John Boehner

Boehner Is Cautiously Optimistic He Has The Votes

Susan Crabtree | July 28, 2011, 10:30AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is cautiously optimistic that enough GOP members had fallen in line over the last 48 hours to pass his debt bill. The plan would cut nearly $917 billion in spending over the next ten years, raise the debt-ceiling by $900 billion and avoid sending the nation into default.

While he didn't have the magical 217 Republicans votes as of yet, Boehner told his conference in a closed-door meeting Thursday that he is confident he would hit the threshold when the bill reached the floor Thursday evening, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting.

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Debt Ceiling

Hope For Boehner? Some House Conservatives Closing Ranks On Debt Limit Bill

Brian Beutler | July 27, 2011, 11:26AM

On Tuesday, conservative Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) predicted defeat for House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) plan to raise the debt limit.

"I am confident as of this morning that there are not 218 Republicans in support of the plan," he said.

He was counting on the opposition of dozens of House conservatives who have in the past pledged not to raise the debt limit on terms that compromising with Democrats would require.

Twenty-four hours later, after taking a beating from the GOP establishment and party leadership, and after watching Democrats grow more and more confident in their ability to split the Republican coalition, those conservatives are reconsidering their rebellion.

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House of Representatives

House Reading Amended Slavery-Free Constitution This Morning

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 6, 2011, 10:44AM

Members of the House of Representatives, led by their new Republican majority, will kick off the 112th Congress this morning with a reading of the U.S. Constitution. The reading is largely a political maneuver, so it's no real surprise that the Constitution you'll hear read on C-SPAN this morning will be the politically correct version.

It's fairly likely that no elected politician wants to stand up and read aloud the Founder's vision of African Americans as equaling three-fifths of a white person, so the GOP has decided to leave that part, and others, out when the Constitution is read today.

From The Daily Caller:

Instead of reading the Constitution in its entirety, House members will read an "amended version" that only includes the sections and amendments that were not changed at a later date. The decision in part will allow members to avoid reading less pleasant sections, like the clause in Article 1, Section 2, which counted black slaves as three-fifths of a person.

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Bob Goodlatte

Lawrence O'Donnell Challenges Rep. Goodlatte's Reading Of The Constitution (VIDEO)

David Taintor | January 5, 2011, 2:13PM

Lawrence O'Donnell and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R- VA)

Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell challenged Rep. Bob Goodlatte's (R-VA) knowledge of the Constitution, after Goodlatte boasted of his plans to read the document in its entirety on the House floor Thursday.

Goodlatte -- who will become the first congressman to read the Constitution in its entirety on the House floor -- says it will "begin the process of debating" the meaning and role of the Constitution today.

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Taxes

House Republican Proposes 'Abolishing' The Tax Code

Brian Beutler | January 4, 2011, 10:39AM

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

A source passed along a "Dear Colleague" letter from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who proposes "terminating" the tax code and calling on a future Congress to write a new one.

"I will re-introduce legislation that will terminate our broken tax code," Goodlatte writes. "The Tax Code Termination Act will accomplish two goals. It will abolish the Internal Revenue Code by December 31, 2015, and call on Congress to approve a new federal tax system by July of the same year."

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