Teh Boner Begins

The  Weeper of the House

Watching the newly installed Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (Crybaby-OH) read the Preamble to the US Constitution today had me on the edge of my seat, half expecting him to burst into flames as he spoke the words “to promote the general welfare.” Fortunately, ours is a merciful God and the day of reckoning was postponed.

Yesterday, upon accepting the oversize gavel he specifically requested former Speaker Nancy Pelosi hand him to symbolize the transfer of power from the Dems to the Rethugs,  he promised:

Our aim will be to give government back to the people.  In seeking this goal, we will part with some of the rituals that have come to characterize this institution under majorities Republican and Democratic alike.  We will dispense with the conventional wisdom that bigger bills are always better; that fast legislating is good legislating; that allowing additional amendments and open debate makes the legislative process ‘less efficient’ than our forefathers intended.

Size matters to Teh Boner

Now, we are all well aware of the breathtaking scope of hypocrisy embodied by the Rethugs, but under-appreciated is the sheer velocity at which it travels.  Next week, they will introduce health industry whore Rep. Eric Cantor‘s H.R.2., disingenuously designated the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, a feckless attempt  to repeal The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (What I prefer to call the ROCHA, or  Romney-Obama-Care Health Act).

After regaining control of the House on their promise to reduce the national debt, they immediately returned to their overarching strategy of bankrupting the government by exploding the federal deficit. Step One was their adoption of a Rules Package that replaces the Dems’ PAYGO rules with their own version, what they call  CUTGO.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, repeal of the ROCHA would add $230 billion to the deficit over ten years. So they added this little kicker to the Rules Package:

Exemptions. Subparagraphs (h)(1) through (7) authorize the Budget

Committee Chair, prior to the adoption of a budget resolution, to exempt from estimates the budgetary effects of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. It also exempts the budgetary effects of the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. The budgetary effects of AMT relief, estate tax, trade agreements and small business tax relief are also exempted. The exemption is limited to measures which do not increase the deficit or revenues over the ten-year budget window, except for increases in revenue which meet certain specific criteria.

Getting back to Teh Boner, Matt Taiibi profiles him in his latest Rolling Stone article titled The Crying Shame of John Boehner:

The new speaker is a lazy, double-talking shill for corporate interests. So how’s he going to fare with the Tea Party?

John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner’s legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican.

…the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the “total package,” and that term comes close to describing Boehner’s talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He’s a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done.

Nobody does it better than MT. Read the whole thing.