Salon.com > House Republicans

Michele Bachmann again tries to repeal Obamacare

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:42:00 +0000

Apparently still unfazed by the Supreme Court's ruling, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., announced today that she introduced legislation into the new Congress to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.

Bachmann tweeted:

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According to a report by CBS News in July, the then-33 unsuccessful attempts by House Republicans to repeal the law had used up around 80 hours of time in Congress, or two full work weeks, at a cost of around $48 million.

Boehner holds on to speaker post

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:44:00 +0000

John Boehner squeaked by in a vote for speakership this afternoon, getting 220 votes of 426 cast, just a handful of votes over the number needed to hang on to his seat.

There were, however, a total of 14 defections from both Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi, who got 192 votes.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va., got three votes. Reps. Louie Gohmert, Texas, and Paul Broun, Ga., both cast votes for ousted Rep. Allen West, Fla.

Tim Huelskamp, Kan., one of the four conservatives Boehner ousted from his committee spot, cast a vote for Jim Jordan, Ohio. Dave Schweikert, Ariz., another one of those conservatives, did support Boehner.

Both Michael Grimm and Peter King of New York, who had been at odds with Boehner over Hurricane Sandy relief funding, both voted for the speaker to keep his seat.

Weakened Boehner still likely to hang on to speakership

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:18:00 +0000

Though House Speaker John Boehner is poised to hang on to his speakership in Thursday's vote, he enters the new session of Congress considerably weaker than the last.

Boehner has been hearing it from both flanks of his caucus, with 151 members of his own party voting against the "fiscal cliff" deal, and Republican New York Reps. Peter King and Michael Grimm expressing outrage that Republican leadership failed to call a vote over Hurricane Sandy relief aid.

The Hill reported this morning:

Boehner could also face opposition from the four Republicans punished this month for bucking leadership. Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and Dave Schweikert (Ariz.) were all stripped of their committee posts by the Boehner-led GOP Steering Committee, and they've been grumbling ever since.

There has been speculation that 17 Republicans could join forces and deny Boehner the majority he needs to become Speaker. House rules dictate that a lawmaker must receive a majority of the votes in order to get the Speaker's gavel. Republican lawmakers, including one who is not fond of Boehner, said no such effort is under way.

Rep. King says Boehner promises Sandy aid votes

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:49:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — A New York lawmaker says House Speaker John Boehner has promised votes to aid victims of Superstorm Sandy by Jan. 15.

Republican Rep. Peter King says the speaker will schedule a vote Friday for $9 billion in flood insurance and another on Jan. 15 for a remaining $51 billion in the package. The votes will be taken by the new Congress that will be sworn in Thursday.

Boehner's decision to cancel an expected vote Tuesday night had outraged lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and elsewhere, including many in his own party.

King said Boehner made the promise in a private meeting with lawmakers from affected states. King and others said they were now satisfied that the aid will be forthcoming.

Republicans turn on House GOP leadership over Sandy aid

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:31:00 +0000

Republicans in states hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy are lining up against House Republican leadership for adjourning before allowing a vote to fund relief efforts.

On Wednesday, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., excoriated John Boehner and House Republicans, calling it "absolutely disgraceful" and saying that "my world turned upside down last night."

"People in my party, they wonder why they're becoming a minority party," King said on CNN. "They're writing off New York, they're writing off New Jersey. Well, they've written me off, and they're gonna have a hard time getting my vote, I can tell you that."

King added that "anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee should have their head examined."

Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., said he was "utterly devastated" by the decision, and called it "beyond surprising" that the House adjourned without a vote. He said it was ultimately House Speaker John Boehner's call to adjourn without a vote, and that he had received signals from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor that the vote would happen.

Let’s go flying over the “fiscal cliff”!

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:10:00 +0000

President Obama is cutting his Christmas holiday short, returning to Washington for a last attempt at avoiding the fiscal cliff. But he’s running headlong into the Republican strategy of fanaticism.

It’s a long-established principle of game theory (see Thomas Schelling’s classic 1956 essay in the American Economic Review) that a fanatic who restricts his freedom to avert a disaster puts maximum pressure on his opponent to give ground.

In a game of highway chicken, for example, the driver who can’t swerve because he’s tied his hands to the steering wheel and chained his foot to the accelerator forces the other to swerve in order to avoid crashing.

The trick is for the first driver to convince the second that he’s crazy enough to have committed himself to instant death if the second doesn’t act rationally.

