Speaker of the House John Boehner takes a lot of abuse, between his opponents the Democrats and his supposed allies in the GOP. Maybe some of it’s deserved; as I get older and craftier, I’ve started to notice that I often don’t actually know what someone should have done different. (This is a serious job liability for a supposed pundit, but let that pass.) Mostly, it seems to me that Boehner is a wizard when people like an outcome, and a bum when they don’t.
All well and good. When we’re making everything into 30 second sound bites, I guess we can’t expect people to look at the long term,
On Fox News Sunday today, though, Boehner said something that I think ought to be mentioned. Chris Wallace pulled out one of this week’s Democrat talking points: since Congress has only passed 80 laws this session, isn’t Obama justified in complaining abut a “do nothing Congress”?
Boehner answered immediately and with some annoyance “Do we really want to measure Congress by how many laws it passed? Most Americans think we’ve already got too many laws.”
Just stop and think about it for a moment. Isn’t that a perfect summary of what’s been wrong with Congress? That is, the unending desire to do something? Isn’t it the “true conservative” position that Congress, in general, should leave us the hell alone?
Boehner may or may not be a good Speaker, but I’ll say this: I’m much more confortable with a Speaker whose first impulse is to ask whether Congress really ought to be passing all those laws.
Bravo!
(Both to Speaker Boehner, and to you, Mr. Martin, for observing the simple beauty of that rough gem.)
– don’t be afraid to repeat it, Mr. Speaker. Oh, and Mr. President: where is the pipeline with all those jobs and energy freedom? Yeah, you and Governor Brown focus on the milk-run train to nowhere in California.
I’ve long thought this was the unspoken rule that goes with Thatcher’s “running out of other peoples’ money” statement. It represents naiveté, arrogance, and a willingness to screw everything up to get reelected.
I saw part of this interview with Wallace, before I got angry and turned it off. Boehner is SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. It’s his job to take abuse, and respond like he’s got a spine. Instead, during the part of the interview I saw Wallace mostly rolled out DNC talking points, and Boehner meekly replied with canned responses. Former Speaker Gingrich has given a clinic over the past two weeks on how to handle the MSM, and Boehner would do well to take note.
As for the author’s final comment about how comforting it is that Speaker Boehner’s first impulse is to question “whether Congress really ought to be passing all those laws”, I’d suggest that Mr. Martin read the Constitution. Every useless piece of legislation starts in the House, which has been under Mr. Boehner’s control for the past two years.
The single most important job Congress has each year is to produce a federal budget law, and Congress has failed in this duty for over 2 years. While the House has fulfilled their obligation to pass along a budget bill to the Senate, Boehner’s House has also failed in its duty to act as a check on the Senate and the President by allowing them to bypass the Constitution with continuing spending resolutions. Whether he’s a conservative or not, Boehner’s first responsibility is to make sure the Constitution is followed, just as his sworn oath of office demands. Long ago, he should have stood up and said that there will be no more House votes on continuing resolutions until a budget is passed and signed by the President.
Um Slider, you might want to read the Constitution — and the papers — yourself. The Constitution only says that spending bills must originate in the House.
I’ve been saying that for years, and more this recent campaign cycle.
It’s about time someone like Boehner said it in a public forum.
I thought the same thing when I read the article about passing fewest laws. Hoorah! Maybe some Congress can get mentioned for how many they roll back or how many they enforce instead!
Will Rogers said it best:
Didn’t Rogers also say:
“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
I’ve told anyone who would listen that the biggest flaw in the Constitution is that it has no mechanism for determining when we’ve got enough %@#! laws. There’s no disincentive for Congresscritters to propose any old useless law or resolution. And every Congresscritter has a chip on their shoulder to claim the passage of something-or-other with their name in the title to use as a campaign prop.
Each law is a sad commentary on our society. Either our society isn’t doing the right thing and necessitates the law to protect individuals (Citizen Fail) or the law is some legislator’s pet cause and restricts the freedom of the individual for no good or verifiable reason (Government Fail). Every time Congress passes a law it should be considered a shameful act, not a triumph.
Even a blind mole occasionally finds an acorn.
Didn’t realize you had eye troubles, pro.
Hopefully you can see your way clear to finding fault with things Obama has done. Reality is not that malleable is it?
Does anyone realize that the house cannot always pass laws successfully unless the senate approves them? We all know what is going on and we do not like it. If the house does not pass something Obama and the dems want, then Obama just does it by himself making the house and senate irrevalent. I am guessing that Boehner is just as frustrated as we are.