Boehner to resign at end of October

House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers Friday that he plans to resign at the end of October, in a stunning development that comes amid mounting friction with the conservative wing of the party.

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House Dems willing to save John Boehner

Speaker John Boehner's future was on Rep. Henry Cuellar's mind when he was speaking with fellow House Democrats last week. --The question they were mulling: Would they throw Boehner a lifeline and save his job if he needed their votes to survive? --"Heck yes!" Cuellar said in an interview when asked if he'd consider it.

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Is Boehner on His Way Out?

Politico ran a piece this morning asserting “Boehner’s future as speaker in doubt.” --“The Republican leader faces a grueling next few months, and even allies believe this will be his last term atop the GOP conference,” is the article’s subhead. --Could we be seeing the last of John Boehner? --With anti-establishment fervor at all-time high (see: presidential candidate Donald Trump’s ascension in the polls), it’s no surprise Boehner is standing on fragile ground with the speaker’s gavel.

Read more at PJ Media
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Report: Boehner avoiding vote on his speakership before August recess

Rep. Mark Meadows put John Boehner on the spot with his “motion to vacate” the speakership last week, and now it appears that the challenge has legs. According to an exclusive report by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart, Boehner’s forces have been “whipping” members (calling them up, asking them how they would vote, and possibly applying pressure) and as a result have concluded that they would lose a vote if the matter were taken up before the August recess.

Read more at American Thinker
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Nine in Ten Conservative Activist say "Dump Boehner"

The conservative activist group Citizens United is releasing a new poll of its membership, which surveyed some 4,000 activists across the country. Just two percent approve of the job Congress is doing. More than 90 percent want their Member of Congress to replace current House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). --“After four and a half years as Speaker, it’s become crystal clear that grassroots conservatives are through being patient with John Boehner,” David N. Bossie, president of Citizens United, said in a release. “Conservatives are clearly ready for new leadership in the U.S. House.”

Read more at Breitbart.com
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John Boehner, GOP Establishment Targeting Ted Yoho

The Republican leadership is after U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., but the North Florida congressman is trying to use that opposition to rally conservatives in his district. --Yoho made national headlines earlier this year when he challenged U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to lead the House. While Yoho did not garner much support, other challengers to Boehner -- namely U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla. -- received more votes but the speaker retained the gavel. --The House leadership pushed back at Yoho by cutting off travel funds, much like they did with U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, another outspoken conservative opponent of Boehner.

Read more at Sunshine State News
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Five Points for Resetting America’s Economic Foundation

Speaker Boehner addresses the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):
As reported by Newt Gingrich: Speaker Boehner began with what the House Republicans have accomplished in the last four years, despite Democrats controlling both the Senate and the presidency. Some of their record may surprise you. Republicans cut total federal spending for two straight years--the first time that's happened in half a century. They guaranteed that 98 percent of Americans would not see permanent income tax hikes. And they pushed through free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. These are historic accomplishments. They have real meaning for the lives of millions of Americans. And they create room for future economic growth.

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More troubling revelations about Benghazi: CIA never conducted investigation

ALLEN WEST - Just when you thought questions and controversy surrounding the Benghazi terror attack couldn’t get any worse, something else pops up. ✧ American personnel on the ground in Benghazi the night of the 2012 terror attack are outraged after learning that the CIA’s inspector general never conducted an investigation into what happened — despite two CIA workers being killed in the attack and despite at least two complaints being filed by CIA employees, reports Adam Housley of Fox News.

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Conservatives concerned Boehner could build coalition with Dems on hot-button bills

House Speaker John Boehner is being pressed by the conservative wing of the Republican Party not to allow a vote on major pieces of legislation -- from gun control to immigration -- without majority Republican support, after recent signals that he could be open to building a coalition with Democrats. ✧ Tea Party favorite and second-term Rep. Tim Huelskamp is among the most recent to express concern, saying Tuesday that Boehner “assured us” that he'd seek a majority Republican coalition before proceeding on controversial bills. Read more at Fox News

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Boehner removes fiscal conservatives Huelskamp and Amash from House Budget Committee

12/6/2012 - Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan appeared on Hannity (video) to discuss how they were removed from the House Budget Committee by Republican leadership for sticking to their principles and for attempting to hold Washington to a higher standard of fiscal responsibility. They called for GOP leadership to release the list of votes used to judge members and that ultimately resulted in Huelskamp and Amash being removed from the House Budget Committee. Read More......

Charen: What the Budget Impasse is Really About

Mona Charen - We are headed for something much worse than the fiscal cliff. ✧ When governments cannot pay their current employees because they’ve gone broke paying pensions to previous employees (among other obligations), you don’t get a “fiscal cliff” or even a bad recession, you get the unraveling of civilization. ✧ That is how Republicans should present the stakes in the budget impasse when speaking to the press. So far, John Boehner has described the president’s proposals as “unserious” and Mitch McConnell has let it be known that he laughed in Tim Geithner’s face. Do either of those responses convince the average voter that something is at stake here beyond Republicans protecting their wealthy friends? Read more at NRO... Read More......

