Boehner makes first fundraising pitch as Speaker

Speaker Boehner: GOP Will Not Increase Debt Limit Without Spending Cuts
Shouldn't Obama be in 100% agreement with Boehner here? Didn't he promise to reduce the Deficit by going through the Federal Budget line by line and get rid of those programs that do not work? gatewaypundit reported Speaker John Boehner said that Republicans will not agree to increase the Debt Limit without Spending Cuts. Boehner released a statement: Washington (Jan 6) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement on the Debt limit: “ I’ve been notified that the...

Is Congress Listening to the American People?
Elected representatives are clearly talking more and more these days about listening to the American People. This is particularly true for the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner. As Politico put it in their Wednesday morning edition: “John Boehner will take the Speaker’s gavel with a commitment to restoring the House as an institution focused on listening to the American People.” The Washington Post reported that Boehner told reporters outside his apartment on Wednesday ...

Speaker Boehner Dismisses CBOs Report Health Care Repeal Increases Deficit
ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports:  Speaker of the House John Boehner dismissed a report by the Congressional Budget Office that found that repealing the Health Care law would increase the federal Deficit and warned that the “best Health Care system in the world is going to go down the drain” if Congress fails to Repeal the law. Earlier Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary analysis that the Repeal of the Health Care Reform law, including reduced spend

Boehner claims he'll hold debt limit hostage
Reuters: U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that any move to increase the United States' $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit must be accompanied by Spending Cuts. "The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington," Boehner said in a prepared statement. Boehner is doing his best to pretend that he has a strong hand, but let's not forget, if ...

Boehner defends GOP against charges it's backtracking on promises
Washington (CNN) - Under fire for already backtracking on promises for more openness, House Speaker John Boehner admitted Thursday there are limits. "I promised a more open process. I didn't promise that every single bill was going to be an open bill," said Boehner during his first news conference as the new House Speaker. "There will be many open rules in this Congress, just watch," he said. Boehner was responding to a question from CNN about the fact that House Republicans plan to bring a hea...

Boehner demands spending cuts along with debt hike
Now new House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is weighing in on the Debt ceiling -- and saying any increase needs to be accompanied by Spending Cuts. "The American People will not stand for such an increase (in Debt ceiling) unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington," Boehner said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. Congress is expected to vote on increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling in ...

Congress to Tackle Healthcare, Filibuster Rules
On Wednesday, congressional observers were treated to a spectacle which used to be rare—a changeover in power at the House of Representatives. Both the House and the Senate swore in new members, and the new 242-seat Republican majority in the House handily elected Ohio Representative John Boehner to become Speaker of the House. In between raucous cheers and some campaign-style Rhetoric from both sides, now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi handed Boehner the gavel and watched him give h...

Underwhelmed by Speaker Boehner
Bill Daley: Is it about competence or ideology? Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy? Nancy Pelosi spoke of combating Climate Change, ensuring college affordability, expanding access to Health Care, ending the war in Iraq. Newt Gingrich envisioned a Balanced Budget amendment, welfare reform, Tax Cuts, Deregulation, term limits. John Boehner promised... well, not very much. The 112th Congress, he said, will not "kick the can" or "fall short." It will be "the people's House," a place where "we ca...

Top Line: Democrats Re-Selling Health Reform in Fact of Repeal
ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: House Democrats, chastened by voters in November, are newly in the minority on Capitol Hill. But they’re not shy about defending their signature achievement of the past two years - passage of the sweeping health reform law last March. Even though most of the law won’t go into effect for another three years, Democrats got good news today when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted it would add $143 billion to the Deficit to Repeal the pro

Rep. Joe Heck will accept congressional health insurance
Rep. Joe Heck, in one of his first moves in Congress, opposed a measure that would have required members of Congress to disclose whether they will accept government Health Care. Heck, in fact, will take advantage of the Congressional Health Insurance plan, his aides said. "Just like millions of Americans, Dr. Heck will be receiving his Insurance through his employer -- in this case the House of Representatives," Grant Hewitt, Heck's transition director, told the Sun. Democrats (once again) are m...

Speaker Boehner: GOP Will Not Increase Debt Limit Without Spending Cuts
Speaker John Boehner said that Republicans will not agree to increase the Debt Limit without Spending Cuts. Boehner released a statement moments ago. “I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to formally request an increase in the Debt limit. The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington. While America cannot defaul...

Schumer Calls Out GOP on Deficit: "There They Go Again"
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. (Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Republicans promised during the 2010 campaigns to reduce the Deficit, but they're ignoring a number of pricey priorities that Democrats say will balloon the deficit by more than $1 Trillion. "So much for cutting the Deficit," Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters at a Press Conference today. "On the first day on the job, Republicans are already spending trillions more than they plan t...

In House Constitutional Reading, Some Inconsistencies
Updated: 1:35PM ET House Representatives participated this morning in a full reading of the Constitution of the United States, marking the first such occasion in American history -- though the version of the Constitution that was read varied from the original document. (Watch video of the proceedings at left.) Following initial questions regarding which Constitutional document was being read - the amended or original Constitution - Rep. Bob Goodlatte, of Virginia, who is leading the proceedi...

