Thread: Boehner Surrenders - Call him Surrender Johnny & Surrender Johnny has taken the bait

Mark Levin

Boehner and the Republicans defy the Constitution






J. Scott Applewhite | AP Photo

Boehner Surrenders: No Defense of the Constitution

December 2nd, 2014

Call him Surrender Johnny. And Surrender Johnny has taken the bait.
In spite of taking an oath of office that requires him to “solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States”, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives has taken the bait and surrendered. He will not defend the Constitution of the United States. Setting precedent for liberal presidents for decades to come.

So comes the news over in The Washington Times where news of the Boehner surrender of the rights of the legislative branch were headlined this way:

John Boehner gears up to shut GOP immigration dissenters down
Reported the Times:

House Speaker John Boehner has joined forces with key Republican leaders to shut down any GOP members who might want to strong-arm President Obama over immigration. Some in Congress on the Republican side would rather see a government shutdown than a White House with carte blanche to enact significant amnesty provisions via executive order, the New York Times reported.

Memo to Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois and Washington Republican lobbyist John Feehery: No, defending the Constitution of the United States is not bait. Not defending the Constitution is the bait - and you have swallowed it whole.

Memo to Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois and Washington Republican lobbyist John Feehery: No, defending the Constitution of the United States is not bait. Not defending the Constitution is the bait - and you have swallowed it whole.
Congressman Schock appeared on a Bloomberg show to say that President Obama’s unconstitutional executive order on amnesty is simply about Obama “trying to bait us into a showdown over a government shut down” and the GOP shouldn’t “take the bait.”
Congressman Schock, it should be noted here, has a Liberty Score rating from Conservative Review of “F”.
Schock is not alone in the GOP in siding with Surrender Johnny on the idea that defending the Constitution is “bait.” Over at The Christian Science Monitor, lobbyist and former Speaker Denny Hastert aide John Feehery takes the bait exactly as Obama and company want.
Writes Feehery:

Any move to defund Obama's executive order will fail in the Senate or produce a government shutdown that will be taken as a sign that Republicans can't govern. So, file a lawsuit, be smart, and win in 2016.

Feehery also frets:

I don’t know how we attract the same number of Hispanic voters if we have a sustained government shutdown fight over the president’s decision to allow more Hispanics to stay in the country.

The issue at hand with this executive order has nothing to do with Hispanics, with immigration or amnesty. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama. It has everything to do with defending the Constitution.

Are these guys serious? Is the Speaker of the House serious? Defending the constitutional obligations of the legislative branch is “bait”? And the issue is about “how we attract “ Hispanic voters? One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this kind of nonsense. This is standing the real issue on its head.
In fact, to believe this Obama executive order is about immigration and Hispanics - and that the response is to surrender - is exactly taking the bait. Obama has hoodwinked a bunch of Republican suckers.
Who died and left the Obama White House and the liberal media in charge of defining reality? The issue at hand with this executive order has nothing to do with Hispanics, with immigration or amnesty. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama. It has everything to do with defending the Constitution. It is little short of stunning that a sitting Republican Speaker of the House and other House Republicans along with a former top aide to another Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives are terrified at the thought of Congress actually doing it’s job and defending the Constitution.
So let’s say it again in case the point made in this space last week got swamped in the pre-Thanksgiving Ferguson tidal wave.
Sure - proceed with the lawsuit against Obama executive overreach. But step up to the plate and defund the presidency itself. Don’t want to touch the funding of the executive order on amnesty? Then don’t. Leave it standing while the suit proceeds. And don’t personalize the fight - don’t defund the chefs and butlers and ushers and maids that keep the physical White House running for the Obama family. Fund Air Force One - let him fly wherever he wants to go. And don’t touch the Secret Service.

Make the point by taking direct aim at the mechanisms that run the governmental institution of the presidency and the executive branch. In the Senate this means refusing to confirm any presidential nominees other than those nominated for national security positions.

But this is a monumental fight between the executive and legislative branches of government. Surrender is the absolute worst thing for Republicans to do. A price must be paid for what was done - a price so high no president will ever even think of doing it again.
Forget immigration. Make the point by taking direct aim at the mechanisms that run the governmental institution of the presidency and the executive branch. In the Senate this means refusing to confirm any presidential nominees other than those nominated for national security positions. Confirm Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s successor. But all other nominees for non-national security positions should be put on ice. On hold until the executive order is undone or Obama leaves office, whichever comes first.
Then start defunding the presidency itself - with a very sharp scalpel. Go into the budget for the Executive Office of the President. Defund the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, the Office of Presidential Personnel, the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, the White House Domestic Policy Council and the budgeting center of presidential power - the Office of Management and Budget. And all the rest of “Offices” and “Councils” the presidency needs to function - and there are several.
Move on through the Cabinet departments. Defund their version of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs - they all have one. Selectively zero in on the bureaucratic power centers of these departments and agencies. Targets could include the EPA’s Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM) which “provides national leadership, policy, and management of many essential support functions for the Agency, including human resources management, acquisition activities (contracts), grants management, and management and protection of EPA’s facilities and other critical assets nationwide.” Or the Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD) which “serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary on all matters relating to policy development and review; performance measurement and evaluation; budget processes and proposals.”
Play hardball. Go after the executive power to make regulations. How? Defund the Federal Register - calling a halt to the publication of proposed and final rules issued by the various government bureaucracies. Without being published the government cannot legally make or enforce proposed rules and regulations all of which legally require a public comment period. Shutting off the funds brings this executive branch process to an abrupt halt.

