The Boehner

John Andrew Boehner serves as a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district, and currently is the House Minority Leader, which means he's the Republican top dog in the U.S. House of Representatives.
And he has dreams. He doesn't like his job and wants to become the next Speaker of the House, which is the Majority Leader in the House, a position currently held by Nancy Pelosi. A lot of people, especially in the media, and others like Charlie Cook the political prophet, think he has a good chance to do it. I do not share that opinion.
Really. The Republicans have been bashing so many people lately; blacks through their surrogates slamming of the Islamic religion, voting against unemployment benefits, and a re-emergence of a radical nonexistent Black Panther movement; Hispanics through their strident calls and demands for immigration reform, and invasive laws enacted by state legislatures designed to harass local Latino populations; Muslims through their fake indignation of a Mosque on 9/11's ground zero that doesn't exist; poor people and the Middle Class, who they have directly attacked by blocking unemployment benefits, calls for drug testing for those on welfare (my own dear sister agrees with this... Ms. Orin Hatch), a repeal movement for health care and bank reform, the recession which they got us into which put people out of work and on welfare where they need to get drug tested; older people, by their constant clamoring to destroy social security (either by cutting benefits, raising the eligibility age, or privatizing, when Social Security doesn't add one penny to the national debt, which Republicans claim to be so worried about (see, Deficit Hawks 1, 2 & Friday's 3), etc., etc., etc. I ask this simple question, who the hell is left to vote for Republicans? I sincerely hope, just to save face, that out of jubilant enthusiasm they don't start attacking rich white people or they won't have anyone left (as of yet the Supreme Court has not allowed corporations the right to vote... perhaps next year)!
But I digress. Back to the Brown One.
John Boehner is a veteran of the United States Navy, just like me, Honorably Discharged after serving a long full eight entire weeks (which should mean he never got out of boot camp). He was discharged because he had a bad back.
It must be all better now as he recently got whacked by some democratic NGOs (non-governmental organization) for playing a great deal of golf: "Rounds of golf: 100 plus. Golf expenses: $83,000. Membership at all male club: $75,000. Special interest travel including golf junkets: $159,000. Raising the retirement age to 70 and voting to end unemployment benefits: priceless. For those who want an out-of-touch pro golfer for a Congressman, there's John Boehner."
John was voted into his current leadership position replacing embattled representative and fancy dancer, Tom Delay, who was accused of several felones including money laundering. Delay will finally, finally in October, stand trial after being indicted way back in 2005. Five freaking years!
Anyway, Rep Boehner spoke at the City Club of Cleveland (which looks like a pretty cool place (Check out their site: http://www.cityclub.org/ ), except you occasionally have to put up with people like John Boehner), and told the Obama Administration what it needed to do get the country back on track, and make everything just hunky dory.
Keep in mind two things, the first of which I'll mention right now before I tell you what he proposed. He, along with his Republican buddies in the House and Senate championed the huge deficit spending of the Bush administration, the build up of the military industrial complex, funding two wars under the table, tax cuts for the wealthy, Wall Street deregulation, all of those things that got the country into the mess we are in, and that Obama has attempted to deal with since he entered office.
Okay, that said, Mr. Boehner made these helpful suggestions... keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, fire the President's economic team, specifically Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and the head of the National Economic Council, Larry Summers. Have the president veto the Employee Free Choice Act (that helps employees join or form unions), a carbon tax or cap and trade (federal revenue designed to implement green technology), and “any other tax increases on families and small businesses” if passed during a lame-duck session of Congress. Call on Congress to repeal the provision in healthcare reform mandating that small businesses file IRS 1099 forms on purchases of over $600. and reduce non-defense discretionary spending to 2008 levels (social programs, medicare & Social Security).
That's it. Everything will be okay if we do those five things (give more money to the rich, screw the poor, stop unions, ignore global warming). This reminds me of the second rule of recognizing a deficit peacock: 2. "They offer easy answers." (see, Deficit Hawks 2 Deficit Peacocks).
To be completely fair he did say he would provide a more detailed description of the Republican economic recovery plan... next month.
It's alway next month for these guys. But in the mean time keep shoveling money to the top 5% of the earners, and fire those who stopped us from entering a 1930s style depression.
"We've tried 19 months of government-as-community organizer," Boehner said. "It hasn't worked." Oh, but it has, John. And if you guys hadn't tried to block everything the Democrats did in Congress it would have worked faster and better.
Our Vice-President, Joe Biden had this to say about Rep Boehner's idea: "His chief proposal apparently was that the president should fire his economic team. Very constructive advice, thanks."
I hate to say this but I agree with John a little about firing Geithner and Summers, Wall Street insiders who helped set the stage for the crisis. I have no idea why Obama hired these guys as Geithner still seems to be fronting for the big banks, rather than injecting stimulus money directly into the economy through main street, small businesses, job creation, and building infrastructure, and the President will be paying the price for that, maybe this November, but certainly in 2012, with the tepid economic outlook we are now facing. More stimulus money should be spent stimulating the economy, and forget the Republicans fear mongering over the deficit. He should of hired folks like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. But that kind of bold move doesn't seem to fit in with the President's management style, and would have really pissed off the big banks, which of course own the government. Notice that Elizabeth Warren, or anyone else for that matter, has not been nominated to run the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection yet.
Anyway, our progressive buddies over at the NDN (New Democrat Network) think tank state: Total Fiscal Impact of the Boehner Plan: Increase Deficits and Debt by roughly $3.781 trillion over ten years.
That second thing I wanted to tell is this, the Republicans have no real ideas of how to help this country... because they only want to help themselves and their rich buddies.
Considering the Republicans are currently running on a fiscal responsibility ticket, cutting the deficit being the most important problem the country faces according to them, Rep. Boehner's plan is a little hard to reconcile with their stated goals.
Perhaps those aren't their real goals.
Could they be misleading us for their own political and economic gains? Unheard of!
But by all appearances Rep Boehner is a tried and true member of the Peacock Club... and there's no $75,000 membership fee for that, just a ruined country if they ever get back in power.
So why do the Republicans believe they'll retake the House and Senate? Because they want you to think about mosques instead of jobs. They want you to be against federal spending when more federal spending is needed to jump start the economy. Because they lie to you.
Despite my angst toward simple answers, the choice this November seems to be clear. Continue the long hard work of restoring this country by working with the Democrats, or continue the job the Republicans started and flush it down the toilet.
As Rep Alan Grayson said recently on the Stephanie Miller News Cast, "If you want to go broke, vote for a republican."
That's pretty clear.