Tag Archives: John Boehner

Wrong About The Mets, Right About The Nats

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The Mets celebrated their NL East championship on Saturday night, leaving the Nats stuck in their culture of underachievement. [Credit: Dayton Daily News]

The Mets cel­e­brat­ed their NL East cham­pi­onship on Sat­ur­day night, leav­ing the Nats stuck in their cul­ture of under­achieve­ment. [Cred­it: Day­ton Dai­ly News]

John Boehn­er shed the bur­den of what had become one of Washington’s most cheer­less jobs last week.  Next week, Matt Williams may fol­low him.

Both Boehn­er and the Wash­ing­ton Nation­als’ man­ag­er began the year with high expec­ta­tions.  Boehn­er presided over the largest GOP major­i­ty since 1931.  Williams led a high pay­roll team rich in tal­ent. Both were under­mined by peo­ple they were cho­sen to lead, then blamed for fail­ures that were the fault of their fol­low­ers. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Lawsuit Boehner Should Bring

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The House has authorized the Speaker to sue the Administration for overreaching in its Obamacare implementation. He should sue over its corporate welfare provisions. [Credit: rightspeak.net]

The House has autho­rized the Speak­er to sue the Admin­is­tra­tion for over­reach­ing in its Oba­macare imple­men­ta­tion. He should sue over its cor­po­rate wel­fare pro­vi­sions. [Cred­it: rightspeak.net]

Hi Chet –
After speak­ing at length today with Jeanne and our oth­er pol­i­cy folks, I do not think I have any more to add. They seem to have giv­en you 80 per­cent of what you request­ed and I am not in a posi­tion to sec­ond guess there [sic] analy­sis.
Sin­cere­ly,
Valerie

“Valerie” would be Valerie Jar­rett, one of Pres­i­dent Obama’s clos­est advis­ers. “Chet” would be Chet Bur­rell, CEO of Care­First Blue Cross. In the April 15 email, Jar­rett advised the insur­ance exec­u­tive that he would have to live with 80 per­cent of what his indus­try asked the White House for.

A month lat­er, the Admin­is­tra­tion relent­ed and gave the indus­try 100 per­cent of what it asked for – a reg­u­la­tion that will involve the give­away of an addi­tion­al $1 bil­lion in tax­pay­er funds to insur­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Oba­macare exchanges.

If the Speak­er intends to file a law­suit against the Admin­is­tra­tion for abuse of pow­er, as a res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed last evening by the House autho­rizes him to do, he should sue over this. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Was Speaker Boehner Right About Obamacare?

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was heavily criticized for saying last month that Obamacare cancelations had outnumered enrollments. Now a new study touted by the Administration shows that he had a point. [Credit: Politico]

House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) was heav­i­ly crit­i­cized for say­ing last month that Oba­macare can­ce­la­tions had out­nu­mered enroll­ments. Now a new study tout­ed by the Admin­is­tra­tion shows that he had a point. [Cred­it: Politico]

“When you look at the 6 mil­lion Amer­i­cans who have lost their poli­cies and some — they claim 4.2 mil­lion peo­ple who have signed up — I don’t know how many have actu­al­ly paid for it — that would indi­cate to me a net loss of peo­ple with health insur­ance.”  House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH)

Boehner’s state­ment last month that few­er peo­ple had gained cov­er­age through health exchanges than had lost their insur­ance due to can­ce­la­tions required by the health care law was met with wide­spread deri­sion. The state­ment earned him 4 Pinoc­chios from the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Fact-Checker.

But a new sur­vey released by the RAND Cor­po­ra­tion at least par­tial­ly vin­di­cates the Speaker’s claim. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

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An angry John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out at conservative groups who opposed the budget deal. The deal strengthens his hand with his caucus and in negotiations over changes to Obamacare. [Credit: Washington Post]

An angry John Boehn­er (R‑OH) lashed out at con­ser­v­a­tive groups who opposed the bud­get deal. The deal strength­ens his hand with his cau­cus and in nego­ti­a­tions over changes to Oba­macare. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

“Frankly, I think they’re mis­lead­ing their fol­low­ers. I think they’re push­ing our mem­bers in places where they don’t want to be. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty.” – House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH), com­ment­ing on oppo­si­tion by con­ser­v­a­tive groups to the bud­get deal.