The real problem here - and clearly the American people get the problem exactly - is the Inside the Beltway conventional wisdom that Boehner has come to personify. A conventional wisdom of surrender that is utterly out of touch with Americans living every day real life.
An example? Take this typical “wisdom” from the aforementioned Mr. Feehery in his column for the Monitor.

The president is not going to back down on this fight. Why should he? He’s not running again, and if the Republicans want to destroy their own brand, what does he care? Second, they think they can sustain a shutdown over the long haul. After all, there was no lasting damage done to the GOP brand during the last shutdown, as evidenced by the election results last Tuesday. At least, that’s what they say. But conservatives would be wrong to assume that the GOP brand has completely recovered from the shutdown. The approval rating for Republicans is still in the low 30’s, according to a Washington Post poll, a number that hasn’t moved much since October 2013.

The fact of the matter here is that the shutdown drew a bright red line to illustrate the difference between right and left - a tactic that Ronald Reagan repeatedly advocated and used when president.

Got that? In the world of Establishment Inside the Beltway Republicans like Mr. Feehery the actual election results - in which Republicans at the ballot box won their largest House majority since 1928, 86 years ago! - are meaningless. What counts is some poll from the Washington Post that says their approval rating “hasn’t moved much since October 2013.”
The fact of the matter here is that the shutdown drew a bright red line to illustrate the difference between right and left - a tactic that Ronald Reagan repeatedly advocated and used when president. The fight led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz was a spectacular Reagnesque success - and the GOP was amply rewarded for it. Only in Washington-world where polls count more than actual election results was it a loser. Which tells you all you need to know.
On the day members of Congress are sworn in they take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Now? Before new members have even served a day? All of a sudden the Speaker of the House - a Republican Speaker of the House at that - is telling his colleagues to forget the whole “support and defend the Constitution” business? He sounds more Pelosi than Pelosi.
Speaker Boehner is making a huge mistake. Politically and institutionally. This is exactly what Margaret Thatcher used to call the “socialist ratchet.” Mr. Obama has turned the governmental ratchet far left by asserting a legislative power as his own - and the Speaker in response has raised an institutional white flag. Letting him get away with it.
Mistakes in government don’t come any bigger than this.

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com

TAGS: Amnesty, Boehner

https://www.conservativereview.com/c...e-constitution

RedState

He says the President is undermining the trust of the American people.
So why is he going to do nothing to stop the president?



Put Up or Shut Up, John Boehner
redstate.com



Put Up or Shut Up, John Boehner

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 2nd, 2014 at 12:47 PM | 46



Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)Heritage ActionScorecard

Rep. John Boehner N/A House Republican Average 62% See Full Scorecard N/A says Americans don’t trust Barack Obama.

He says the President is undermining the trust of the American people.
So why is Rep. John Boehner going to do nothing to stop the President? They will put no provisions in their continuing resolution to stop the President. They will fund the very thing they say they are opposed to.

Either stop the President or admit you really approve of the ends, even if not the means.
Symbolic protest votes are a move that lacks the testicular fortitude of real conviction.


http://www.redstate.com/2014/12/02/p...paign=rsupdate

RedState

Republican leaders are doing everything they can to create the appearance of outraged opposition...



John Boehner and Harry Reid Agree to Bipartisan Funding of Obama's Amnesty Plan
“[T]he House must pass a funding bill that stops the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. Period.”News reports indicate that the House GOP plans to...
redstate.com




John Boehner and Harry Reid Agree to Bipartisan Funding of Obama’s Amnesty Plan

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 3rd, 2014 at 04:30 AM | 53

“[T]he House must pass a funding bill that stops the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. Period.”News reports indicate that the House GOP plans to surrender to the President and avoid taking a stand against his unconstitutional executive amnesty. Even leftwing media outlets agree that the plan is a unilateral surrender. According to Politico, they will vote on a “symbolic” bill opposing the President’s executive action that the “Senate will likely ignore”, then pass a massive omnibus spending bill that stays silent on amnesty.
For crying out loud, even Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)Heritage ActionScorecard