House Speaker John Boehner’s failure to persuade rank-and-file House Republicans to raise taxes even on millionaires fits the fanatic’s strategy exactly. Boehner can now credibly claim he has no choice in the matter – Republican fanatics in the House have tied his hands and manacled his feet — so the only way to avoid going over the cliff is for Obama and the Democrats to make more concessions.

After “Plan B” meltdown, few options left for Boehner

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:56:00 +0000

After conservatives revolted and killed John Boehner's "Plan B" proposal to avert the "fiscal cliff," things are not looking great for Boehner and his options in the negotiations.

House Republicans canceled the vote over the proposal last night after they failed to collect enough votes. Had it passed, "Plan B" would have partially averted the cliff by allowing taxes to increase only for those making over $1 million a year, though both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House said they would not let the proposal make it much farther.

"The President will work with Congress to get this done and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney after the proposal collapsed.

So where can Boehner go from here?

From the New York Times, one option is that Boehner works with Obama to pass something without the support of the more conservative members of his caucus:

House GOPers throw cold water on gun control

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Though a number of NRA-backed Democrats have said they'd be open to reviewing gun control laws, among House Republicans it's a different story.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., was recently elected chair of the House Judiciary Committee for the next session of Congress, making him the highest ranked Republican with control over regulating firearms. Goodlatte said Tuesday that he doesn't support implementing tougher gun laws.

“We’re going to take a look at what happened there and what can be done to help avoid it in the future, but gun control is not going to be something that I would support,” Goodlatte told Roll Call.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would not give a straight answer when asked about gun control, but his spokesman Michael Steel said: “We all join President Obama in mourning the victims of this awful tragedy and we will stand with their families and friends. If the president has specific ideas in mind, we will listen. But right now our focus should be on the victims, their families and their friends.”

House Republicans’ new Todd Akin moment

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

If there’s one thing this election taught us, it’s that fighting against abortion in the case of rape should be avoided at all costs. And yet, Republicans may come back for another serving of Todd Akin’s humble pie.

Right now, if you’re a woman in the military, which has startlingly high rates of sexual assault, and you get raped, you face the added insult of having to pay for an abortion out of your own pocket. That’s because the military's health insurance plan is the only one in the federal government that does not cover abortion in the case of rape or incest. It'll only cover the procedure if the woman's life is in danger

Democrats in the Senate have tried to change this, but House Republicans have so far resisted, thus producing two different bills -- one with the change and one without. Yesterday, the House named its representatives to a bicameral committee that will hammer out the differences between the two bills, including this provision. While killing the amendment could reignite the explosive abortion and rape debate of the summer, Republicans generally oppose the expansion of reproductive rights, even for raped female soldiers.

House GOPers pressure leadership on Violence Against Women Act

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Ten House Republicans signed a letter urging John Boehner and Eric Cantor to stop stalling a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act over protections for Native American women.

In the letter, the 10 Republicans, along with 110 Democrats, called on Boehner and Cantor "to move quickly on the reauthorizaiton of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by bringing a bill inclusive of protections for all victims of domestic violence, similar to that which has already passed in the Senate, to the House floor for a vote."

The letter continues that "Each time that VAWA has come up for reauthorization, bipartisan cooperation has swiftly moved it forward so that even more protections for victims of domestic violence become available and accessible. This must be the case again. We strongly urge you to move past politics and send a VAWA reauthorization bill to the President that he can sign immediately."

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post explains:

GOP mum on Supreme Court’s DOMA case

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:05:00 +0000

Though House Republicans are in charge of defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court, so far they've kept quiet about the Supreme Court's decision to hear a case challenging the law.

Politico reports:

In June, the House of Representatives told the Supreme Court that the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act “is an issue of great national importance” that urgently requires the justices’ attention. The 1996 law denies federal benefits to same-sex married couples.

But when the court agreed on Friday to hear one of the DOMA cases early next year, the Republican leadership had nothing to say about it.

Advocates on both sides of the issue said they’d seen no statements from Republican lawmakers about the court’s decision to take on DOMA and an even more provocative dispute regarding a ban California voters approved on same-sex marriage.

“I’m personally grateful to Speaker Boehner for being willing to defend the law, but it’s clear GOP elites don’t want to talk about it and want to keep it as quiet as possible,” Maggie Gallagher, a founder of the National Organization for Marriage, said. “That’s so obvious, I don’t see any point in pretending otherwise.”