2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

I mean I'm angry...not cos it means anything, but just cos of the offensive rhetoric.

I'm getting the DNC emails, I'm getting support Bernie emails from others, and as a fed in the DC area I'm getting the shutdown coming media coverage...politics sometimes seems like the Groundhog Day movie but with some slight variations

"Have you bought your Pay per view coverage of the shutdown? "

You Won't Believe What the House Just Did

And of course the Washington Post with their equivalencies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/are-democrats-and-republicans-talking-about-the-same-country/2015/09/18/7e6de048-5e32-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html

To the Democratic candidates, the 2016 presidential campaign is about shrinking the gap between rich and poor; combating climate change; and expanding voting rights, gay rights and workplace equality for women.

To listen to the Republican candidates is to hear an entirely different campaign — one that centers on defeating Islamic State terrorists, deterring a nuclear Iran, restricting abortion, and debating whether to deport illegal immigrants and construct a wall to keep them out.

At a political moment of pitched voter anxiety, candidates in both parties talk in dark, sometimes apocalyptic tones — but about different issues, as if they’re addressing two different countries.

Spending US money mostly on foreign issues: the new face of trickle down economics.

Or I guess trickle up, since America is the top country.

Everyone please stop citing the Washington Post as if it were a newspaper at all, let alone the great newspaper that created that brand.

The writer leaves out that Jeb, Trump and the others do largely want to continue with trickle down economics and cut taxes for the rich (but now with a few bait and switch efforts to imply they are helping the middle class as well)

Please don't let nuance and truth get in the way of a good narrative

^^^ what I tell students

John Boehner retiring from Congress at the end of October. Can't wait to see what crawls up out of the earth to run for his seat.

ugh sets the stage for shutdown over PP

speaker gohmert imo

worst speaker ever

He wanted the job at the moment when it became the equivalent of Louis XVI inheriting the crown. In another age he might’ve been a dependable hack, useful after a round of negotiations in conference rooms with billowing Marlboro Red smoke. Instead he became a doleful nobody and respected by no one.

You could sort of say the same for both Reid and McConnell. The Senate is more manageable than the House, but the age of mandatory 60-vote majorities has made it pretty hard to actually get anything done.

Reid and McConnell both in much better control of their caucuses than Boehner ever was

chances of shutdown just rose from 75% to around 190% or so

oh wait...i'm totally wrong

The shocking move, first reported by The New York Times, means there’s unlikely to be a government shutdown next week. Following Boehner’s announcement, House Republicans said there was agreement to pass a clean spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Several members of the Freedom Caucus, the conservative group which led the revolt against Boehner’s leadership, said they will now support the spending bill without demands to defund Planned Parenthood attached to it.

“The commitment has been made that there will be no shutdown,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.).

ooook

wth is going on

Never really struck me as the mad genius behind it all...

i had assumed that this was mainly about the freedom caucus trying to show their base that they were serious about abortion. but it turns out that their main objective was just ousting boehner?

Instead of threatening government shutdowns they should just all resign.

so was the whole shutdown thing a ploy by the right-est wing of the gop to discredit boehner all along or what this doesn't compute

wth is going on

no idea. i thought i understood the underlying dynamics of this, but apparently i have no fucking clue

lololol

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) got a standing ovation when he broke the news House Speaker John Boehner's resignation to the packed ballroom at the 2015 Values Voter Summit in Washington.

"Just a few moments ago, Speaker Boehner announced he is resigning," Rubio started, and before he could finish the sentence, the ballroom erupted.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/marco-rubio-john-boehner-values-voter-summit-comments

it's just so weird to see the cheering far-right go crazy at news of boehner's resignation (see the link alfred just posted) and then pair that with backing down on PP.

"we finally ousted the RINO who was preventing us from defunding planned parenthood! in return, we agreed to fund the government, including planned parenthood. hooray!"

i mean, that's certainly good news, but i don't understand the logic for them

no idea. i thought i understood the underlying dynamics of this, but apparently i have no fucking clue

yeah me too, this is v befuddling. It seems unlikely the freedom caucus had a clear path to votes to unseat him, so why did he resign? is he just sick of it? did the freedom caucus offer to avert the shutdown if he just resigned, so he fell on his sword? was this even about PP at all, or was it all just about how much the caucus hates Boehner?

was this even about PP at all, or was it all just about how much the caucus hates Boehner?

doesn't this kind of call into question the motives for the previous shutdowns as well? freedom caucus playing the long game

I saw it proposed on twitter that Boehner might do a bi-partisan agreement, perhaps even longterm funding, since the tea party caucus now has no leverage over him. They might want to remove that danger, by proposing clean shortterm bill. Then begin putting pressure on next speaker to do as he's told.

starting to think GOP caucus is just 100% chaotic evil

"I'll give up my job, which I'm sick of anyway, if you'll sign a clean spending bill." --maybe?
xps

currently yeah it looks like that's what happened

But what are they celebrating? The switch from Boehner to McCarthy? McCarthy is more popular with conservatives, but he's still going to have to deal with the same things that Boehner did. It's not like suddenly the far right agenda can be pushed through now that evil liberal Boehner is out of the picture.