Sen. Harry Reid

Senate Democrat Average See Full Scorecard 11% supports it. We can now call this the Boehner-Reid Amnesty Authorization Act:

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday signaled that he will accept a House Republican plan to pass an omnibus spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security for only a few months.
Reid, who has made passing an omnibus spending bill one of his top priorities of the lame-duck session, said he would consider House passage of the “cromnibus” a policy win.
“That would be a big accomplishment if we could get a bill over here that would fund all the appropriations subcommittees except for one,” Reid told reporters. “I think it’s kind of unfortunate that they’re talking about not doing Homeland Security but that’s the way it is.”
Folks, this Boehner-Reid plan should have been laughed out of the room. Instead, House Republicans are embracing it. They still don’t seem to have learned that in negotiations, they should start with their best offer, not their worst. The best offer is clear: the House must pass a funding bill that stops the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. Period. This is made even easier by the fact that conservatives already did their homework for them and wrote ironclad language that would stop the President.
Passing a funding bill that stops the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty puts the ball in the Senate’s court, and there’s reason to believe that Sen. Harry Reid could have a difficult time handling it. That’s why he’s supporting the Boehner-Reid plan. Heritage Action has written an excellent overview of Reid’s options if the House sent him the Boehner-Reid bill:

Block the House-passed Bill
In most circumstances, the Senate is required to take multiple votes to proceed to a bill. Reid could prevent debate and consideration of the House-passed bill by filibustering the “motion to proceed.” As few as 41 Senators could prevent Senate consideration, though it would be fair to characterize such as vote as prioritizing work permits and Social Security numbers for immigrants who are in the country illegally above all else, including funding of the government.
Even if Reid is successful in blocking consideration of the House-passed bill, the vote itself would be an important benchmark. And it would not necessarily signal an end to the legislative fight because the Republican-controlled House would not be compelled to pass a new bill simply because Reid demanded such action. The onus should remain on Reid’s Senate to act to fund the government.
Pass a Senate-crafted Bill
The Senate is under no obligation to consider legislation passed by the House of Representatives, as evinced by the 408 House-passed bills currently awaiting action in the Senate, raising concerns that Reid would simply ignore the House-passed bill. To blunt the narrative that Senate Democrats are ignoring, filibustering or killing a government funding bill, Reid could attempt to pass a Senate-crafted appropriations measure.
However, cloture (a 60-vote threshold) would need to be invoked on this new bill, which would require the support of at least five Republican Senators. Given that McConnell has indicated he will support whatever legislation comes over from the House, there is no reason for his Republican colleagues to vote in favor of Reid’s alternative. If Senate Republicans hold together, they can force Reid not only to consider the House-passed bill, but also to block his attempts to offer a Senate-crafted version of the funding bill that does not include language blocking the President’s executive actions on immigration.
Strip Language from House-passed Bill
If Reid proceeds to the House-passed bill, he could opt to strike the language blocking the President’s executive actions on immigration. Considering the unlikely nature of wrangling 60 Senators to strike the rider before cloture is invoked on the House-passed bill, Reid could move to strike the language after cloture has been invoked. Doing so would require 51 votes, meaning Republicans would have to pick up five Democrats to protect the language included by the House. A vote in favor of the motion to strike would be an explicit endorsement of the President’s executive actions.
It is unclear if Reid possesses the necessary votes, making this approach high-risk. Failing to strip the language would be a political embarrassment for both Reid and the White House, and mean the House-passed bill would only need a final vote (simple majority) before heading to President Obama’s desk. President Obama, for the first time in his presidency, would be faced with a choice: sign the bill and keep the government running or veto the bill and cause a government shutdown.

These facts should give conservatives heart. The Senate’s options are relatively limited, and nobody really knows whether the Senate would reject a funding bill with a strong rider, until the House actually sends a bill over. After that happens, House Republicans can reassess their strategy as needed. But the first step is to grow a backbone, find some testicular fortitude, and stand up for the Constitution.
Putting aside the above, some House Republicans still seem to be desperately clinging to the illusion that in a few months they will be able to stand on stronger ground alongside a Republican majority in the Senate to oppose amnesty. They couldn’t be more wrong – both House and Senate leadership have no real intention of undoing the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. In fact, while they publicly act outraged, they’re secretly relieved, because the President has removed by executive fiat the single biggest obstacle to their long running efforts to force comprehensive immigration reform through Congress.
Therein lies the sad truth. Republican leaders are doing everything they can to create the appearance of outraged opposition to the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty in the hopes that this clears the way for comprehensive immigration reform, and House Republicans are guzzling down the Kool-Aid. They must demand that any funding bill also stop the President from granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants by executive fiat. To do any less on a first volley to the Senate is to abandon their base.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/12/03/h...paign=rsupdate

Boehner, McConnell, nor Reid are qualified adequately to clean my cat's litter box. Their application would not be approved!

