NY Magazine - "John Boehner Traps Himself on the Sequester"

[TomCADem]

The Republican party continues to try to hide the fact that Boehner has no way of getting his caucas to vote for any deal. So, he continues to make mutually exclusive promises to his crazy caucas.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/john-boehner-traps-himself-on-the-sequester.html

John Boehner uses a Wall Street Journal op-ed today to signal his party’s strategy, such as it is, on the budget sequester. The main message is to blame President Obama for the budget sequester. Now, that part of the message is obviously untrue — the sequester was a way to escape an economic crisis ginned up by House Republicans, and Boehner himself touted it in 2011.

But the untruth of Boehner’s claim that Obama is the Father of the Sequester isn’t the real problem here — that fact will get buried in he-said, she-said reporting. The bigger problem with Boehner’s strategy is what comes next.

* * *
So what is Boehner’s play here? One possibility might be to just try to cancel out the sequester — perhaps in some sneaky way by replacing it with some future commission that would pretend to cut the deficit but really wouldn’t. The trouble here is that Boehner promised his own ultra wing he would carry it out earlier this year. The other possibility would be to just live with the sequester more or less permanently, or until Republicans can gain full control of government. The trouble here is that Boehner promised his defense hawk members the sequester would never go into effect. Conservative reporter Byron York notes that Boehner’s message — that the sequester is a disaster – totally undermines his chances of just sticking with the sequester.

* * *
It is actually a fascinating thing about Boehner. He keeps wedging himself into impossible situations and somehow escaping. One interpretation (put forward by Ross Douthat) is that he is a highly clever pol who manages to defuse crises. It could be. But it also seems that Boehner’s technique for escaping each crisis involves putting off irreconcilable promises. He got through the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the debt ceiling by promising his members a grand, successful clash the next time.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Should be easy to topple his career.

Lay it out how he has screwed and fooled the teabaggers and even the establishment.

[Control-Z]

2. Yup. (nt)

[Historic NY]

3. He got 98% of what he wanted....

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he got "98 percent" of what he wanted in the final deal to raise the debt ceiling.

"When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy," Boehner said

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/174925-boehner-i-got-98-percent-of-what-i-wanted-in-debt-deal#ixzz2LVRSSWPP
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

[Mr.Bill]

4. Sound like a description of

a drunk who keeps getting free drinks while talking his way out of paying his tab now. Given the atmosphere that he grew up in, this is not surprising.

[Cha]

5. boner is so f******

BORING.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. The Republicans should take the blame for cutting the ordinary people