NRO:

In the hours after Pope Francis addressed a joint meeting of Congress yesterday, Speaker Boehner told his leadership team he had a plan to defund Planned Parenthood by including money for the bill in a reconciliation bill, rather than shutting down the entire federal government. Many conservatives who felt passionately about the issue revolted and there appeared to be about 30 to 40 Republicans who were insisting they wouldn’t go along with a stopgap funding bill that didn’t defund Planned Parenthood. As CNN reported last night: “Boehner summoned to his office some of the conservatives who are threatening him. Mulvaney, Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Arizona, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wisconsin, and Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho arrived at the speaker’s office Thursday afternoon. On his way in, Mulvaney said he felt like he was being called ‘to the principal’s office.’” But none of the rebels would budge, once again threateing Boehner’s hold over the House. The pressure on Boehner was building from both sides. Senator Ted Cruz accused Boehner of “surrender.” But a letter to all House Republicans from eleven freshmen in marginal districts said their party should avoid an “unnecessary and harmful government shutdown” and support a short-term funding bill. So Boehner decided to pop the boil by resigning. “Nothing is likely to better to force members to pause and re-evaulate where the House is going and force people to come together than a dramatic shakeup,” one House Republican told me. “The venom may have been taken out of this debate and could a strategy that gets us out of the government shutdown debate.” House majority leader Kevin McCarthy is the most likely to succeed Boehner since any opponents would have little time to prepare a campaign.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

Eric Erickson:

The truth is that conservatives alone did not have the votes to end Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) N/A%‘s tenure. Conservatives may not like it that I say this, but it is true. There were only twenty or so conservatives holding fast against Boehner, but their numbers did grow closer to thirty, which put Boehner in need of Democratic votes.

That said, Boehner was losing more than thirty votes in the end and whoever is the next Speaker should understand why.

Mathematically, there are only about 21 conservatives in the House of Representatives who are repeatedly anti-Boehner. That Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) N/A% cut bad deals with President Obama or that Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) N/A% negotiated with Mitch McConnnell or even that Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) N/A% wanted to fund Planned Parenthood really was not going to affect that.

What was affecting Boehner was an increasing unwillingness to give anyone a seat at the table he did not like. Conservatives knew they could not do business with Boehner, but it became increasingly obvious that no one else could do business with Boehner if they were not already in his club. He relied more and more on outside voices, which played to caricatures of an out of touch Speaker.

It's not like suddenly the far right agenda can be pushed through now that evil liberal Boehner is out of the picture.

no one in the House caucus can count votes, apparently

lmao erickson: "the truth is, we are not the center of the universe, but boehner failed because we are the center of the universe"

Conservatives knew they could not do business with Boehner

didn't realize that 'do what we say' = 'do business'

Is he resigning his Speakership, or from Congress?

headlines indicate he's vacating his seat

presumably to go cry in his G&T

what a weirdo http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/john-boehner-in-twilight/2015/09/25/124fc54a-6399-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html

Boehner moved a few steps over and closed his eyes for a moment, seeming to recall what it was like for him as Pope Francis entered the Capitol. His blue eyes grew moist and his voice shaky. He asked me to stand inches from him, in essence standing in for Pope Francis as he recreated the scene, perhaps hoping to savor the rush of it all again while the memory was fresh.

Sherman and I looked at each other, both a little uncomfortable. But Boehner’s unprompted interest in telling us the details about his own experience was too compelling to leave. We listened.

Faced with watching the same awful movie again, Boehner decided to offer himself as a sacrifice to conservatives who wanted him out: I will leave if you vote to keep the government open. Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, one of the most vocal opponents of Boehner, summed it up during remarks at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday.

Luke Russert ✔ @LukeRussert
Rep. Bridenstine (R-OK) at Value Voters Summit: "bad news, Leadership told us we have 2 fund PP, amnesty, Ocare Good:getting new Leadership"
10:38 AM - 25 Sep 2015

The truth was that Boehner and his allies knew that a coup attempt was brewing and that putting it down would have taken considerable effort and was not a sure thing. North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows (R) had put in a legislative measure to vacate the chair of the speaker over the summer, and insurrection was in the air.

Boehner, having achieved a life goal of bringing a pope to Capitol Hill, quite clearly saw two paths for his future. The first was to continue banging his head against the wall built against his priorities by the tea party wing of the party. The second was offering his resignation up as a way to try to move the party forward -- in the near term and the long term.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/25/john-boehner-just-sacrificed-his-career-for-the-good-of-the-republican-party/

“So. So, the pope puts his arm around my left arm,” Boehner said as he pulls my arm up to his shoulder. Boehner was now fully committed to acting it out. “Hold on, hold on,” he said as I pulled my arm away. “Let me finish. The pope says to me, ‘Please pray for me.’”

“Please pray for me,” Boehner said as he dipped his head. “He said, ‘Please pray for me.’”

Boehner stood there for another 10 seconds, not saying a word, his hands at his sides, and then turned sharply toward his security detail, the now open doors and a shimmering sunset on Capitol Hill.

As Boehner stepped away, Sherman and I jolted back. I asked if he had anything left to accomplish as speaker, that maybe the pope’s visit was it for him. He narrowed his eyes and issued a gruff but coy, “No.” I wasn’t sure if he meant it as a brush off of the question or an answer to it. Sherman asked if he was resigning. Boehner laughed as he ducked into the back seat, and he was gone.

bizarre. something kind of Nixonian about his pathos.

Never knew Costa could be quite this snarky:

“The pope, he comes up the steps right there. He comes right here,” Boehner said, pointing down at my feet. “Right here? I asked. “Right here!” Boehner said, smiling. “Right here. When he gets here, there are all of these kids he is going to bless. And you know how I get.”

“You start crying?” I asked.