Boehner Urges Obama to Reschedule Jobs Speech

Boehner asks Obama to move date of speech to Congress after Republicans accuse president of 'political ploy' in picking same night as GOP presidential debate [Sept.. 7] — White House calls it a coincidence. Read more at Fox News...

UPDATE: Obama Agrees to Delay Jobs Speech Read More......

House leaders end page program

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced their joint decision to end the House page program. ∴ As of August 31, 2011, the program - that employs nearly 70 high school students to serve as messengers and couriers on the House floor and around the Capitol complex - will be no more, according to a joint statement issued late Monday afternoon. Read more at The Hill...

Note: OFRW's 100% Club has been involved in the Page Program, offering scholarship money for Oregon pages. Read More......

WSJ: Hitting the Debt Limit

President Obama and eight congressional leaders, including Speaker Boehner, are scheduled to meet at the White House tonight to determine how big a deal they can achieve. ✧ News that the unemployment rate rose to 9.2% in June, its highest level this year, pushed members of both parties further into their rhetorical corners Friday. ✧ Mr. Boehner, under pressure from Republicans to reject any tax increases, said the jobs data were a sign negotiators face a "dire" situation and "tax hikes on families and job creators would only make things worse." ✧ Still, Mr. Boehner has opened the door to a compromise on the thorniest tax issue by entertaining the idea of linking a broad rewrite of the tax code to allowing tax cuts for upper-income people to expire. Read more at WSJ... Read More......

House Rules Revisited: An early defeat for the spending cutters.

WALL STREET JOURNAL/REVIEW & OUTLOOK, 1/11/2011, (Hat tip: Linda Bartcher, ONE WEEK INTO THE 112TH CONGRESS...) - "A week ago we praised the House rules offered by the new Republican majority to make it harder to tax and spend. There's a less hopeful coda to that story that is worth reporting to keep the spending-cut pressure on the GOP.

We praised new 'spending reduction accounts' designed to hold money from specific spending cuts rather than let that cash be spent on something else. The idea is that if, say, the House killed a $100 million earmark for a bridge to nowhere from a spending bill, the $100 million would go to reduce the deficit rather than return to the spending pool.

In last week's House GOP conference, however, a group of fiscal hawks led by Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake tried to strengthen the enforcement on those accounts so they'd be harder for Members of the Appropriations Committee to raid. The current rule puts the accounts under the control of Appropriators˜the spenders in chief˜and requires only that they inform the House of what they do with the money.

Mr. Flake˜and allies Jim Jordan of Ohio, Tom Graves of Georgia and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin˜offered an amendment to sequester the accounts until the end of the budget year and then allow the money to be spent elsewhere only with a vote of the entire House.

Notably, the reformers were opposed by Speaker John Boehner and the leadership and lost on a voice vote. Mr. Ryan, the House Budget Chairman who has credibility with new Members, was just about to speak on behalf of the amendment when Mr. Boehner abruptly intervened and called for the vote."

Mr. Boehner asked Republicans to trust him and his fellow leaders, saying that they and the Appropriators have got the message and are determined to cut spending. As a sign of his good faith, new Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers even cut his committee's budget by 9%, or four percentage points more than the 5% ordered by the GOP. But Mr. Rogers also lobbied Mr. Boehner against the Flake-Ryan amendment as an affront to his committee's authority.

We realize this is inside baseball, but of such details is the spending problem made. As Mr. Flake notes, the reason to support strict anti-spending rules is because the communal pressure in Congress to spend is so great. Appropriators try to limit access to specific budget information, all the while asserting that cutting this or that program isn't worth the effort because the money will be spent elsewhere in any case. Mr. Flake's rule would have made that harder.

Messrs. Boehner and Rogers will no doubt abide by the spirit of the new rule in the short run. But as public pressure and media scrutiny ebb, the temptation to return to spending as usual will be enormous. We report all this so readers know what happened, and also so Messrs. Boehner and Rogers realize that some of us will keep paying attention." Read More......

Hecker: Six Steps to the Right

THE CORNER, 1/5/2011 by Ryan Hecker - "Based on Speaker Boehner’s performance today, I am very hopeful that the Republican leadership will stick by the principles of limited government and economic conservatism in the coming term. Speaker Boehner and the new Congress listened to the American people and enforced a rule today that requires each bill introduced to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress authority to do what the bill does. This idea was the top vote-getter (82 percent support) in the grassroots, crowd-sourced Contract from America. What this reflects is that the Speaker recognizes that the election victory in November was not a mandate for Republican rule, but rather a last chance to stand up for conservative ideals and fix the tax-and-spend Capitol Hill mindset.

Going forward, the new majority must remain bold in passing legislation that will fundamentally change Washington D.C. culture. The tea party movement does not want weak attempts at deficit reduction with minor spending cuts. We want a balanced-budget amendment and enforced spending cap limits. We want Republicans to arduously fight to defund Obamacare and to take real steps to curb lobbyist power that ultimately harms the American consumer.

President Obama has moved our country five steps to the left. Speaker Boehner needs to lead a charge that moves our country six steps to the right, not just one or two."

— Ryan Hecker is a lawyer in Houston and organized the Contract from America. Read More......