Last week’s over­whelm­ing House vote to rat­i­fy a mod­est bud­get agree­ment has been var­i­ous­ly depict­ed as a defeat for the Tea Par­ty, a rare instance of bipar­ti­san­ship, and a moment of ratio­nal­i­ty in an oth­er­wise chaot­ic and dys­func­tion­al bud­get process. It is all of those things and some­thing more: a new threat to the already trou­bled imple­men­ta­tion of Oba­macare. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Politics as the Art of Spurning Compromise

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It may take a bigger gavel for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his Senate counterpart Patty Murray (D-WA) to hammer out a budget agreement. (Credit: Swampland Times)

It may take a big­ger gav­el for House Bud­get Com­mit­tee Chair­man Paul Ryan (R‑WI) and his Sen­ate coun­ter­part Pat­ty Mur­ray (D‑WA) to ham­mer out a bud­get agree­ment. (Cred­it: Swamp­land Times)

Bud­get nego­tia­tors have strug­gled for near­ly two months to find agree­ment on the out­lines of a spend­ing bill that would fund the gov­ern­ment after Jan­u­ary 15.  The tar­get date for a deal is next Fri­day. They hope to meet it.

The agree­ment that con­tin­ues to elude them, if it comes at all, would be a small one. Gone are aspi­ra­tions for a “grand bar­gain” that would reform enti­tle­ments and the tax code and replace future across-the-board cuts with some­thing less mind­less. Changes to Medicare, Med­ic­aid, Social Secu­ri­ty and oth­er “manda­to­ry” spend­ing pro­grams, which togeth­er con­sti­tute 63 per­cent of non-inter­est gov­ern­ment spend­ing, are off the table.  So, too, are tax­es. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Republicans Should Join Democrats in Impeding Obamacare Implementation

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Media reports indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are nearing an agreement on temporarily funding the government and increasing its borrowing authority. [Credit: Huffington Post]

Media reports indi­cate that Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid (D‑NV) and Repub­li­can Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) are near­ing an agree­ment on tem­porar­i­ly fund­ing the gov­ern­ment and increas­ing its bor­row­ing author­i­ty. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Octo­ber 14, 2013, 7:15 am

Sen­ate lead­ers are report­ed­ly clos­ing in on a deal that would both fund the gov­ern­ment and restore its bor­row­ing author­i­ty for a few months. The deal report­ed­ly con­tains two changes to the health care law, one pro­posed by Repub­li­cans, the oth­er by Democ­rats. The pro­vi­sion backed by Repub­li­cans is polit­i­cal­ly mis­guid­ed, unwork­able and would do lit­tle to impede the law’s imple­men­ta­tion; the pro­vi­sion backed by Democ­rats, by con­trast, appears to com­pli­cate imple­men­ta­tion of a law whose launch has so far not gone smooth­ly. Repub­li­cans who oppose Oba­macare should join Democ­rats in seek­ing changes that would dam­age its imple­men­ta­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Tortured Politics of the Health Care Law

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Boehner and Reid

Putting aside per­son­al ani­mos­i­ty for the greater good.

House con­ser­v­a­tives yes­ter­day scut­tled a bill that would have denied the White House mon­ey it urgent­ly needs to imple­ment the new health reform law. But a promi­nent Sen­ate Demo­c­rat, who helped write the law, maneu­vered to deny the Admin­is­tra­tion those des­per­ate­ly need­ed funds. Mean­while, Speak­er Boehn­er and Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid are locked in qui­et talks to exempt them­selves and their staffs from the new law.

Got all that? Con­tin­ue read­ing →