Thread: Tea Party Wants Boehner, Obama Fired

Tea Party Wants Boehner, Obama Fired

By Paul Bedard
Posted: July 27, 2011

If House Speaker John Boehner or his senior leadership team thought they had the support of the Tea Party movement, they better think again. An internal poll of the largest group in the movement, the Tea Party Patriots, found that they are dissatisfied with the House leaders, Boehner in particular, and simply can't stand President Obama.

Co-Director Jenny Beth Martin told Whispers bluntly: "We're really not satisfied with any of them." [Check out editorial cartoons about the Tea Party.]

She said that the Tea Party Patriots on Tuesday surveyed "tens of thousands" of their members in 3,500 affiliates about the current leadership and found these stunning results:

--81.5 percent are not satisfied with the House GOP leadership.

--74.1 percent, asked if they want a new House speaker, said yes or maybe.

--71.7 percent are not satisfied with the performance of the House.

--97.6 percent are not satisfied with the performance of the Senate.

--98.8 percent are not satisfied with Obama's performance.

--Whopping majorities believe that their House representative and senators are more concerned with party politics than "what's best for America."

--62.8 percent trust neither party to fix the debt problem; 36.4 percent trust the GOP to fix it; less than one percent trust the Democrats.

Worse for those like Boehner and Obama trying to cut a debt ceiling increase, most do not want a deal unless it includes massive spending cuts, likely over the $4 trillion figure earlier under negotiation.

On Boehner, Martin and Co-Director Mark Meckler, who both earlier today met with reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, said the movement is worried that he is giving in too much to Obama. "He's not proven that he means to cut anything," said Martin. [See political cartoons about the budget and deficit.]

Meckler said that while the movement wants lawmakers to "stand firm" and not raise the debt ceiling, it could be done if major cuts were included far and above what's been proposed, though he wouldn't set a bottom line. "If you want to raise the debt ceiling, prove to us you can make some cuts," he said. "Get real. They need to act like adults," he added of Congress.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washin ... bama-fired

We must have a new breed in DC the modern world has no place for old style politics, the play along get along crowd, America is in a fight for it's life, we need true America loving representatives who serve 4-6 years and go back to work at previous jobs, no longer room for career politicians IMO.

The BLAME GAME TRAIN is about to run straight off the tracks!

related

McCain uses ‘Lord of the Rings’ to make fun of tea party
http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-245198-0-da ... rasc-.html

Oldguy: we need true America loving representatives who serve 4-6 years and go back to work at previous jobs, no longer room for career politicians IMO.

Absolutely true!

Tea Party leader: Boehner must go
By Cameron Joseph and Daniel Strauss - 07/27/11 10:41 AM ET

Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips called on House Speaker John Boehner "to go" and be replaced by a "Tea Party Speaker of the House" in a blog post Wednesday morning, the same day that Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, said that her group was looking into the same idea.

"Now Boehner is in the process of surrendering again. He is surrendering not to [President] Obama, but to the status quo in Washington," Phillips wrote. "The House passed Cut, Cap and Balance, which would cut $111 billion from the budget. It would cap spending and set a good course for the future."


Martin sounded a similar theme at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, saying that in a just-completed poll of their members, four-fifths are not satisfied with Boehner and nearly three-quarters would like to have a new Speaker of the House.


"Maybe we should see about a different Speaker right away," she said.

Phillips was more strident in his criticism. "Boehner has no real interest in solving the problems this country faces. ... He worships at the altar of massive spending," he wrote. "We need a Speaker who is a leader. We need someone with courage and vision. Boehner has none of those qualities. He is not a leader."

Phillips urged readers to call their legislators and advocate for Boehner "to go" and be replaced by a "Tea Party Speaker of the House."

Earlier this week Boehner unveiled a two-step proposal to increase the debt ceiling that attracted criticism from conservative members of his caucus. The proposal aims to raise the debt limit by roughly $900 billion and set up a commission to find another $3 trillion in deficit reduction. Boehner's plan is likely to also require another debt-ceiling vote before the 2012 elections.

Many Republicans instead called on Boehner to back the House "cut, cap, and balance" proposal, which is unlikely to make it through the Senate. On Tuesday Republicans were scrambling to try and find 217 House votes to pass the Boehner plan, the same day that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that Boehner's plan would reduce the deficit by roughly $850 billion over 10 years, about $350 billion short of what he had been aiming for.

The Tea Party Patriots is a loose-knit group of approximately 3,500 local Tea Party groups around the country. Martin and Mark Meckler, co-founder, poll local leaders before taking policy or political positions.


Meckler derided Boehner's plan as "phantom cuts" that Congress could reverse in future years. He also said he was not worried about hitting the debt ceiling, and called the possibility of the federal government defaulting on its loans a "myth that has been pretty much debunked."


He slammed both parties for their handling of the debt-ceiling debate. "We're asking Congress, the leaders in both parties and the president to keep real," said Meckler. "There's nobody in a leadership position who's putting real cuts on the table."

The government could continue to pay off its loans and cover military costs, Social Security and Medicare in the case of a default, according to Meckler. When pressed on what cuts he would like to see, he said "it's not the job of individuals or outside organizations" to decide what cuts to make and that elected officials should find programs to axe.

The Tea Party groups' attacks aren't the first time Boehner has come under fire throughout the debt-ceiling negotiations. At one point during the talks, Boehner received pressure from his right flank to walk away from a so-called "grand bargain" that he and President Obama were reportedly close to finalizing. Democrats tried to capitalize on the criticism by arguing that Boehner was not, in fact, leading the GOP in negotiations and that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was really in charge. Boehner and Cantor both denied there was any rift between them or that anyone but Boehner was leading Republicans in the talks.

There have not yet been public calls from elected Republicans for Boehner to step down as Speaker. But the Tea Party movement is an influential one within the GOP, and this could spur some members to be more vocal in their criticisms of the Ohio Republican.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -step-down