Democrats Turned Away From Pelosi in Record Numbers in Ceremonial Vote
The abandonment of Rep. Nancy Pelosi by 19 Democrats in the pro-forma vote for speaker of the House marked a breakdown in party loyalty of historic measure, according to the Washington Post. Not since 1913, when 23 Republicans bolted from the GOP's speaker nominee, has a Party Leader suffered so many defections, Congressional Research Service records show. Of the 19 Democrats who didn't support Pelosi, one voted "present" and the other 18 cast Protest ballots for some other Democratic House memb...

If I Had A Gavel...
As we see and hear all the talk about the new Congress, especially the newly-Republican House of Representatives, we hear speculation and advice for how the new majority should carry out the People's business. And I had a few thoughts of my own. Were I the new Speaker of the House, I know exactly what my first order of business would be. I would schedule a vote on the ObamaCare Repeal bill. I would allot a whole week for debate on the issue -- then ask those who support Repeal to yield the enti...

Constitution reading goes bipartisan
The new Congress kicked off with a reading of the constitution on the floor of the House today, a first in the chamber’s history. Republicans proposed the reading, but it turned into a rare moment of true Bipartisanship on the floor. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) went first, followed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). House Republicans made the reading a requirement as part of the new Congress’ rules. Initially, there were questi...

Could John Boehner be a Great Speaker?
I have long been Bullish on the man who is now Speaker of the House.  Perhaps, it’s that John Boehner and I grew up not far from one another, he in the Working Class Cincinnati suburb of Reading, I in the more affluent enclave Wyoming just west of the Republican leader’s hometown. Cincinnati folk have always struck me as hard-working, decent Americans, largely respectful of their peers and generally treating people from different backgrounds with dignity.  It is no wonder that th...

Boehner: Budget office "entitled to their opinion" on health care repeal's deficit impact
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended House Republicans' efforts to Repeal the national Health Care law, disputing the accuracy of a preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimate that a Repeal of the law would add $230 billion to the National Debt through 2021. "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing Health Care law will increase the Deficit," Boehner said at a Capitol press conference the day after the GOP formally regained the House majority. "CBO is entitled to ...

Geithner Warns Congress: Don't Play Games on Debt Limit
(Credit: Vince Bucci) Facing a new Congress in which Republicans are more dead-set than ever on reducing Government Spending, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner served notice that the U.S. government could hit the statutory Debt Limit as early as March 31 and no later than May 16. "Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the Debt Limit when necessary," warned Geithner in his letter urging the House and Senate to take action no later than the end of March. He said a failure to raise ...

Budget Office: Health Care Repeal Would Add $230 Billion to Deficit
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released numbers that should make any Deficit-fearing Republican stop dead on his or her way to vote to Repeal Health Care reform. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, says the CBO, it would increase the federal budget deficit by $230 billion over the next decade and by $1.2 Trillion in the following 10 years. Contrary to their much ballyhooed new House rules that require any Legislation that increases federal spending or the deficit t...

The GOP's Health Care Repeal Problem: $230 Billion In Lost Revenue And Counting
Since taking the majority -- and even before that -- Republicans have been at pains to explain away a problem they've seen coming for months: the fact that CBO and most analysts find that repealing the Health Care law will cost money. Big money. But they have a separate, less appreciated problem. Today, CBO forecast that the 10-year cost of repealing Health Care reform is actually $230 billion. That's nearly $100 billion higher than one might have expected, given that just under a year ago, t...

Boehner hedges on debt limit
Speaker John Boehner isn’t saying he will raise the Debt Limit, but he’s also hedging a bit on how he’ll go about the vote. The Ohio Republican, in a statement, said that he’s been notified that the White House will formally ask to increase the borrowing ability of the Federal Government. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 But he doesn’t exactly respond that he’ll hold a quick vote on the Debt limit. “The American People will not stan...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit
WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation's Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority. Boehner says in his state...

DCCC chair: Our 2012 agenda will be making Pelosi Speaker again
The reknowned political satirist Tom Lehrer once declared that Henry Kissinger’s Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 made political satire redundant.  After reading about the DCCC’s new strategy to win back the House in 2012, I must admit that for the first time in my life I feel a bit of sympathy with the general sentiment.  Guess who Rep. Steve Israel, the DCCC chair, wants to make as his poster girl for 2012? House Democrats’ goal is to make Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) the Speaker of ...

Boehner Dismisses CBO Despite Previously Touting It, Wont Commit To Protect Consumer Protections
Boehner Dismisses CBO Despite Previously Touting It, Won’t Commit To Protect Consumer Protections This morning, at a press availability at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) dismissed the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate that repealing the Affordable Care Act would add $230 billion to the Deficit over 10 years and would not commit to pursuing universal coverage that prohibits insurers from discriminating against individuals with pre-exis...