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Weeping Speaker! Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) is under pressure to compromise. Boehner is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives. He won the title after defeating the Democrats and their leader Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-California), then a Spaker herself. She is the current Minority Leader of the Congress. |
He's was once my congressman. He is known as Cryboehner!
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) represents the Eighth Congressional District. His area includes his residence of West Chester township, the cities of Hamilton, Middletown, Eaton, Troy, Greenville, Tipp City, and parts of Springfield.
When Ohio lost two congressional seats his area was redistricted from nearby Piqua and Dayton were given to Congressman Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
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Tea Party backed congressman Michigan Republican Justin Amash. |
He became the Speaker of The House in 2011 after the Democrats lost their majority of the House of Representatives.
The country's first female House Speaker, California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was the Democratic Party's head leader during the 110th to 111th sessions of Congress. During her term, things were done!
President Barack Obama managed to get his healthcare reform passed, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell repealed, the stimulus to jumpstart the economy, passed regulations to stop financial institutions from taking risky loans, passed equal pay for women, passed.
Boehner on the other hand became the voice of the opposition. And by far one of the worst House Speaker, ever!
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Congresswoman Candice Miller (R-Michigan) |
Under his leadership, he managed to take Congress job approval to the low teens. Now as we approach the 113th Session of Congress, we're going to see the Republicans continue the "I hope Obama fails" strategy.
Already the Republicans have face harsh scrutiny for having mostly White men head their committees. The only female member of a committee Congresswoman Candice Miller (R-Michigan) is being criticized as a sympathy move by the Democrats.
The fiscal cliff debate is an ongoing issue. Some members of the Republican Party are slowly breaking away from the bombastic rancor of Rush Limbaugh, Grover Norquist and Fox News.
Congressman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) is one member frustrated with this. The only Native American member of the Republican ranks is telling the Republicans give in. Bohener smacks back hard and warns his Republican caucus not to give in into the president's demands.
The Republicans are fearful of Grover Norquist and Rush Limbaugh.
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Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) |
Reuters reports that a growing number of Republicans in the House of Representatives - including a handful of Tea Party-backed conservatives - are signaling greater flexibility than their leaders to reach a "fiscal cliff" deal with President Barack Obama.
They are not buckling on demands to slash spending or agreeing with Obama's exact proposals to avert across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts set to start on January 1.
But unlike House Speaker John Boehner, they suggest they would be open to higher tax rates on wealthy Americans as part of a broader deal to slash deficits.
Obama is hoping to appeal to more potential renegades to get a deal to avoid the massive tax hikes and spending cuts that economists say could tip the economy into a recession.
"If we can get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill ... I'm ready to sign it," Obama said on Friday at an event in Pennsylvania.
The vast majority of Republicans in the House, led by Boehner, say they will not accept any higher tax rates, preferring to increase tax revenue through reforms and closing loopholes.
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Congressman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) is bucking his party over tax increases. |
But among those newly voicing flexibility is Tea Party-endorsed Representative Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, who said he backs a "balanced" approach - adopting the language Democrats, including Obama, use to describe a tax rate increase on the rich, although he said he would rather raise revenue in other ways.
"I'm not at rates, I'm at revenue, I'm at loopholes," Duffy said. "But listen, revenue should be revenue, whether you are doing it by rates or loopholes."
HIGHER THRESHOLD
Representative Allen West of Florida, who had strong Tea Party backing but lost his bid for a second term, said he was open to a higher tax rate on those earning more than $2 million - a far higher threshold than Obama's push to raise taxes on families with net incomes above $250,000 a year.
"If you want to talk about a compromise, that's a fair compromise," West said. "I want people to get to that million, I want people to get over that. Small business are 75 to 80 percent of our economy. I want to incentivize them."
Even though West lost his seat, he would still be able to vote on a fiscal cliff deal since the new Congress is not sworn in until January.
Congressman Justin Amash (R-Michigan), another Tea Party movement favorite, said everything needs to be considered to reduce the country's debt burden.
"I don't think it would be a good idea to raise tax rates," said the Michigan representative who identifies himself as a libertarian. But Amash said: "I am not going to take anything off the table if we can resolve some of our biggest issues as a country."
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Congressman Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) |
Amash has a perfect conservative voting record according to the Club for Growth, which evaluated whether freshmen lived up to their promises of fiscal constraint.
Several members or their aides expressed similar sentiments earlier in the week, among them seven-term Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho.
Republicans hold 241 of the 433 seats currently filled in the House, which has two vacancies. If Democrats vote as a solid block, they may need another 25 votes from Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts for 98 percent of taxpayers, as Obama wants, leaving the wealthiest with tax increases.
These comments contrast with what is still seems to be the dominant sentiment among Republicans, as voiced by Idaho Representative Raul Labrador.
"Any Republican who is talking right now about raising taxes is a fool. They are going on national TV and they are saying they are going to raise taxes for a phantom deal that doesn't even exist," Labrador said.
House Republicans also separately expressed concern that they are losing the publicity edge to Obama.
"We are getting our socks cleaned in the PR wars," said Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; reporting By Rachelle Younglai and Kim Dixon; Editing by Fred Barbash and Vicki Allen)