They have all been in bed together for a very long time! One party hell bent on destroying this nation.!!!!!!

Would You Please Click Here to Order John Boehner Some New Balls?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 4th, 2014 at 04:00 AM | 9



I guess Barack Obama took John Boehner’s balls because Boehner is playing with the President’s balls instead of his own.

That’s sad. I mean, think about this. For the last three months, the GOP actively campaigned against Barack Obama’s planned amnesty action while the Democrats attacked the GOP for a government shut down. You could be forgiven for thinking the GOP just got its ass kicked in the last election given the way the GOP leadership is behaving.
Boehner is going to join Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Sen. Harry Reid

and keep Barack Obama’s executive amnesty plan going. He’s lining up votes with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

to make sure the President’s amnesty is funded.
Obama threw all these balls in the air and Boehner is fetching them for him. It’s just kind of depressing.
So I figured Boehner must have lost his own balls. I got on Amazon. Here’s are three balls! And they’re blue! They even claim to be “longer lasting.”
I think John Boehner could use these. Maybe if we give John Boehner some balls of his own, he’ll start playing with his own instead of Barack Obama’s on this executive amnesty nonsense.
You can mail John Boehner some balls by clicking here and sending them to this address:

Rep. John Boehner

76 East High Street, 3rd Floor
Springfield, OH 45502
(937) 322-1120



http://www.redstate.com/2014/12/04/w...ome-new-balls/

Amnesty RINO Boehner “Just Following Orders” Of Big Money Masters – Joins Obama, Democrats Pushing Socialist Power-Grab


04 Dec 2014 Rick Wells
0 516 0


House Speaker John Boehner has an “R” after his name, but it doesn’t mean he is a true Republican or anything resembling an affinity with conservative values. RINO starts with the same letter.
He’s already shown his stripes in the past as a big business, pro-amnesty Democrat operative. He was soundly rebuked that last time, in August, when he attempted to mandate that his members follow lockstep with the Democrat amnesty. He was roundly criticized by the Democrats and media at that time for not being able to deliver. Now he’s reaching out to his comrades across the aisle in their united effort to deliver our nation into the abyss of authoritarian tyranny.
As a RINO Democrat, Boehner is under the same threat of the ticking clocks as his less secret, “openly ‘D’” counterparts. He knows it becomes much more difficult for him to trash the Constitution and support the Obama tyranny once the Congress moves into the control of Republicans. He’s got the votes of a greater number of his allied Democrats for a little while longer and he’s determined to use them.
A report by Joel Gehrke in the National Review exposes conversations between Boehner deputy, Republican Whip Steve Scalise and Democrat Whip Steny Hoyer in which the two discussed jointly supporting the effort to push through a spending bill that would allow the government to be fully funded with only token and meaningless action taken in response to the illegal unconstitutional acts of Obama’s amnesty.
Not surprisingly, Hoyer has since denied that that the discussions took place.
Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and David Vitter (R-LA) have been outspoken in their skepticism of the House efforts under Boehner.
Lee spokesman Brian Phillips said, “The House needs to do the right thing and send over the short term bill with the defund language.”
Senator Jeff Session also argued for immediate action, saying, “You just can’t be bobbing and weaving on this. This is not a matter to be discussed at some point. It’s just unacceptable aggrandizement of power that Congress has an institutional duty to reject.”
Senator Vitter added, “Make no mistake, sending a bill to the Senate without first making an attempt to include defund language is telling the American people that you support Obama’s executive amnesty. That would be a slap in the face to the voters who sent a message last month by electing Republican majorities in Congress.”
That is exactly what Boehner is attempting to do, offer a bill with no effective action against this Imperial “president” and his dictatorship which is at this very moment being established. He will do whatever he can to negate the efforts of patriots within the Congress, pushing this affront to our system of government and economic destruction package in one form or another. The guise of “bi-partisanship” is somehow depicted as a great validator of destructive policital action by these subversives. There is no benefit to joining with the opposition when their objective is your annihilation.
Boehner has repeatedly proven himself to be a sellout who is a tool of the political elite. That tool is now being used for its designed purpose, the advancement of the socialist agenda. He does not represent the American people, rather he is beholding to those who purchased his office for him and their deep-pocketed cronies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Senator Vitter is right, this is a slap in the face to the American people and a trampling upon our Constitution. To paraphrase Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, John Boehner is giving America the back of his hand.
Rick Wells is a conservative writer who recognizes that our nation, our Constitution and our traditions are under a full scale assault from multiple threats. Please “Like” him on Facebook, “Follow” him on Twitter or visit www.rickwells.us
http://gopthedailydose.com/amnesty-rino-boehner-just-following-orders-of-big-money-masters-joins-obama-democrats-pushing-socialist-power-grab/