the troops without adequate funding, so she did what was necessary. She brought up a new funding bill with no timetables, and it was approved with the votes of both Republicans and some moderate Democrats. Pelosi could then vote against it, knowing it would pass and the troops would still be funded.

When asked, she later said, “I am the speaker of the House, I have to take into account something broader than the majority of the majority of the Democratic caucus.”

These are the actions of a competent leader.  Boehner has shown none of these traits in his role as the Republican House Speaker, especially regarding this DHS funding debacle.

Last month, a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked Obama’s executive actions on immigration.  At the time, Boehner could have easily said to his House Republicans, let the courts deal with the immigration issue, and a clean bill could then be offered for funding the DHS through September.  But instead, Boehner continued to not allow a clean bill to go to the Senate, and the Senate still wasn’t going to pass the bill with the immigration item attached.  It was a total stalemate, and the president would still have vetoed it anyway.

So, when a 3 week funding extension was sent to the House to just keep DHS temporarily funded, Boehner then couldn’t even get that 3 week bill through his own House Republicans  It finally took some Democrats to get a 1 week extension passed for keeping the DHS open.

Now, after all this and to save his butt, Boehner agreed to offer a clean DHS funding bill for the rest of the year.  The bill passed this week.  He also agreed to use the federal judge’s decision in Texas for dealing with the immigration issue. 

Why the Congress had to be put through all this mess is as usual, all on Boehner’s shoulders.  It was totally unnecessary.

This is just another example showing the GOP’s lack of governing ability, and another example of what John Boehner’s legacy as the Speaker of the House will eventually be.

John Boehner is the wrong individual for holding the position as the Speaker of the House.

Copyright G.Ater  2015